use jquery to load form input directly into page - php

I have a form on one page, some of the form data is pulled from various tables in my mysql database -- the tables hold the options for different selects, so the following is the way my data will look after the php scripts are run:
<select name="vehicleStyle">
<option value="empty" selected="selected">- select -</option>
<option value="coupe">Coupe</option>
etc....
</select>
I have a second form that loads over this page in an iframe, this 2nd form allows me to update the data included in this mysql table so that I can add options to the form on the fly. Everything works absolutely fine and wonderful however, if I update (add a value) to this table on the fly, I have to refresh the page in order for the new data to show up in the first form on the main page. I've played with auto-refreshing the page, but that's kind of obnoxious.
Is there a way to add this form data directly into my original page via jquery?
I think twitter does something like this when you add a tweet (I don't use twitter) but it adds your recent tweet onto the top of the page without actually reloading the entire page.
Thanks so much!

I believe the best way is to use the load jQuery function (http://api.jquery.com/load/).
It lets you load a page from a url directly from javascript.
Here is what I would do:
move the creation of the select to a new url (fillselect.php for exemple)
load the page without creating the select: create a div tag instead (name it divforselect for exemple)
in the onload javascript event of the page, write this:
$("#divforselect").load("fillselect.php") This will result in the div tag innerText set to the content of the fillselect.php page. So the url fillselect.php will not be a complete html page but will only contain the select tag.
After that you can call $("#divforselect").load("fillselect.php") whenever you want to refresh the select!

I think you want to do DOM manipulation using JS. All you have to do is append a new OPTION tag with the user-input value to the SELECT like:
var option = $('<OPTION/>');
$(option).html('INSERT YOUR VALUE HERE');
$('SELECT').append(option);
Remember: this is adding an OPTION just on the client side. So if your actual form submission (in your iframe) fails to push the data to your database, this would represent an inconsistent view for your user( where he would think new OPTION is created but its actually failed).
So, you would have to tie your UI update with your backend response. Typically, you would refresh this UI in the AJAX response of the call updating the backend.

Maybe you should be using AJAX to populate the boxes? Then you could have it refresh the data anytime you want.
jQuery Ajax

Related

Run PHP file in the background

I wonder if it is possible to run a PHP file in the background on my website?
What I want to do is to show a form with inputs and dropdowns. The content of the dropdown is taken from a table in a MySQL database. Next to the dropdown is an Edit button which opens a Bootstrap Modal and shows all the content in the table for the dropdown. Here I can make changes to the table. Then I want to go back to the form and apply the changes I jsut made (i.e. select a new post from the dropdown).
I know how to do all of this - BUT - when I save the changes to the dropdown table, a php file is called to perform the SQL syntax and then redirects the user back to the form. Every input you have made in the form is lost since the page is reloaded.
Is there a way to make it work like I want?
I understand that you need to implement Ajax to do the background operation. Ajax request runs in background, its entry and exit is handled through Javascript functions . See here : http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/
As some already noted, Ajax is the way to go in this case.
An idea would be to use ajax to send the modal data to the server (saving the new options for the dropdown) when the user clicks in the "save" button (or anything equivalent). When this ajax call finish successfully, you could reload the dropdown with another ajax call (or even better, save the modal data in a temporary structure in JavaScript and use it to update the dropdown once the first ajax call is successful, hence avoiding some work on the server)
Note that the page won't reload in the whole process.
The simplest and the easiest way to do this is to open the modal in a new window.
example
Modal
And you can attached this to your select option value with a on-click event.

Dynamically add pre populated forms from database using ajax and jquery

Ive been researching online for a couple days and I cant seem to find out the answer to my question. I would like to append a div or insert a pre populated form from my database depending on a drop down menu (selecting from a row in my DB). Once you press a button it will add the form field to a div or area above. Any suggestions? How should I tackle this? Im extremely new to Jquery and Ajax but know PHP fairly well.
One way is to populate the fields when the page is being loaded. (pass the values on to your html page with "value=<$php echo $someData %>"
if you want to load the data without refreshing the page each time, I'd suggest you make a different page that will load the data from the database through POST-requests and retrieve the data as JSON, so you can parse it with Javascript and update the fields accordingly.
updating the fields can be done like so:
json = YourJSONData;
$('.some-class').val(json['someData']); // if populating a form field
$('.some-other-class').html(json['someOtherData'); // if populating a div or other DOM element.
etc...

