php mysql based on user input form - php

Question

I am having trouble using a checkbox to select one or multiple fields of data for PHP/AJAX to process and display. I have the PHP/AJAX working great on my <select>s but as soon as I try setting up the checkbox all hell breaks lose.
I also am very unsure on how to further prevent SQL injection on the site so if anyone could fill me in a little more about this I would GREATLY appreciate it! I read the link I was provided and just don't understand how bid_param or PDO works exactly.
The ajax script:
(I can't seem to insert the ajax/js so I'll leave a link to the live site)
Link to Agent search page
My php page that displays the data:
<div id="bodyA">
<h1>Find a Local OAHU Agent.</h1>
<!-- This is where the data is placed. -->
</div>
<div id="sideB">
<div class="sideHeader">
<em>Advanced Search</em>
</div>
<form class="formC">
<label for="last">Last Name</label><br />
<select id="last" name="Last_Name" onChange="showUser(this.value)">
<?php
include 'datalogin.php';
$result = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT DISTINCT Last_Name FROM `roster` ORDER BY Last_Name ASC;");
echo '<option value="">' . 'Select an Agent' .'</option>';
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
echo '<option value="'.$row['Last_Name'].'">'.$row['Last_Name'].'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
<label for="company">Company</label><br />
<select id="company" name="users" onChange="showUser(this.value)">
<?php
include 'datalogin.php';
$result = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM `roster` ORDER BY Company ASC;");
echo '<option value="">' . 'Select a Company' .'</option>';
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
if ($row['Company'] == NULL) {
} else {
echo '<option value="'.$row['Company'].'">'.$row['Company'].'</option>';
}
}
?>
</select>
<label for="WorkCity">City</label><br />
<select id="WorkCity" name="WorkCity" onChange="showUser(this.value)" value="city">
<?php
include 'datalogin.php';
$result = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT DISTINCT WorkCity FROM `roster` ORDER BY WorkCity ASC;");
echo '<option value="">' . 'Select a City' .'</option>';
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
echo '<option value="'.$row['WorkCity'].'">'.$row['WorkCity'].'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
<label for="WorkZipCode">Zip Code</label><br />
<select id="WorkZipCode" name="WorkZipCode" onChange="showUser(this.value)">
<?php
include 'datalogin.php';
$result = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT DISTINCT WorkZipCode FROM `roster` ORDER BY WorkZipCode + 0 ASC;");
echo '<option value="">' . 'Select a Zip Code' .'</option>';
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
echo '<option value="'.$row['WorkZipCode'].'">'.$row['WorkZipCode'].'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
<label for="agent">Agent Expertise</label><br />
<label for="ancillary"><input type="checkbox" value="Ancillary" name="Ancillary[]" id="ancillary" />Ancillary</label><br />
<label for="smallgroup"><input type="checkbox" value="Smallgroup" name="Smallgroup[]" id="smallgroup" />Small Group</label><br />
<label for="largegroup"><input type="checkbox" value="LargeGroup" name="LargeGroup[]" id="largegroup" />Large Group</label><br />
<label for="medicare"><input type="checkbox" value="Medicare" name="Medicare[]" id="medicare" />Medicare</label><br />
<label for="longterm"><input type="checkbox" value="LongTerm" name="LongTerm[]" id="longterm" />Long Term Care</label><br />
<label for="individual"><input type="checkbox" value="Individual" name="Individual[]" id="individual" />Individual Plan</label><br />
<label for="tpa"><input type="checkbox" value="TPASelfInsured" name="TPASelfInsured[]" id="tpa" />TPA Self Insured</label><br />
<label for="ppaca"><input type="checkbox" value="CertifiedForPPACA" name="CertifiedForPPACA[]" id="ppaca" />Certified for PPACA</label><br />
</form>
</div>
My php page that pulls the info and places it into a container on the page:
$q = (isset($_GET['q'])) ? $_GET['q'] : false; // Returns results from user input
include 'datalogin.php'; // PHP File to login credentials
$sql="SELECT * FROM `roster` WHERE Company = '".$q."' OR Last_Name = '".$q."' OR WorkCity = '".$q."' OR WorkZipCode = '".$q."' ORDER BY Last_Name ASC";
$result = mysqli_query($con,$sql) // Connects to database or die("Error: ".mysqli_error($con));
echo "<h1>" . "Find a Local OAHU Agent." . "</h1>";
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) { // Gets results from the database
echo "<div class='agentcon'>" . "<span class='agentn'>" . "<strong>".$row['First_Name'] . " " .$row['Last_Name'] . "</strong>" . "</span>" . "" . "<span class='email'>".$row['Email'] . "</span>" . "" ."<div class='floathr'></div>";
if ($row['Company'] == NULL) {
echo "<p>";
}
else {
echo "<p>" . "<strong>" .$row['Company'] . "</strong>" . "<br>";
}
echo $row['WorkAddress1'] . " " .$row['WorkCity'] . "," . " " .$row['WorkStateProvince'] . " " .$row['WorkZipCode'] . "<br>";
if ($row['Work_Phone'] !== NULL) {
echo "<strong>" . "Work" . " " . "</strong>" .$row['Work_Phone'] . "<br>";
}
if ($row['Fax'] !== NULL) {
echo "<strong>" . "Fax" . " " . "</strong>" .$row['Fax'] . "<br>";
}
echo "<strong>" . "Agent Expertise:" . "</strong>";
if ($row['Ancillary'] == 1) {
echo " " . "Ancillary" . "/";
}
if ($row['SmallGroup'] == 1) {
echo " " . "Small Group" . "/";
}
if ($row['IndividualPlans'] == 1) {
echo " " . "Individual Plans" . "/";
}
if ($row['LongTermCare'] == 1) {
echo " " . "Long Term Care" . "/";
}
if ($row['Medicare'] == 1) {
echo " " . "Medicare" . "/";
}
if ($row['LargeGroup'] == 1) {
echo " " . "LargeGroup" . "/";
}
if ($row['TPASelfInsured'] == 1) {
echo " " . "TPA Self Insured" . "/";
}
if ($row['CertifiedForPPACA'] == 1) {
echo " " . "Certified For PPACA";
}
echo "</p>" . "</div>";
}
mysqli_close($con);
?>
I appreciate any and all help on this topic! Any time I add the checkbox values to my php file it ends up displaying everyone in the database for all fields in the form.
I am also trying to prevent sql injection on this but how can a user do this if I don't have a field the user can input text into?
EDIT As of today I gave a try with using jQuery to activate the checkboxes and then call some AJAX.
Here is the script I wrote and it is pulling an agent, just not everyone that has that "expertise".
$('input').click(function() {
$.ajax({
url: "process.php",
data: { value: 1},
success: function (data) {
$('#bodyA').html(data);
}
});
});

