At 6/11/2007 11:38 AM, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
I have a page containing two drop down lists. I need to figure
out a way to populate/update the second drop down list based on a
selection of the first one (the data for both drop down lists is in
a MySQL database). Is this something I need to do in
JavaScript? Or can I somehow trick PHP to do this?
I don't think you need to trick PHP -- it will be friendly and
cooperative as long as you feed it some nice juicy strings from time to time.
The main difference between implementing this in javascript and
implementing it in PHP is that PHP will require a round-trip to the
server between menu changes, while javascript will act more immediately.
Because javascript is so commonly disabled, I write the logic first
in PHP so that everyone can use the page, then again in javascript to
enhance the experience for folks with scripting enabled. This is not
a doubling of work: both scripts can utilize the same datasets (since
PHP is downloading the page it can feed javascript a version of the
same data it uses), and both scripts have very similar syntax
(they're really cousins) so it's possible in many cases to write
nearly identical logic in key functions, reducing programming,
debugging, and maintenance time. This technique is known variously
as 'unobtrusive javascript' and 'progressive enhancement.'
Regards,
Paul
__________________________
Paul Novitski
Juniper Webcraft Ltd.
http://juniperwebcraft.com
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