How to get the value of a field in php form on the same page

I am designing a web page. I want to have the options(of another drop-down list on same page) based on the selection made by the user.
I am providing a drop-down list to the user called Application. Depending on the Application, I want to query sql and want to show only the options that are valid for selected Application in another drop-down list.
I want to get the value of Application on the same page (one that user has selected) and by getting that value will query the sql accordingly.
Once the page is loaded, the PHP cannot do anything more.
You cannot use PHP based on user interaction.
The only way to do so is through javascript.
Using ajax, you can retrieve data from a certain URL on your javascript.
A procedure would be like this:
User selects something
The javascript(ajax) loads a URL
In that URL, use your PHP to fetch a certain query
The result would be sent to javascript, so display the result.
Here's a good page explaining ajax:
http://wabism.com/ajax-tutorial-with-jquery/
you have to call an ajax function on the onchange event of dropdown that gets data from database.
ajax is your friend. Either you can use raw javascript or jquery( easier ). Your steps would be..
1. Write a php code block, most probably a function, which takes the selected application option from post, queries the database and outputs the result.
2. In your current page, write a js code that fires the ajax request each time user selects an option. This ajax will send the selected option to the php script by post method and u can grab the output upon the success of the request.
$('.selectBox').on('change', function(){
// do your ajax here.
});
something like that..

Update select contents without reloading form

I have quite a long form which has many HTML form selects pulling data from MySQL tables - quite often a client will be mid way through filling in the form when they realise that the value they want for department, for example, has not yet been entered into the system so is not in the list.
I have added a link to a simplified popup for adding departments but after it is added it does not appear in the select list as the contents of that select are based on what was available on the load of the page when the initial query ran - how can I get the select to update without having to submit and then edit, without the page refreshing/reloading and without the client losing the data they have currently added?
Thanks
Did read what you are asking, since its too long) But did you try javascript? changing form values after paged loaded is possible only with javascript.
When submit form on that popup, save it with ajax in database, and as response get inserted data... Then on ajax success add new option in select ( with returned data )

Populating a Dropdown list in PHP dynamically

I have a small PHP page which contains two drop down lists
I need to populate the second one according to the result selected in the first drop down list .... is this possible? In other words I need to use the value selected from the first drop down list and use it in the dB query used to populate the second drop down list (but this should be populated upon selection of the first drop down list.
If this is possible any hints please? (you can assume that I am able to populate the first drop down list from the dB)
Option 1: embed the data for the second select in the document as hidden elements or JS objects. A change event handler on the first select will populate the second select. A List Apart has an example dynamic select page.
Option 2: use AJAX. When the first select changes, make a request to the server for the contents of the second select, then populate it. With a JS library (such as jQuery), this becomes quite easy.
$('select#one').change(
function (evt) {
$('select#two').load('/thing/'+this.value);
}
);
"/thing/<val>" identifies your server side script to generate a list of items based on "<val>" (use the rewrite facilities of your webserver to resolve the URL path to the actual script). You could simply have it always generate <option> elements, but a better design would be to include a way to specify the result format, so it could output the list as <li>, using JSON or some other format.
$('select#one').change(
function (evt) {
$('select#two').load('/thing/'+this.value, {fmt: 'option'});
}
);
You will have to use AJAX to send the selection of the first dropdown to the server. You can then query the database and generate the second dropdown and send it back to the user.
You'll need an asynchronous call back to the server, without a page reload. (I doubt that you actually want to have a button that posts back to the server) So AJAX is something that can do exactly that. Add an AJAX call to your first dropdown's onchange event handler that posts the selection back to the server and returns the contents of the second dropdown. When the AJAX call returns the new values, you will use it to build your content for the second dropdown. Most of this is done in Javascript, of course, besides the actual server part, which will remain in PHP.
There's two ways of doing it. The old-school "select an option and submit to rebuild the page" method, which works pretty much universally, and the newfangled AJAX methods, to load the second dropdown's contents without refreshing the page.
Both have advantages/disadvantages, so it boils down to what's best for your purposes. The oldschool method doesn't require any javascript at all, but since it does round-trip the form through the server, you'll get the "clear the window and then redraw the page" flickering.
The AJAX method bypasses the refresh flicker, but also would no work on Javascript-disabled browsers. It does require a little bit more code, client-side, to handle the AJAX calls and population of the dropdown, but the server-side code would be pretty much the same for both methods: same queries, same retrieval loops, just different output methods.
#outis has good point use .change in jquery otherwise use onchange event in select code.
like
<select id='my_select' onchange='javascript:myfunc()'>
<option value='a'>a</option>
.
.
<option value='z'>z</option>
function myfunc(){
//write code to populate another dropdown based on selected value
}
You can see this Dynamically Populating Dropdown Based On Other Dropdown Value

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