Select index's and HTML Forms

Hi All,

I'm looking for a function that will allow me to achieve the following:

A user chooses an option from a drop down selection list and submits the form using $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']. When the form is reloaded, the option that was chosen is still selected in the list.

Any help / hints / example code would be greatly appreciated!



Many Thanks,

dai.hop

 

That doesn't require Javascript at all. Simply determine which option was posted and mark it as selected in the markup you send back.

If you had this select/option element group:

<select name="fruit_type">
  <option value="apple">Apple</option>
  <option value="pear">Pear</option>
  <option value="orange">Orange</option>
</select>

HTML:

You could use this simple bit of logic in your PHP script to determine the option to select:

<select name="fruit_type">
  <option value="apple"<?php echo $_POST['fruit_type'] === 'apple' ? ' selected="selected"' : '' ?>>Apple</option>
  <option value="pear"<?php echo $_POST['fruit_type'] === 'pear' ? ' selected="selected"' : '' ?>>Pear</option>
  <option value="orange"<?php echo $_POST['fruit_type'] === 'orange' ? ' selected="selected"' : '' ?>>Orange</option>
</select>

PHP:

Gets a bit messy and redundant though - you could try this as an improvement:

<?php
  $fruit_options = array(
    'apple' => 'Apple',
    'pear' => 'Pear',
    'orange' => 'Orange'
  );

  foreach($fruit_options as $key_name => $friendly_name):
?>  <option value="<?php echo $key_name ?>"<?php echo $_POST['fruit_type'] === $key_name ? ' selected="selected"' : '' ?>><?php echo $friendly_name ?></option>
<?php
  endforeach;
?>

PHP:

Hope that gives you some ideas.