Web form generator PHP class - empty property on foreach - php

Question

I am currently building PHP class that generates web form for flexibility and localization issues. I am having difficulty assigning a key and value for dropdown input; for some reason the foreach seems does not get array variable ($country_list). Here is my code that I am having difficulty.
require_once('_include/country_list.php');
//drop down form class
class DropDown
{
function __construct ($form, $field_label, $field_name, $field_desc, $dropdown_data, $locale){
$this->form = $form;
$this->field_label = $field_label;
$this->field_name = $field_name;
$this->filed_desc = $filed_desc;
$this->dropdown_data = $dropdown_data;
$this->locale = $locale;
}
function getNotRequiredData(){
global $notReqArry; //http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1415577/accessing-variables-and-methods-outside-of-class-definitions
return $notReqArry[$this->locale];
}
function getValue(){
return $_POST[$this->field_name];
}
function dropdown(){
$selecedVal = $this->getValue();
$select_start = "<select name=\"$this->field_name\"><option value=\"\">$this->filed_desc</option>";
foreach ($this->dropdown_data as $key=>$value){
$selected = ($key == $selecedVal ? 'selected' : '');
$options = sprintf('<option value="%s" %s >%s</option>',$key,$selected,$value);
print $options;
}
$select_end = "</select>";
return $select_start . $options . $select_end;
}
function getLabel(){
$non_req = $this->getNotRequiredData();
$req = in_array($this->field_name, $non_req) ? '' : '*';
return $this->field_label ? $req . $this->field_label : '';
}
function __toString(){
$label = $this->getLabel();
$field = $this->dropdown();
return $label.$field;
}
}
function generateForm ($lang,$country_list){
switch($lang)
{
case 'en-US':
//create EN web form
echo $textField = new TextField($form, 'Note', 'form_note', '2', '20', '250', 'en-US');
//echo $textField_js = new JsTextField($textField, 'onkeyup', 'return checklength(this,contact_max_warning)', 'Characters typed:');
echo $dropDown = new DropDown ($form, 'Country', 'form_country', '--Select Country--', $country_list, 'en-US');
break;
case 'fr-FR':
//create FR web form
break;
case 'de-DE':
//create DE web form
break;
case 'ja-JP':
//create JA web form
break;
default:
//create default web form
print('foooo');
};
}
<form id="frm_verification" action="<?=$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']?>" method="POST">
<?
$lang='en-US';
echo generateForm ($lang,$country_list);
?>
<p>
<input type="button" name="reset" value="Reset">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</p>
</form>
and the array from country_list.php is like:
$country_main = array (
//Main 5 countries at first
//Those 5 countries are direct market of my previous company. you can modify whatever you want.
"US" => "United States",
"UK" => "United Kingdom",
"DE" => "Germany",
"FR" => "France",
"JP" => "Japan",
);
It does not work currently and I have check the error log, and it says:
"PHP Fatal error: Cannot access empty property in..."
I am sure that this is from my misunderstanding of class and its var or foreach statement.
Please help me to fix this; I really need help. (Yeah, I am really new on PHP)

Answer 1

foreach ($this->dropdown_data as $key->$value){
should read
foreach ($this->dropdown_data as $key=>$value){
Notice the change from -> to => in $key=>$value. Otherwise your code is trying to access property value in object key which is obviously invalid since key is not an object.

Answer 2

The variable you're referencing for your list of countries is misnamed:
echo generateForm ($lang,$country_list);
should be
echo generateForm ($lang,$country_main);
as that's how it's defined in country_list.php.