PHP Dynamic Form Select in a Java

615techguy

Help please, I am very new to PHP and Java, I have been asked to make a time card page for our employees to enter there times daily. I made a form that uses Java to dynamically generate the required time card questions.. “Job Number, Drawing Number, Work Step, Quantity and Time spent.” At the push of a button. So the employee can add one job or many if needed. I got that part to work. Now the problem I run in to is I need to have a Selection box for “Job Number” and “Work Step” dynamically populated from a PHP query of the data base. So as we add / remove Job Numbers or Work Steps thay show up on the fly so I don’t have to up date the code ever time a change is made.

Here is my java code. Warning it’s sloppy; it adds two sets of tables with the questions needed. I put <!!!!DYNAMIC SELECT BOX HERE!!!!> where I would like the PHP results to be.

  function addInput(divName, inputType){

      var newdiv = document.createElement('div');
      newdiv.innerHTML = "<table width='632' border='1'><td width='30%'><table width='307' height='129' border='1'><tr><td width='49%'><strong>Job Number:</strong></td><td width='51%'><input type='text' name='JobNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Drowing Number:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='DrowingNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Work Step:</strong></td><td> <!!!!DYNAMIC SELECT BOX HERE!!!!> </td></tr><tr><td><strong>Quantity:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Quantity[]'></td></tr><tr><td height='23'><strong>Time:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Time[]'></td></tr></table></td><td width='70%'><table width='308' height='129' border='1'><tr><td width='49%'><strong>Job Number:</strong></td><td width='51%'><input type='text' name='JobNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Drowing Number:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='DrowingNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Work Step:</strong></td><td><!!!!DYNAMIC SELECT BOX HERE!!!!> </td></tr><tr><td><strong>Quantity:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Quantity[]'></td></tr><tr><td height='23'><strong>Time:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Time[]'>";
      document.getElementById(divName).appendChild(newdiv);
      counter++;

Here is my PHP code:

mysql_connect ( $dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass)or die("Could not connect: ".mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT name FROM work_steps where active='1' ORDER BY name";
$result = mysql_query($query);

<? print "<SELECT class='element select medium' name=Work Step  size=10>";
while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
foreach ($line as $value)
{
print "<OPTION value='$value'";
} 
print ">$value</OPTION>";
}
mysql_close($link);
print "</SELECT>";?>

Now both by them self work but I need help getting them to work to gather. Or if you know a better way.

Randy_Jackson

I'm curious as to why you're mixing Java and PHP on the same page.

laserlight

615techguy wrote:
Now both by them self work but I need help getting them to work to gather.

What have you tried, and how does it not work?

By the way, by "Java" you probably mean "Javascript".

615techguy

Sorry it is JavaScript, the reason im using it is so our employees can click a “add new job” button and the window automatically adds a new form field that has all the info the employees needs to fill out for the next job and so on tell the employee has all there jobs and times for that day entered. I feel this is nicer then having a page with 20 job enters and one employee may only need 3 enters.

It seems to me the newdiv.innerHTML in the JavaScript overlays a web page or HTML code over the page being viewed. Now using that thery I was able to bield tables with it. Worked good and gave me a sense of hope. Now the problem is adding the PHP variable to the code. The first problem I have is the line in PHP that stats

<? print "<SELECT class='element select medium' name=Work Step  size=10>";

If I leave the “quotes“ the form doesn’t work and gives the error “object expected”. If I remove the “quotes“ it prints every thing from the ;while line forward to the end of the script. Is it possible to have Java skip over this quotes so the PHP can do its job?

The next thing the PHP is server side and Java is client side so the above comment my not work at all. If so is there a way to some how use PHP to write the java script ever time the page loads with the proper variables.

So the first thing that happens is the PHP executes with the code:

mysql_connect ( $dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass)or die("Could not connect: ".mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT name FROM work_steps where active='1' ORDER BY name";
$result = mysql_query($query);

<? print "<SELECT class='element select medium' name=Work Step  size=10>";
while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
foreach ($line as $value)
{
print "<OPTION value='$value'";
} 
print ">$value</OPTION>";
}
mysql_close($link);
print "</SELECT>";?>

and some how passes the results to the Java Script so it looks some ting like this:

  function addInput(divName, inputType){

      var newdiv = document.createElement('div');
      newdiv.innerHTML = “<select class='element select medium' name='WorkStep[]'><option value='' selected='selected'></option><option value='Bench' >Bench</option><option value='Braze' >Braze</option><option value='Carbide' >Carbide</option>”;

So that way ever time the page loads it displays the up to date work steps and the employees can dynamically add jobs with out wasting space..
Thanks for your replays.

