PHP Issue (Form to Iframe)

initialmethod

I have been banging my head for quite a while now, and it may be something very simple however I have not found the answer yet.

Basically I have a page where a user will put in a stock symbol. This symbol should be added to the end of the link and opened up in the iframe below the page. For example http://www.google.com?=[Stock symbol here].

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance. Here is my code.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Stock Test</title>

<script type="text/javascript">
function linked(stockframe,src){
document.getElementById(stockframe).src = src;
}
</script>

<style type="text/css">

.center {
width: 200px;
height: 300px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -100px;
margin-top: -150px;
border: none;
}

</style>

<?php 
$stockSymbol = asd;
?>

</head>
<body>

<div class="center">
<form method="post" action="?id=<?php echo stockSymbol; ?>">
<input type="text" name="stockSymbol" value="" size="15">
<input type="submit" value="submit" name="submit" onclick="linked('stockframe','http://www.qchartsplugins.com/Tools/yeardata/index.php?id=<?php echo $stockSymbol; ?>')">
</form>
<iframe id="stockframe" src=""></iframe>

</div>

</body>
</html>

BuzzPHP

Simple. As you have tried, there is both a JavaScript solution and a PHP solution.

This example demos both. The PHP solution is better if you want to record what people enter. The javascript version might be a little faster, because it doesnt go back to your site to get the page URL.

I prefer the PHP solution.

<head>
<title>Stock Test</title>
<style type="text/css">
.center {
width: 500px; height: 300px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%; left: 50%;
margin-left: -100px;
margin-top: -150px;
border: none;
}
</style>

</head>
<body>
<div class="center">
<form name=f method="post">
<input type="text" name="stockSymbol" value="<?php echo $_POST["stockSymbol"]; ?>" size="15">
<input type="submit" value="PHP" name="submit">
<input type="button" value="JavaScript" onclick=
"document.getElementById('stockframe').src=
'http://www.google.com/search?q='+f.stockSymbol.value">
</form>
<?php
echo "<iframe id=stockframe src='http://www.bing.com/search?q=" . 
  $_POST["stockSymbol"] . "'></iframe>";
?>
</div></body>

initialmethod

Thank you very much this worked beautifully! 😃

initialmethod

Actually, I do have another question to add as well. Is there anyway to have the iframe hidden at the beginning and then as soon as the button is pressed it opens up?

BuzzPHP

Easy. The PHP solution is just to put a "if" statement before echoing the IFRAME code.

<?php 
if ($_POST["stockSymbol"])
echo "<iframe id=stockframe src='http://www.bing.com/search?q=" . 
  $_POST["stockSymbol"] . "'></iframe>"; 
?>

The JavaScript version is a little more complex as you will need todo some browser testing.

Last time I did this, I made the IFRAME height = 0 when the page was served, and then when you click the button, you set the height value and bingo it pops up.

I remember having issues with different browsers. You can also try the "visible" attribute, but again, you might have browser issues.

As this is a PHP forums, go with the PHP solution. Easy. But, there is plenty of sample code around the place:

http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74026

I really prefer the PHP version, because then you can monitor what people are searching for and provide user features.

initialmethod

Buzz, you are wonderful! Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions it truly works flawlessly. You deserve a medal! 😃