create a single form using multiple inputs through xml file - php

Question

here is my problem. I have an xml file that acts like a small database. My php code goes through the xml file and retrieves the info creating a form. For example, the xml file holds info about a menu, the user chooses salad, then the code will print out all types of salads and the user then chooses his favourite salad. The actual problem is that there are different portions; small and large and different prices for each!
I am not able to keep track of the selected item... X(
Any help??
Thanks in advance
here is my code:
<?php
foreach ($xml-> CATEGORY as $category)
{
if($_GET['category']==$category["id"])
{
echo "<h3>".$category ["id"]."</h3>";
echo "<br />";
echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"add.php\">";
foreach ($category -> FOOD as $food) {
echo "<li>";
echo "<b>".$food["name"]."</b>";
echo "<hr>";
echo "</li>";
echo "<select name=\"variations[]\">";
foreach($food -> PRICE as $price)
{
echo "<option value=\"$price\">";
echo "<ul>";
echo $price["size"]. " ";
echo $price;
echo "</ul>";
echo "</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Buy this\">";
}
echo "<br />";
echo "<br />";
}
echo "</form>";
}
?>
the cart looks something like this
<?php
echo "<br>";
$values = $_POST['variations'];
foreach($values as $value)
{
echo $value;
echo "<br>";
}
?>
the code above only shows prices about small items. Large items are somehow ignored!! This code is not actually what I meant to do but it's an start. It should say:
You have chosen a large portion of greek salad for £10.50.
So, I should be able to pass three variables that I don't know how: $price[size], food and $price...
Thanks for your time

Answer 1

if i understand you correctly, you are just recieving the selected size (price) but not the actual meal?
well two possible solutions:
version one:
create a second form field that holds the selected meal.
i think its elegant and logical if you have checkboxes for the meals and then radio buttons or lists for the size... so you can check/uncheck meals but if its check you need to select a size...
you can also just let the user select the price and dynamlically select the the meal field too with javascript but i wouldnt suggest that, if you want this kind of user experience, i'd opt for vesion two
version two:
include the meal in the value of the input field that for the price. maby seperated by a comma or as a json encoded string.
then when you retrieve the post variable you can split/decode...
if you give me a working example which i can just paste into a file and hit it (including the xml object) i can quickly do that for you...