problems with making drop down menu sticky using session variables

saco721

Hi,

I am tryig to make a drop down menu retain its values after navigating away from the page using session variables. I have searched and found a good example of what I am trying to acheive but so far cannot get it to work. The session variable is being set but the values are not being kept. Please not this is not my code, I'm just using it as an example. Any help is greatly appreciated.

<?php 
session_start();
if(isset($_POST['fontFamily'])) { $_SESSION['fontFamily'] = $_POST['fontFamily']; } ?> 

 <?php

if (isset($_POST['fontFamily']))
{
    $fontFamilyVar = $_POST['fontFamily'];

}
if (isset($_POST['fontSize']))
{
  $fontSizeVar = $_POST['fontSize'];  
}
if (isset($_POST['backgroundColor']))
{
  $backgroundColor = $_POST['backgroundColor'];  
}

echo $_SESSION['fontFamily'];
?>
<html>
<head><title>Example</title></head>
<body>

<form name="FontFamilyForm" method="post">
<select name="fontFamily"> 
    <option value="serif"<?=$_SESSION['fontFamily'] == "Serif" ? ' selected="selected"' : ''?>>Serif</option> 
    <option value="fantasy"<?=$_SESSION['fontFamily'] == "Fantasy" ? ' selected="selected"' : ''?>>Fantasy</option> 
</select> 
  <input type="submit" />
</form>

<form name="FontSizeForm" method="post">

  <select name="fontSize">
    <option value="100">Normal</option>
    <option value="60">Tiny</option>
    <option value="80">Small</option>
    <option value="120">Medium</option>
    <option value="150">Large</option>
    <option value="200">Extra Large</option>

  </select>
  <input type="submit" />
</form>


<form name="BackgroundColorForm" method="post">

  <select name="backgroundColor">
    <option value="#ffffff">Normal</option>
    <option name='beetch' value="#dddddd">Light Grey</option>
    <option value="#aaaaaa">Medium Grey</option>
    <option value="#888888">Grey</option>
    <option value="#333333">Dark Grey</option>
    <option value="#000000">Black</option>

  </select>
  <input type="submit" />
</form>




<style type="text/css">

    body { 
       line-height:1.5;
       width:640px;
       margin:0 auto;
       font-family: <?echo $fontFamilyVar?>;
       font-size: <?echo $fontSizeVar?>%;
       background-color: <?echo $backgroundColor?>;
       color: #dddddd;
   }
   label {width:12em;float:left;}
</style>

<p>Test string blah blah blah blah blah</p>


</body>

<html>

johanafm

And what does the HTML output look like for the select element?

saco721

[ATTACH]5177[/ATTACH]

Hi, here is a screen shot of the html.

dd.JPG

Derokorian

On that page you'll need to use "View Source" to see the HTML of the page. What you have shown is the rendered version of the html as interpreted by the browser.

Bonesnap

In the drop down code, each option needs to have a little bit of PHP to check if that option == the value it's expecting. If it is, then echo 'selected' to indicate that it's the selected option.

A very quick example:

<select id="myselect" name="myselect">
    <option value="0">[Please select]</option>
    <option value="a" <?php if($_SESSION['variable'] == 'a') echo 'selected'; ?>>a</option>
    <option value="b" <?php if($_SESSION['variable'] == 'b') echo 'selected'; ?>>b</option>
    <option value="c" <?php if($_SESSION['variable'] == 'c') echo 'selected'; ?>>c</option>
</select>

It's always a good idea to have a default "Please choose/select/whatever" in case nothing matches (or it's the first time the user sees the page).

sneakyimp

I think this bit of code makes use of a deprecated feature:

   <option value="serif"<?=$_SESSION['fontFamily'] == "Serif" ? ' selected="selected"' : ''?>>Serif</option>

In particular the <?= thing doesn't work any more I don't think. You need to use explicit echo statements like Bonesnap has.

Weedpacket

sneakyimp wrote:
In particular the <?= thing doesn't work any more I don't think.

It does; as of 5.4.0 it's always available.