615techguy

Randy, the Java Script is not on the same page its a stand alone dynamic.js that is call by the Timecard.php this page contanes the PHP code

615techguy

So got it fixed and working I’m posting the code so if this is ever needed by any one again this is at least how I did. I used fopen() and fwrite() the basicly rewrite the hole Java Script ever time a work step is updated in the database. I wish I could have figured out how to update just a line in the JavaScript, its only one java variable that needs to be updated how ever rewriting it seems to be working fine for now if any one knows how to update a single line please let me know and post the code. Thanks to ever one here who replayed, I would also like to thank a couple of sites.

http://www.tizag.com/phpT/filewrite.php it was very useful in helping me understand how to use PHP to write a file.
http://p2p.wrox.com/pro-php/6957-passing-php-variables-javascript.html this form post help me understand how and gave me hope that it could be done.

Here is the PHP code I used to get-r-done.

mysql_connect ( $dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass)or die("Could not connect: ".mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());

//geting work step name 
$query = "SELECT DISTINCT name FROM work_steps where status='1' ORDER BY name";
$result = mysql_query($query);



//Bilding java script with new info from the database

$javafile = "dynamic.js";
$fh = fopen($javafile, 'w') or die("can't open file");

//runing loop to dynamicly creat the select box and writing it to the javascript

$select = "var work = \"<SELECT class='element select medium' name=item >";
fwrite($fh, $select);
while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
foreach ($line as $value)
{
fwrite($fh, "<OPTION value='$value'");
} 
fwrite($fh, ">$value</OPTION>");
}
mysql_close;
$endselect = "</SELECT>\";\n";

$stringData = $endselect;
fwrite($fh, $stringData) ; 
$stringData = "var counter = 1;\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "function addInput (divName, inputType){\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "var newdiv = document.createElement('div');\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "newdiv.innerHTML = \"<table width='632' border='1'><td width='30%'><table width='307' height='129' border='1'><tr><td width='49%'><strong>Job Number:</strong></td><td width='51%'><input type='text' name='JobNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Drowing Number:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='DrowingNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Work Step:</strong></td><td>\" + work + \"</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Quantity:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Quantity[]'></td></tr><tr><td height='23'><strong>Time:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Time[]'></td></tr></table></td><td width='70%'><table width='308' height='129' border='1'><tr><td width='49%'><strong>Job Number:</strong></td><td width='51%'><input type='text' name='JobNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Drowing Number:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='DrowingNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Work Step:</strong></td><td>\" + work + \"</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Quantity:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Quantity[]'></td></tr><tr><td height='23'><strong>Time:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Time[]'>\";\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "document.getElementById(divName).appendChild(newdiv);\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "counter++;\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "}\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);
?>

Here is what the Java Script looks like.

var work = "<SELECT class='element select medium' name=item ><OPTION value=''<OPTION value=''></OPTION><OPTION value='Mikes'<OPTION value='Mikes'>Mikes</OPTION><OPTION value='test'<OPTION value='test'>test</OPTION><OPTION value='test1'<OPTION value='test1'>test1</OPTION><OPTION value='test2'<OPTION value='test2'>test2</OPTION></SELECT>";
var counter = 1;
function addInput (divName, inputType){
var newdiv = document.createElement('div');
newdiv.innerHTML = "<table width='632' border='1'><td width='30%'><table width='307' height='129' border='1'><tr><td width='49%'><strong>Job Number:</strong></td><td width='51%'><input type='text' name='JobNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Drowing Number:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='DrowingNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Work Step:</strong></td><td>" + work + "</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Quantity:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Quantity[]'></td></tr><tr><td height='23'><strong>Time:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Time[]'></td></tr></table></td><td width='70%'><table width='308' height='129' border='1'><tr><td width='49%'><strong>Job Number:</strong></td><td width='51%'><input type='text' name='JobNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Drowing Number:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='DrowingNumber[]'></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Work Step:</strong></td><td>" + work + "</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Quantity:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Quantity[]'></td></tr><tr><td height='23'><strong>Time:</strong></td><td><input type='text' name='Time[]'>";
document.getElementById(divName).appendChild(newdiv);
counter++;
}

agane thanks, if any one know how to use PHP to update the first line of the JavaScript "var work = " that would be very helpful.