Dynamic Select without reloading the page?

[tblade]

I am building a form that needs to have 3 select 'dropdowns' all three are filled from a database, where the last 2 are dependent on the one above it.

 

all three are calling out of different tables/databases (which is to be expected) the first dropdown (dd) pulls from a database with 2 columns 'category' 'cat_id'

 

depending on what is selected the second dropdown is loaded pulling everything with a matching 'cat_id'

the second database has 3 columns 'subcategory', 'cat_id', and 'cat_code' (the cat_code is a string value).

 

the third dd is then populated based on the 'cat_code' and pulls a value called name.

 

I am new to php and ajax and i have limited java script experience. I have to make sure the dd reload without reloading the whole page so setting variables to outside the page with get or post is out of the question (otherwise i would have this finished)

 

Any help I do have the first dd autopopulating when the page is called but if it needs to be re-worked thats fine too any help would be greatly appreciated

[andrewgauger]

This seemed noob friendly:

 

http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/index.html?whichScript=ajax_chained_select