Help with using JQuery & PHP to update page

I was hoping to get some help with a jquery/php problem.

I want to be able to sort users with a series of drop down menus on a form.

To start with I’ll just focus on having one of the drop downs(positions) updating the query.

I want to get a value from a the #positions drop down and then run a mysql query and echo the data using php. I know there are prob a bunch of ways to do this, but I wanted to find a way that is pretty straight forward and simple.

When the page first runs I have php query the database and use a Sprintf function to echo each user’s div


<?php // display user divs
	
$userQuery = "SELECT * FROM users where user_status='registered';";

$users = mysql_query($userQuery);
    // or die (mysql_errno($userQuery));


while ($user = mysql_fetch_array($users)) {

	
	$user_div = sprintf(
   "
	<div class='user'>
		<div class='user_box'>
			<a href='profile.php?user_id=%s'><img src='%s'></a>
		</div> <!-- close user_box -->
		<a href='profile.php?user_id=%s'>
			<h3 class='username' >%s</h3>
			<h3 class='username' >%s</h3>
		</a>
	</div> <!-- close user div -->
	
	", $user['user_id'], $user['user_pic_path'], $user['user_id'], $user['first_name'],$user['last_name']);

	 echo $user_div;
} // end while loop
?>

I was thinking I could use a JQuery script like this to grab the value of the drop down and then run a query with the value pulled.


<script type="text/javascript">
	$(document).ready(function() {

	    $('#position').change(function() {
	        var queryString = $(this).val();
	        $.post('scripts/sort_users.php', queryString, processResponse);
	    });

	    function processResponse(data) {
	        $('#resultsGoHere').html(data);
	    }

	});
</script>

Here is my form. Right now I just want to concentrate on getting the positions value, but eventually it will need to query all of the values selected.


<form id='sort_form'>
<ul>

     <li>

        <input type="checkbox" name="" value="" />
        <label class='checkbox' for="">Only Display Users With Photos:</label>			
     </li>

     <li>
        <label for="gender">Gender:</label>

          <select id=''position name='position' class='right' style="width: 118px;">
          	  <option value="0">Select gender</option>
              <option value="1">Male</option>
              <option value="2">Female</option>
           </select>     	
    </li>

    <li>
        <label for="specialty">Specialty:</label>
          <select name='position' id='position'class='right' style="width: 118px;">
          	  <option value="0">Any</option>
              <option value="1">Actor</option>
              <option value="2">Actress</option>
              <option value="3">Director</option>
              <option value="4">Writer</option>
              <option value="5">Producer</option>
           </select>			
    </li>

    <li>
        <label for="Ages">Ages:</label>
          <select name='high_ages' class='right'>
          	  <option value="18">80</option>
              <option value="19">81</option>
              <option value="20">82</option>
          </select>
          <span> to </span>
          <select name='low_ages'class='right' >
               <option value="18">18</option>
              <option value="19">19</option>
              <option value="20">20</option>
          </select>
    </li>

    <li>
        <label for="distance">Located:</label>
          <select name='position' class='right' style="width: 118px; margin-top:0px;">
          	  <option value="0">Any Distance</option>
              <option value="10">10  Miles</option>
              <option value="20">20  Miles</option>
              <option value="30">30  Miles</option>
              <option value="50">50  Miles</option>
              <option value="100">100 Miles</option>
              <option value="250">250 Miles</option>
              <option value="500">500 Miles</option>			
           </select>			
    </li>

    <li >
        <label for="distance">From:</label>
        <input class='right' type="text"  name="zip" placeholder="Zip Code" maxlength="5" size="18"/>
    </li>

  	 <li>
		<button class="submit" type="submit" value="Update">Update</button>
	</li>

</ul>
</form>

here is the php script to process the new query. I’m not sure if I should generate the divs here and send back a string of divs or send back just the results of $users = mysql_query($userQuery);


<?php
require_once 'app_config.php';
require_once 'database_connection.php';
session_start();


$value = $_POST['queryString'];

$userQuery = "SELECT *
                FROM haas12_pitchShark.users
                where user_status='registered'
                and user_pos_id=".$value.";";

$users = mysql_query($userQuery);

echo $users;

?>

I know this is kind of a mess and would appreciate any help.
Here is a link to the page: