OOP Application Confusion

dmacman1962

Hi All,

I am 'attempting' to start to use OOP for all the forms I build and here is my attempt at making a dynamic drop-down menu, that is reusable, and will check what the option selected was, for users that have 'not the best' browsers and lose their choices when they go back to fix a selection.

<?php
$FieldName = 'People';
$List = array('Don', 'Mike', 'Joe');
$selected1 = ((isset($_POST['People']) && !empty($_POST['People'])) ? in_array($grade, $_POST['People']) : false);

function create_dropdown($myarray, $selected_id)
  {
  $dropdown = "";
  global $List;
  foreach($List as $key=>$value)
    {
    $selected = "";
    if($key == $selected_id)
      {
      $selected = "selected";
      }

$dropdown .="<option $selected value=\"".$value."\"".$selected1.">".$value."</option>
            ";
}

  return $dropdown;
  }

$dropdown = '<select name="'.$FieldName.'" id="'.$FieldName.'" >';
$dropdown .= create_dropdown($myarray, 4);
$dropdown .= " </select>";

echo $dropdown;
									?>

What I am attempting (and confused on) is I need to use this same code several times on the same form, but I want to define the FieldName and List outside the function, so I can just list that for each application in the same form.

But what I get is the same drop-down data list on the form.

----Pick your school----
-----------A-----------
-----------B-----------
-----------C-----------

and for the next drop down, I get ...

--Are you happy--
---------A-------
---------B--------
---------C--------

instead of

--Are you happy--
-------Yes-------
-------No--------

Does that make sense?

Thanks in advance,

Don

leatherback

Feel free to use this one:





// generic function to create a dropdown body from an array
// $array: input data, each array element represents information about one dropdown enrtry, in an sub-array
// $selected_id: Identifier of the selected drop-down element
// $value_label: The name of the array-element that holds the value for the dropdown
// $name_label: The name of the array-element that holds the name for the dropdown element


function create_dropdown($array, $selected_id, $value_label, $name_label)
  {
  $dropdown = "";

  if(is_array($array))
    {
    foreach($array as $key=>$value)
      {
      $selected = "";
      if($value[$value_label] == $selected_id)
        {
        $selected = "selected";
        }

  $dropdown .="<option $selected value=\"".$value[$value_label]."\">".$value[$name_label]."</option>
            ";
  }
}

  return $dropdown;
  }

which might be best run alongside this, to get all the records in a lookup table:






function get_table_array($table, $index_col, $label_col, $sort_col)
  {

  $output = array();

  // connect to database
  $DBH = db_connect();

  // get data
  $get_table_q = "select $index_col, $label_col from $table order by $sort_col ASC";
  $table       = mysql_query($get_table_q) or handle_errors('GETTABLE','58', mysql_error(), $get_table_q);

  if($table)
    {
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($table))
      {
      $output[] = $row;
      }
    }

  // close connection
  db_disconnect($DBH);

  // return the array to main program
  return $output;

  }

dmacman1962

Hi leatherback,

I took your code and tried to apply it, 'tried' being the key word.

I added...

$list = array('1', '2', '3');
$selected = ((isset($_POST['People']) && !empty($_POST['People'])) ? in_array($grade, $_POST['People']) : false);  

$name = 'test';

$Persons = create_dropdown($list, $selected, 'test', 'test');
echo $Persons;

and I just get...

1 2 3

but in the function, it looks like it only defines the options, not the entire drop down. I am a little grey (or gray to be PC) on the full application of this.

I dont want to seem like I want you to do all the work, I am just trying to understand it so I don't have to ask again and again.

Thanks a bunch,

Don

leatherback

You are absolutely right: It only retrieves the options. That way it is nice and fexible to apply wherever you want it, for whatever.

I use it like this:

Somewhere in the top:

$target_array      = get_table_array($targets_table,     "tt_id",      "tt_label",      "tt_label");
  $target_ddown      = create_dropdown($target_array,    $ctarget,     "tt_id",         "tt_label");

And then, when I am ready to produce the output:

<select class=\"formel_1\" name=\"target[]\">
<option> -- ".$page_content["SPC"][7]." -- </option>
".$target_ddown."
</select>