Advice on how to make a multi select drop down field sticky

PHP
1

hi everyone

i have a “multi select drop down field” in a form. i now want to make this imput field sticky i.e for the values that have been previouly selected by a user to show as selected fields.

it might be best if i show u what i have done so far. i would really appriciate advice on how to proceed.


<?php
//initilize the values
    $source4='';   $fleunt_lang=''; $LANGUANAGE_pref='';


//return the values from the select box
              if(isset($_POST['fleunt_lang']))
                      {
                $lang_pref = $_POST['fleunt_lang'];
                foreach ($lang_pref as $country)
                    {$source1 .= $country.", ";}
                    $language_pref = substr($source1, 0, -2);

                  $LANGUANAGE_pref   = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc,trim($language_pref  ));

                      }

//place the values into an array

                     $arr1 = array(    $LANGUANAGE_pref );

?>
    <?php
  THE IMPUT BOX
  //lang_list() is taken from a database of languages-plus their Id


function  country_list (    )
         {
             global $dbc;

            $select = "  SELECT
                       country_id,
                      country  ";

                      $from   = "    FROM
            countrylist  ";

         $query = $select.$from  ;
             $result = mysqli_query ($dbc, $query);
         return $result ;
                  }





    //i will later attempt to check if the $langauge_id is in the Array-the array was previouly supplied from the returned values above.

  echo'       <form action= ""  method="post" name="form_jobsort"    id="form_jobsort "       >





         <select name="fleunt_lang[]" id ="fleunt_lang"      multiple="multiple"       size="6"       style="font-family: Tahoma; width: 300px;     font-size: 12pt" >';



      $language_list      =    language_list( );

    while  ($row = mysqli_fetch_array ( $language_list, MYSQLI_ASSOC))

    {


        $language_id =   safe_output( $row['language_id']) ;
        $language  =   safe_output( $row['language']) ;




       if (in_array($language_id,   $arr1))
            {
                  echo '<option value="' . $language_id  .'" selected>' .$language  . '</option>';
            }
          else
            {
            echo '<option value="' .$language_id  .'">' . $language . '</option>';
            }




    } echo'</select>'; ';

?>

</form>

i am not sure if its clear what i was trying to do. i will explain :

i was collected the values that were selected by the user when they submitted the form and then placing them in an array so that i could later use the IN_array() funciton to determin whether those values had been previouly selected.

i.e


       if (in_array($language_id,   $arr1))
            {
                  echo '<option value="' . $language_id  .'" selected>' .$language  . '</option>';
            }
          else
            {
            echo '<option value="' .$language_id  .'">' . $language . '</option>';
            }

i have since been advised that my method of trying to place the submitted values into an array was incorrect and that all i did was to place the returned values into a stirng.

If, so, does anyone have any advice how i can place the returned values into an array?

if this method of trying to make the select filed sticky is not the best way to do this, then i would really appriciate some advice on the best way to do this.

warm regards

Andreea

2

Sorry, I’m still having a little trouble understanding what you’re looking to accomplish. It might be best to try to explain high user level what you want to do. Save a users language preference?

3

hello K. Wolfe

thank you for your responce. i will try and explain more clearly. i have a form field with several field. one of them is a select field like the one below:
<select multiple=“multiple” >
<option value=“volvo”>Volvo</option>
<option value=“saab”>Saab</option>
<option value=“mercedes”>Mercedes</option>
<option value=“audi”>Audi</option>
</select>

when a user clicks the submit button, i want a way to be able to show the users the values they have just selected.

i.e

<select multiple=“multiple” >
<option value=“volvo”>Volvo</option>
<option value=“saab” selected>Saab</option>
<option value=“mercedes” selected >Mercedes</option>
<option value=“audi”>Audi</option>
</select>

i hope its clearer now what i was trying to acheive. if not , please tell me and i can show more examples

warm regards

Andreea

4

Ah, you will then want to utilize a session: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.session.php. This is one way to ensure data will survive an HTTP request.

5

Hi K Wolfe.

i am not trying to place the values in a session. i want the values that have been clicked to be highlighed in the form field. i give you an example of an imput filed that has been made sticky;


  
			    if(!empty($_POST['last_name'])) {
			 $lastname  =   mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, trim( ucfirst(strtolower( $_POST['last_name']))));
				 
				 }        
			 		
				    
		
			}

<form>


            <?php echo '<input type="text" name="name"    name="last_name"           size="20" 
        maxlength="80"  style="font-family: Tahoma; width: 380px;  height: 30pt;     font-size: 14pt"
           value="' .  $lastname  . '"  />'; ?>  





</form>

you can see from the form above that the imput filed will now be sticky beucase the varable $lastname was filled in by the returned values of the forms.

i want to do the same thing with the multi select field . i want to be able to highlight the values that have been previouly selected by the user.

warm regards

Andreea