Populate a PHP variable from a listbox value with AJAX - php

Question

I retrieve the value of a select box in this way which goes to populate a input field:
<script>
$(document).ready( function ()
{
$('#dropdown_selector').change(function()
{
var option = $(this).find('option:selected').val();
$('#showoption').val(option);
});
});
</script>
<select id="dropdown_selector">
<option value="Option1">Option1</option>
<option value="Option2">Option2</option>
<option value="Option3">Option3</option>
</select>
<label>Value</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="showoption" disabled="disabled" />
</label>
But my problem is how to retrieve that value and use it directly in a PHP variable,instead of populating the input field(with id showoption).
Something similar as:
$variable=(var selected in select box)
Thanks for your help!!!

Answer 1

This jQuery code is triggered when an option is selected and then stores the value of the option into variable valu. After that it sends the variable to your php document via Ajax post.
$('select').change(function(){
var valu=$( "select option:selected" ).attr('value');
$.ajax({
type:"POST",
url:"yourphpscript.php",
data: {values:valu}
});
});
http://jsfiddle.net/joey6978/peq74/ :this fiddle shows the select choosing trigger.
In your php script you should have the post method with the name values to recieve your data.
$myvariable=$_POST['values'];