Need help with complex Form/PHP/Custom Field query

  • I’ve scoured the internet (php forums mostly) to find a solution and have not turned up anything that actually works – hoping someone here can help……

    I have a form that creates a dropdown list from specific pages and populates the value of the options based on info in a custom field. The dropdown works perfectly.

    Example:
    ~
    <select id=”products” name=”products”>
    <option selected value=”null”>Please Select Your Product</option>

    <?php global $post;
    $myposts = get_posts(‘orderby=title&order=ASC&post_type=page&post_parent=22&numberposts=-1’);

    foreach($myposts as $post) : ?>
    <option value=”<?php $sku = get_post_meta($post->ID, productsku, true); echo $sku ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></option>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
    </select>
    ~

    I have another hidden input on the same form that needs to have it’s value populated based on the site visitor’s selection from the dropdown list, but it’s not as simple as passing the value from the selected option to the hidden input value, it actually needs to check for a second custom field from the same page as the selection.

    Example:
    ~
    <input type=”hidden” name=”location” id=”location” value=”<?php echo $othercustomfield ?>” />
    ~

    So if the visitor selects a product from the dropdown list, I need to find what the value of the custom field (meta_key “location”) is for that specific selection, and put it into the hidden input field.

    I even tried a few javascript suggestions I found, but that didn’t work either….

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • something like this? https://api.jquery.com/val/

    Thread Starter TrishaM

    (@trisham)

    I don’t understand fully how to utilize that, but it looks like it would get me closer, by identifying what was selected into a variable, that in theory I could then use in some sort of lookup fashion to get the correct 2nd value to put into the hidden input field….

    In the example I’m using, the site visitor would select the product option that they want, which has the value of the product’s ID # (sku) – then in the hidden field I have to put the location of that particular product, which is the location (warehouse A or warehouse B), which right now is in a second custom field (meta_key=”location” meta_value=”warehouseA” or “warehouseB”…..that way the form data gets sent to the correct location for packaging & shipping….

    BUT in theory if it’s easier to not use the second custom field but just hard code a lookup function, that would work too (at least until they decide to add another location)….

    In that case I think I could make use of that “val()” code you sent me to

    Unless there is a better way to do what I’m trying to do?

    how about this https://api.jquery.com/text/

    echo the second custom field into a div which is set to display:none within the loop, so each menu item carries the additional data with it, then target it when the user clicks the menu item, so (logic rather than code) onclick .. then .. jQuery(“.class-of-second-custom-field”, this); .. then … text() use to populate the hidden field, targeted with css selectors.

    If you figure this out let me know how you did it!

    Thread Starter TrishaM

    (@trisham)

    Wow – that’s creative! I like that idea. I’ll mess around with it and post back my results by tomorrow, if not this evening.

    ??

    Thread Starter TrishaM

    (@trisham)

    I’m still struggling with this problem…..I’m sure it’s because I’m not a coder and just guessing, and trying solutions that aren’t working….it also occurred to me that what I really need is a PHP solution, not javascript, because with javascript turned off it breaks…

    What I’m thinking might work instead is to use something that takes the value of the selected option, and compares it to an array, then if it matches, put another value into a variable that can be echoed as the value of the hidden input…..this could be a good short-term solution because there are a very limited number of options…..so something like this:
    ~<?php
    $getsku = $_POST[‘products’];
    if $getsku is_in(array(‘product1′,’product2′,’product3’))
    {
    $location = “warehouse a”;
    }
    else if $getsku is_in(array(‘product4′,’product5′,’product6’))
    {
    $location = “warehouse b”;
    }
    ?>
    <input type=”hidden” value=”<?php echo $location ?>” >
    ~

    BUT I tried that and it didn’t work ….so I think it must be close to this, but I just am doing some small thing wrong…

    Any ideas?

    without javascript you would have to refresh the page to get anything to happen, php is server side. Unless I’ve miss-understood what you are trying to do.

    Thread Starter TrishaM

    (@trisham)

    Hi gerbilk

    No, you are correct – I didn’t realize (or if I did I forgot) that I’d need javascript to perform an action based on what someone selects from a dropdown list.

    But I also realized that there is other javascript processing going on in this page, so I’m not going to worry about someone who may have js turned off – if they do none of the page and much of the site won’t work anyway, so I’m back to using a javascript solution.

    Unfortunately, since I’m not a coder I don’t really know how to write what is needed – the few things I tried based on what I read on those two pages linked to above (using their demos as examples) didn’t work, so I will probably have to go find a javascript forum to post my question in….

    I did get the dropdown to echo the second custom field that I need (thanks for that creative tip!) but I just couldn’t seem to use it properly.

    But thanks for trying to help anyway, I really do appreciate it. ??

    I’m pretty bad at jquery as well, I’ve had a quick play and google and found this

    <head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <a href="#" title="new value">link</a>

  <input id="update" type="hidden" value="" />
<script>
    $('a').click(function(e) {
     e.preventDefault(); // <-- don't follow the link
     $('#update').val($(this).attr('title'));
});

</script>
</body>

    what you would need to do here is echo the hidden value into the title attribute of each link and obviously be more specific with the a selector in the jquery, then change #update to the id of your hidden field. you need firebug to see this working in DOM rather than the html panel. This code works as it is, it should just be a question of echoing out your data accordingly. You could adjust this slightly and get the text() thing working

    Thread Starter TrishaM

    (@trisham)

    Thanks gerbilk – I think I understand this, but does the link need to actually be clicked on to initiate the script? If not, then I think this may solve the problem, as I could put it in the form but hide it.

    If it needs to be clicked on to work, then I’m guessing it would have to go into the option? Like this?

    ~
    <option value=”<?php echo $sku ?>”>“><?php the_title(); ?></option>
    ~

    i have an almost finalised version here that should do what you need

    <head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
  <select id="selectbox">
 <option name="test" value="one" title="title" selected="selected">one</option>
 <option name="test2" value="two" title="title2">two</option>
</select>

<input id="update" type="hidden" value="defaultold" />
  </form>

<script>

 $(document).ready(function() {
    $('#update').val('default');
    $('#selectbox').change(function() {
         $('#update').val($(this).find("option:selected").attr("title"));
    });
});

</script>
</body>

    for this you need to echo the normal field for the select options into the value=”<?php echo stuff here?>” then the additional field into title=”<?php echo stuff here?>” . I’m really going to take some time to learn jquery properly, ultra useful stuff!

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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