Hello everyone,
In my quest to build bigger and better dynamic content, I am
putting forth a concept to see what you all think.
Many times I come across customers who want drop down menus dynamically
built from database tables.
Old way Example:
Echo '<SELECT ID=personnel><option value='0'>--Please Select--</option>';
$query = "SELECT * FROM personnel ORDER BY last_name";
$result = mysql_query($query);
If(mysql_num_rows($result) >= 1)
{
While($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
Echo "<option value='".$row['ID']."'>".$row['first_name']."
".$row['last_name']."</option>";
}
}
Echo '</select>';
*********************************************************
I am purposing a Method for this that has some flexibility.
Initialize Object: $yourobject = new yourclass();
Call method: // The call design is just so you have a better understanding
of my concept
$dropdown = $yourobject-> dropmenu('personnell','ID',array(0 =>
'first_name', 1 => 'last_name'), 'last_name');
Function dropmenu($table,$fieldforvalue,$fieldstodisplay,$fieldorder) //
Yes you could add some WHERE filters as well
{
$arraytoreturn = array();
If(strlen($table) >= 3){
if(is_array($fieldstodisplay)){
$count = 0;
foreach($fieldstodisplay as $key=>$values){
if(strlen($values) >=3){
If($count == 0){
$fields = $values;
}else{
$fields . = ",".$values;
}
$count++;
}
}
}else{
If(strlen(($fieldstodisplay) >= 1){
$fields = $fieldstodisplay;
$fieldstodisplay = array(0
=>$fieldstodisplay);
}else{
Return $arraytoreturn; // Return nothing
because no field was selected.
}
}
}else{
Return $arraytoreturn; // Return nothing because no table was selected.
}
If(strlen($fieldorder) >= 3) {
$orderfilter = " ORDER BY ".$fieldorder." ";
}else{
$orderfilter = "";
}
$query = "SELECT ".$fields." FROM ".$table." ".$orderfilter." ";
$result = mysql_query($query);
If(mysql_num_rows($result) >= 1)
{
$arraytoreturn[] = "<option value=0>--Please Select--</option>";
While($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$display_fields = "";
Foreach($fieldstodisplay as $key=>$values){
$display_fields .= $row[$values]." ";
}
If(strlen($fieldforvalue >= 3){
$arraytoreturn[] = "<option
value='".$row[$fieldforvalue]."'>".$display_fields ."</option>";
}else{
$arraytoreturn[] = "<option>".$display_fields ."</option>";
}
}
Return $arraytoreturn;
}else{
Return $arraytoreturn; // Nothing to return.
}
}
Now I can call the drop downs driven by database tables dynamically and It
saves me a TON of time.
Echo '<SELECT ID=personnel>';
Foreach($dropdown as $key=>$values){
Echo $values;
}
Echo '</select>';
Richard L. Buskirk
"Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart
enough to know they were impossible"
