[RESOLVED] Drop-down menu using PHP/Javascript

clcrhiggaeeermo

I'm a total php noob, trying to teach myself thru these projects that I do, and one of them (a kind of online Survivor-type game) involves using a PHP script to read a file called 'players.txt' with the names of the remaining players and use the info in that file to fill in a dropdown menu on an HTML page. I'm doing this thru <script type="text/javascript" src="script.php"></script> (there's probably a term for this but I don't know it)

Anyway, I was having trouble getting the PHP to work so to make it simpler I developed the script in JavaScript and then tweaked the PHP so that it would echo the code that I knew worked, which was this:

//This is script_js.js
function init(){
var option1="1 playerone ";
document.getElementById("opt1").text=option1;
var option2="2 playertwo ";
document.getElementById("opt2").text=option2;
var option3="3 playerthree ";
document.getElementById("opt3").text=option3;
var option4="4 playerfour";
document.getElementById("opt4").text=option4;
}

The PHP:

<?php
//This is script.php
$file = fopen("players.txt", "r");
$x = 1;
echo 'function init(){';
while(!feof($file))
  {
  echo 'var option' . $x . '="' . fgets($file) . '";';
  echo 'document.getElementById("opt' . $x . '").text=option' . $x . ';';
  $x++;
  }
fclose($file);
echo '}';
?>

The TXT file:

1 playerone
2 playertwo
3 playerthree
4 playerfour

The relevant HTML:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="script.php"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form action="eliminate.php" method="post">
<p>
  <select id="pnumber">
    <option id="opt1" value="1"></option>
    <option id="opt2" value="2"></option>
    <option id="opt3" value="3"></option>
    <option id="opt4" value="4"></option>
    <option id="opt5" value="5"></option>
    <option id="opt6" value="6"></option>
    <option id="opt7" value="7"></option>
    <option id="opt8" value="8"></option>
    <option id="opt9" value="9"></option>
    <option id="opt10" value="10"></option>
  </select>
</p>
<p>
	<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Find player name" />
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Now, if I change the script called by the HTML to the JS version, it works perfectly. Can someone please help me figure out why the PHP does not?

bpat1434

Well, it's mainly because you need to echo out the "javascript" you dynamically create in between the <script></script> tags.

However, the easy method (in doing it with PHP) is the following:

<?php /* With Support from PHPBuilder Members ;) */ ?>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="script.php"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form action="eliminate.php" method="post">
<p>
  <select id="pnumber">
<?php
$lines = file_get_contents('players.txt');
foreach($lines as $key=>$txt) {
  echo '    <option value="'.$key+1.'">'.$txt.'</option>
';
}
?>
  </select>
</p>
<p>
	<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Find player name" />
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>

clcrhiggaeeermo

Thanks for the help, but when I put that in a browser it comes up as a menu with only one option which displays:

'.$txt.'

Also, what did you mean when you said

echo out the "javascript" you dynamically create in between the <script></script> tags.

bpat1434

Your posted PHP code needs to be in between the <script></script> tags in your "html" file which will need to be renamed as a .php file.

My code should work. It needs to be run by the server and interpreted as PHP. So it's filename should end with ".php"

clcrhiggaeeermo

Nevermind, I just did this:

<?php
echo '<html><head></head><body><form action="eliminate.php" method="post"><p><select id="pnumber">';

$file = fopen("players.txt", "r");
$x = 1;

while(!feof($file))
  {
  echo '<option value="' . $x . '">' . fgets($file) . '</option>';
  $x++;
  }
fclose($file);

echo '</select></p><p><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Find player name" /></p></form></body></html>';
?>