New to PHP - Would appreciate some help with a simple banner script

[jaimec]

Hello, I'm new to PHP and would really appreciate some help with a simple banner script

Here's the problem I'm stuck on

On the home page of the site I'm working on there's a simple form where the user can select one option. The related section of code reads:

        <SELECT name="jids[]" multiple size="5">
        <OPTION selected value=00>All Categories</OPTION>
        <option value="10">Advertising/Marketing</option>
<option value="11">Creative/Graphic Design</option>
<option value="12">Games Industry</option>
<option value="13">IT & Telecoms</option>
</SELECT>


Once the form has been submitted, the user is then directed to a job results page - everything here is working without problems. The problem I now have the need to add a piece of code on the results page that calls up a banner advertisement from a seperate php script and database (code below)


<?php
if (@include(getenv('DOCUMENT_ROOT').'/ads/phpadsnew.inc.php')) {
        if (!isset($phpAds_context)) $phpAds_context = array();
        $phpAds_raw = view_raw ('zone:1', 0, '', '', '0', $phpAds_context);
        echo $phpAds_raw['html'];
    }
?>



What I'd like to write is a snippet of code that essentially creates a new variable:

$bannerid

then reads value of jids[] - and if the user has selected "Advertising/Marketing (10") then $bannerid = 1,
if the user has selected "Creative/Graphic Design (11)" then $bannerid = 2 etc, etc

then in the php script that calls up the banner I need to replace

'zone:1'

with 'zone: and the value of $bannerid' so specific ads can be called up relevant to the users selection - 1 for banners related to advertising/design jobs, 2 for Creative/Graphic Design jobs etc

I know it seems simple but as I'm new to php I just can't get the thing to work.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[fert]

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.php
Read about $_GET and $_POST

[jaimec]

Thanks for the quick reply, and thanks for the link.

Please forgive my ignorance but do I use the $_GET command on the results page to bring up the numerical value of jids - then create the new $bannerid variable accordingly?

[fert]

It depends on the form's method

[jaimec]

the method is POST

[Jessica]

So using some logic, let's think if $_POST or $_GET would be more appropriate ;)

[jaimec]

so the code

$bannerid=$_GET['jids'][0];

should give me $bannerid with the relevant value ??

just done a test with

$bannerid=$_GET['jids'][0];
print $bannerid;

and it seems to work


I'm taking this a step at a time here - (I mainly work with flash & photoshop but have had this dropped on me at the last minute)

now should I code an if $bannerid=10 then $bannerlink=1

so then the link to pull the banner from the server would have

"  zone:<?php echo $bannerlink ?>  " rather than the original "  zone:1  "

[jaimec]

I've moved on a little

$bannerlink = ($bannerid == 10) ? 1 : 0;

gives an if/else value

I just need to pass this to the banner code ensuring the relevant banner appears

"  zone:<?php echo $bannerlink ?>  " rather than the original "  zone:1  " doesn't seem to work.

Any advice greatly appreciated