Value of variable changes once out of the click function in jQuery - php

Question

this is the continuation of my previous question. Since I just logged in that day without an Open Id, I don't know how to login to that account and edit further. So I created a new Open Id enabled account and posted this as a new question.
Now I have the code like this. Inside the onclick event, the value is stored in the $selectedId correctly. But When I try to pass that value in the url, I do not get the correct value. The last value in the for loop is passed.
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
<?php foreach ($Forms as $r): ?>
$("<li><a id='<?=$r['Form']['id'];?>' data-attr='Formentries' href='#'><?=$r['Form']['name']?></a></li>").appendTo("#headers").click(function () {
<?php $selectedFormId=$r['Form']['id'];?>
alert("selId: "+<?php echo $selectedFormId;?>); //here the selected id is alerted
});
alert("outside the loop"+<?php echo $selectedFormId;?>); //here the last value in the loop is alerted
});
Once out of the click function, the value of $selectedFormId changes to the last value in the array. Can someone help me with this?
Actually what I am trying to achieve is, I list a set of Forms as links, and when I select the links I want its id to be saved in a php variable. I want it particularly be saved in a php variable coz after I select a Form I have an option to export the entries in the form through another link
<a href="localhost/FormBuilder/reports/export/<?php echo $selectedFormId;?>" class="thickbox button" title= "Export" >Export</a> .
So I want the id in there,so that I could pass it to the export function in the controller.
I also get the selected id in a javascript variable as
formid=$(this).attr("id");
but I do not know how to pass this value to the export function in the controller.

Answer 1

I don't know if i've understood your question very well but the $selectedFormId value is set inside the loop, so everytime the loop is executed the variable is set and when the loop finishes $selectedFormId gets the last processed value. I think you should set it outside the loop.

Answer 2

as you are declaring it inside the block so it is not available outside;
either you declare it before the $(document).ready block or finish its usage it inside this block itself.

Answer 3

As far as I can see you are setting $selectedFormId inside each loop in the iteration, so the assignment code will only be set when the click event is fired.
Therefore, logically, when you exit the loop, $selectedFormId will be the last item in the array. Are you meaning to put a condition around the assignment? Don't forget, the server side code will execute regardless! It won't care about client side conditions or closures!
if (something){
<?php $selectedFormId=$r['Form']['id'];?>
}
And, again echoing the above comments, you should really be trying to achieve code separation. The above really is tag soup!

Answer 4

You are mixing client and server-side code -- the code you wrote seems like you're expecting a JavaScript function on the client-side to magically set a PHP variable on the server-side, when in reality that type of operation is not possible.
What you should maybe do is have your click event set a variable on the client-side. Then set an onclick on your export link to construct a URL and redirect to it based on the locally stored variable value.
That's probably not the best solution, but it would be one option.