[RESOLVED] Help with checkboxes

joe69

Hello all!.
what I am trying to do is to prefill a form... sounds simple enough huh, on the form that you fill out, I pull 9 checkboxes from a database. if any or all boxes are checked I pass variables when i select submit-- right now i am just prefilling the form, not entering anything to a database, so on the prifilled for name address and such are filled in. but not the check boxes. here is the code that pulls the right info from the database and displays the checkable boxes on the first page. also the variables that i $_REQUEST from that form. the question is, with this info how do I prefill those same checkboxes on the prefilled form?
echo "<TABLE border=0><TR>";
WHILE ($row = @mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$id = $row['id'];
$value =htmlspecialchars($row['value']);
echo "<TD><input type=Checkbox name=$id value=checked>$value</TD>";
if ($x %3==0)
{
echo "</TR><TR>";
}
$x++;
}

$road = $_REQUEST['1'];

$tour = $REQUEST['2'];
$lead = $REQUEST['3'];
$mountain = $REQUEST['4'];
$condition = $REQUEST['5'];
$family = $REQUEST['6'];
$racing = $REQUEST['7'];
$volunteer = $REQUEST['8'];
$recreation = $REQUEST['9'];

Thanks for any help you can give. I am new so i may or may not understand it
Joe

sneakyimp

Your checkboxes should probably have quotes around your attributes and should have some value other than 'checked.' I usually use a value of 1:

echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" name\"=$id\" value=\"1\">$value";

Generally speaking, when you want to set a checkbox as checked, you set the attribute checked equal to "checked":

$check_the_checkbox = TRUE; // set this to false and it won't be checked
echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" name\"=$id\" value=\"1\"" . ($check_the_checkbox ? ' checked="checked"' : '') . ">$value";

that whole bit in parentheses with the ? and the : is shorthand notation for an if/then statement.

you could just as easily check a value in $REQUEST instead:

echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" name\"=$id\" value=\"1\"" . (($_REQUEST[$id] == 1) ? ' checked="checked"' : '') . ">$value";

joe69

Sneakyimp

Thanks for the reply.

there are 9 checkboxes. they are dynamically placed from the DB . I am way new and I need a little more guidance. Sorry for my ignorance

these are the nine boxes i get from the database with the code i posted before
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=1 >Road Biking</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=2 >Out of Town</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=3 >Leading Rides</TD>
<TR><TD><input type=Checkbox name=4 >Mountain Biking</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=5 >Condition Training</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=6 >Family Events</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=7 >Racing</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=8 >Club Volunteer</TD>
<TD><input type=Checkbox name=9 >Recreational Rides</TD>

the code above doesnt exist unless i view source of the PHP page
Joe

sneakyimp

I explained how it works for one checkbox, try and apply that to the 9 you have.

joe69

alright. On the original form all the boxes are placed dynamically from the DB from that one piece of code. Now. I click submit------ in the code for the page that will be filled in, Should I pull the checkboxes from the DB using the same code, or write out the code for all the boxes? I will be the first to admit i;m an idiot :-) I tried the coed you supplied above and it seems to check all 9 boxes wether i check them myself on the first page or not.

sorry again for me not knowing enough about this to do it myself

joe69

Sorry for the double post

sneakyimp

I'm still not clear on when you want these boxes checked. You have a database and a form. I'm guessing that the first time you see the form, we want the boxes checked based on what is in the DB. When you click submit on the form, you want to see them checked according to how they were submitted. If you stored all the information in the database, then in both cases, just reading the the database and setting the checkboxes by what's in the db would be the way to go.

But, I still have no idea how the contents of the db would determine whether a checkbox should be checked or not. you retrieve a $row from the db and then ignore it except for the id field.

joe69

ah ha~!!!! now we're getting somewhere. See i have a hard time explaining it also cause im so new at it. ok Here's what I have
a Form
a DB
the first time you see the form its blank. I havent set the DB up yet to insert the data to.
right now I just want to fill the form. so.........
When one fills out the form and clicks "submit" (the button name may change as time goes on),
then I want to display the same form filled in.

all the labels for the checkboxes are in a table in the DB. so thats how i populate that stack of 9 boxes. there is one on the web if you want to see what the page looks like i'll send the link.
the boxes are clicked on the form when it;s filled out based on what the user wants to do.
is it starting to make sense what i am doing.
the ultimate goal is when they click submit is that it will insert into the DB all their info and i will then do a windows.print() so they can print it out is they want.
Thanks for being so understanding and please if I am justtotally going in the wrong direction TELL ME!!!
Joe

sneakyimp

Well let's assume you have a file called formHandler.php which has a form in it that has a checkbox with a name of 'myCheckBox' that is in a form that submits to itself (formHandler.php) using POST. If so, then you would set up that form to check the checkbox like so:

<?php
/* here are the contents of formHandler.php */
?>
<form action="formHandler.php" method="post">
  <input type="checkbox" name="myCheckBox" value="1"<?=($_POST['myCheckBox'] == 1) ? ' checked="checked"' : '' ?>>
</form>

joe69

ok I see that will check the checkboxes base on if they are checked when the form is initially filled out..... I think that will solve my problem I will mark this post resolved and try to set it all up.... I guess maybe i was trying to do something that wouldnt work like i needed it to.

Thanks
Joe