Dynamically choosing menu field

[smc]

Hey,

I have a drop down menu avaiable for editing and submitting articles in my CMS. My drop down menu on the HTML page has 3 entries, how can I get it to automatically choose the entry in the database for editing purpoes.

For example: I have Apples in my database under fruit. In editing the food favorites I have a list with Apples, Oranges, and Pears. I want to choose Apples automatically.

Using the above example, I tried value="<?php echo fruit; ?>" but no dice.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Jessica]

to make an <option> in a <select> be automatically chosen, add selected to it.
So:
<option value="apples" selected>Apples</option>

[smc]

But how can I make that dynamic instead of adding an entire series of variables with if statements? :P

[boo_lolly]

[code]
<?php
        echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"". $_SERVER['php_self'] ."\">\n";
        echo "<select name=\"dropdown\">\n";
        $sql = "SELECT * FROM your_table";
        $query = mysql_query($sql);
        while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
                echo "<option name=\"name\" value=\"". $row['value'] ."\"". (($row['value'] == $_POST['dropdown']) ? " SELECTED" : "") ."\">\n";
        }     
        echo "</select>\n";
        echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\">\n";
        echo "</form>\n";
?>
[/code]

untested.

[smc]

Right and that would dynamically create an entry but then there would be a duplicate in the drop down menu somewhere

[boo_lolly]

[quote author=smc link=topic=124351.msg515154#msg515154 date=1169951565]
Right and that would dynamically create an entry but then there would be a duplicate in the drop down menu somewhere
[/quote]

a duplicate??? what do you mean?

[The14thGOD]

I don't know how you have your database set up but you could just use PHP to echo out your options, something like a
[code]<?php
while($row[variable] = mysql_fetch_array($var_result)) {
if ($something == $somethingelse) {
$selected = "selected=\"selected\" " ;
}
echo("<option name=\"name\" value=\"value\" $selected/>");
reset($selected);
}
?>[/code]

Like I said I don't know how your whole script is set up so that's a very simplified version but sometimes the simplified ways help figure out the complicated ones ^_^ (at least for me that's true). This is a similar way I did dynamic drop down for a project.

Also if you are not using XHTML then the $selected = 'selected'

Hope this helps, sorry if it doesn't ^_^

[Tripic]

How are you aproaching this is it all on one page ie you select apple from the drop down box and it populates the feilds so you can edit and update or do you have a list some place with the items where you click on the item name ie lick on apples and it brings you to a page to edit apples. Im just a bit lost here is your problem populating the drop down box or poulating the fields after you have chosen what you want to edit

[tippy_102]

If this what you are looking for?

[code]
function select_menu($name, $options, $selected) {
    $list = '';
    foreach ($options as $value => $text) {
        $is_selected = $value == $selected ? ' selected="selected"' : '';
        $list .= "  <option value=\"$value\"$is_selected>$text</option>\n";
    }
    return "<select name=\"$name\" id=\"$name\">\n$list</select>\n";
}



echo "Size:";

$options = array(
    'value for this option' => 'text displayed for this option',
    '1' => 'Small',
    '2' => 'Medium',
    '3' => 'Large',
);

$menu_name = 'ud_Size';
// grab selected_val from db
$selected_value = $Size;

echo select_menu($menu_name, $options, $selected_value);
[/code]