Posted by randomname on 08/23/06 10:07

deko wrote:
> Okay, I've got the combo box on the page:
>
> <select name=color>
> <option value=yellow>yellow</option>
> <option value=white>white</option>
> <option value=white>gray</option>
> </select>
>
> And I have this at the top of the page in the head section:
>
> $background = trim($_POST['color']);
> [and then the if-else statement with the style directives]
>
> My question is this:
>
> How do I make the page refresh after the user selects the color preference? Do
> I need to put the combo box inside a form? I tried this:
>
> <select name=color onChange="post">
>
> but no luck.

I suggest googling for a quick PHP tutorial on forms.

<select name=color onChange="this.form.submit()">

Should do it.

One last thing, in your PHP make sure the array you are accessing is
the correct one. $_POST retrieves all variables that were submitted
via form method=post, $_GET retrieves all variables that were submitted
via form method=get [in the url: eg:
domain.com?varname=varvalue&var2name=var2value]. $_REQUEST gets the
variables either way, but should rarely be used.

Also, as a beginniner you should take extra steps to debug your code.
Add echo statements in your php script to make sure things are
happening as planned... you'll catch a lot of bugs this way.
var_dump() also comes in handy. In this script you should do
var_dump($background) just to make sure that value is getting set
correctly.

Also, if you are interested, you can make a dummy form with lots of
different controls, and have your php script do var_dump($_POST) to see
how PHP populates the $_POST array based on a form's submission.

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