Answer 1

Here's a quick example of something I recently worked on in which I needed to loop through multiple checkboxes and pass those values into a SQL statement. Although this example happens on a button click, hopefully its something along the lines of what you are trying to accomplish, or at least at start... :)
<?php
$array = array();
if (isset($_POST['medicare'])) {
foreach ($_POST['medicare'] as $value) {
array_push($array, $value);
}
}
// this will return the value of each selected checkbox, separating each with a comma
$result = implode(",", $array);
// if you want to loop through each individually (for example pass each into a SQL statement)
foreach ($_POST['medicare'] as $value) {
// Do your SQL here
// $value will be the value of each selected checkbox (Smallgroup, Largegroup, etc.)
$sql = "insert into tablename(fieldname) values ('$value')"; // just an example
}
?>
<input type="checkbox" name="medicare[]" id="smallgroup" value="Smallgroup" />
<label for="smallgroup">Small Group</label>
<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="medicare[]" id="largegroup" value="Largegroup" />
<label for="largegroup">Large Group</label>
<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="medicare[]" id="medicare" value="Medicare" />
<label for="medicare">Medicare</label>
<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="medicare[]" id="individualplan" value="IndividualPlan" />
<label for="individualplan">Individual Plan</label>
<br />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" id="btnSubmit" name="btnSubmit" />
UPDATE
Instead of setting one variable, try setting a variable for each select control and putting your SQL statement in a foreach loop. I just tested this with some dummy data and didn't have any issues with it.
<?php
$lastname = (isset($_GET['Last_Name'])) ? $_GET['Last_Name'] : false;
$users = (isset($_GET['users'])) ? $_GET['users'] : false;
$workCity = (isset($_GET['WorkCity'])) ? $_GET['WorkCity'] : false;
$WorkZipCode = (isset($_GET['WorkZipCode'])) ? $_GET['WorkZipCode'] : false;
foreach ($_GET['medicare'] as $value) {
//echo $value;
$sql="SELECT * FROM roster WHERE Company = '$users' OR Last_Name = '$lastname' OR WorkCity = '$workCity' OR WorkZipCode = '$WorkZipCode' OR Ancillary = '$value' ORDER BY Last_Name ASC";
}
...continue as you were...
?>

Answer 2

I DID IT!! Wohoo! I ended up just making a separate php page called expertise.php to process the checkboxs using jquery/ajax.
The jQuery that achieved this: (Thank god I went onto the jQuery website to look up functions!)
$('input').click(function() {
$.ajax({
url: "expertise.php",
data: { value: 1},
success: function (data) {
$('#bodyA').html(data);
}
});
});
The PHP page is the same as my process.php page except for the sql:
$sql="SELECT * FROM `roster` WHERE Ancillary = '1' AND SmallGroup = '1' AND CertifiedForPPACA = '1' ORDER BY Last_Name ASC";
If anyone would enlighten me more on making this better protected against sql injections, feel free to!
Agent Search Page
Well I at least got both parts of the search working but a new problem has arose :p
Now in the sql I can use AND or OR, with AND it pulls only agents that have everyone of those expertise and with OR it seems to pull everyone. Any ideas?