[FX.php List] Conditional value lists with PHP and FileMaker

[Anders Monsen]

If you mean the FileMaker source table, I am constrained by the  
existing format, and it's a leftover from FMP6 through a brute-force  
conversion to 9, with no design changes. I do have the option of  
perhaps creating value lists from the fields. Would that work better?

Anders

On Nov 19, 2008, at 11:02 AM, Gjermund Gusland Thorsen wrote:

> The table looks fine with me, to bad the initial posting has more
> words than what I can read in a day,
> show me the source and I might be able to help you optimize it.
>
> ggt
>
> 2008/11/19 Steve Winter <steve at bluecrocodile.co.nz>:
>> Hi Anders...
>>
>> Doesn't sound like a very user-friendly database structure that  
>> you're stuck
>> with...!! clearly the concept of 'relational' was lost on the  
>> original
>> builder...
>>
>> I've done a similar type of thing... originally I used JavaScript  
>> and built
>> large JavaScript arrays to hold all of the data... everything but  
>> the first
>> dropdown 'locked', when a selection was made from that I populated  
>> the
>> second drop-down (using JavaScript) and made it active, and so on  
>> across the
>> table...
>>
>> My second version used Ajax to do basically the same thing, however  
>> in both
>> instances I was working from relational data which certainly makes  
>> things
>> easier...
>>
>> I'd be more than happy to take a look at your code and see if I can  
>> make any
>> suggestions for improvement if you're interested... feel free to  
>> send it to
>> me off-list... (I have no idea what ggt was saying ;-)
>>
>> Cheers
>> Steve
>>
>>
>> On 19 Nov 2008, at 16:46, Anders Monsen wrote:
>>
>>> Has anyone on the list worked on this issue? I spent most of  
>>> yesterday
>>> putting together a process that works, but may not be the most  
>>> efficient
>>> process. I was wondering if anyone would be open to looking at my  
>>> code (the
>>> snippet is 130 lines long at minimum, so I didn't just want to  
>>> throw it out
>>> there) to see if there are ways I can improve the process. It  
>>> certainly made
>>> me appreciate how easy FileMaker makes this process...
>>>
>>> (I just discovered and read Jonathan Stark's article in July
>>> FileMakerAdvisor after writing this email. It uses Ajax, so I may  
>>> try to
>>> incorporate his techniques, although I'm using FX.php and no  
>>> existing value
>>> lists from FileMaker, just existing data.)
>>>
>>> Here's the scenario. I have a table with four fields: district  
>>> number,
>>> district name, campus number, and campus name. I want the district  
>>> and
>>> campus to be drop down menus, where the user sees the name but  
>>> submits the
>>> number into another FileMaker database/table. Also, when the user  
>>> selects a
>>> district, I need the value list of campuses to correspond just to  
>>> their
>>> appropriate district.
>>>
>>> My first issue was to find a way to create an associative array with
>>> district numbers=>district names. Apparently I took the hard route  
>>> in
>>> dynamically building associative arrays... After several failed  
>>> attempts, I
>>> used a function that I found on php.net in the section on  
>>> "array_push" to
>>> create this array. The first problem I ran into was that the list  
>>> currently
>>> contains 270 records. For now I had to manually change the  
>>> groupsize in the
>>> query to above 300, but I plan to first query all records to get a  
>>> count,
>>> then make this the groupsize. The reason for this is that the  
>>> district array
>>> becomes unique only after all records have been loaded into the  
>>> array, so
>>> the default groupsize of 50 has to be modified.
>>>
>>> Is there a way to 1) build a better array and 2) make the district  
>>> array
>>> unique in the initial query? The database is structured as one  
>>> file, with
>>> all four fields, and so the district numbers and names are  
>>> repeated. I
>>> didn't create the database, and I can't change it.
>>> Distnum |       Distname        | CampusNum     |       Campus Name
>>> 10                      The ISD         2                        
>>> School
>>> 10                      The ISD         2.1
>>> OtherSchool
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> Additionally, after several failed attempts to get the Javascript  
>>> onchange
>>> function to work when the form changed, I resorted to DreamWeaver's
>>> JumpMenu, which seems to work fine. Has anyone been able to get a  
>>> working
>>> onchange form and what is the correct syntax? When the user  
>>> selects a
>>> district from the dropdown, the page reloads with the district  
>>> number in the
>>> URL.
>>>
>>> Given all of the above, my process *does* work, and the page does  
>>> not
>>> appear to load with delays. I have not used conditional values  
>>> lists with
>>> PHP/Javascript in about three years, so I am a little unsure of best
>>> practices.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Anders
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> FX.php_List mailing list
>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>
> _______________________________________________
> FX.php_List mailing list
> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>