javascript question...

[octane]

Hi all, got an interesting enough problem here.

Here is the javascript I use to instruct a site visitor what to do when they see a text field. When the user clicks into the text field, the instruction disappears.

All good stuff. Problem: I _need_ to have the fields named a very specific way, this interferes with the mechanics of the javascript:

onfocus="document.form_details.details[textfield_lastname<?php echo ("$i"); ?>].value=''"

In the final rendered html, this:

details[textfield_lastname<?php echo ("$i"); ?>]

Looks like this:

details[textfield_lastname1]

This name stops the javascript from executing properly.

How do I make it work but still keeping the naming convention?

Is there another way to do it?

Thanks...

 

[Arden]

The PHP interpretor on the server parses any and all PHP code in your pages and returns the results before the browser writes a single line of HTML. If your PHP script echoes a value (as most do), then that's all that will show up in your page. In this case, it seems $i = 1, so the PHP interpretor returns 1 where your code is.

If you rename the file as a .html instead of .php, it will not parse the data. Also, if you have the script set to say [textfield_lastname<?php echo '<?php echo ("$i"); ?>'] it will write out that code as is, though it will be a problem if you need the code executed before being written to the browser.

Mind providing a few more details? What are you trying to accomplish? What is this specific script supposed to do? And, do you have a functional example?

 

[octane]

The PHP interpretor on the server parses any and all PHP code in your pages and returns the results before the browser writes a single line of HTML. If your PHP script echoes a value (as most do), then that's all that will show up in your page. In this case, it seems $i = 1, so the PHP interpretor returns 1 where your code is.

If you rename the file as a .html instead of .php, it will not parse the data. Also, if you have the script set to say [textfield_lastname<?php echo '<?php echo ("$i"); ?>'] it will write out that code as is, though it will be a problem if you need the code executed before being written to the browser.

Arden, I know you're trying to help, but you've stated a big chunk of the obvious. I know all of this .. I am a php developer.

Mind providing a few more details? What are you trying to accomplish? What is this specific script supposed to do? And, do you have a functional example?

It's simply a form field. The value, depending on what the user decides, there may be as many as ten of these fields: hence the iteration in number.

The form field in raw html is: details[textfield_lastname1]

But in php, this becomes: $_POST['details']['textfield_lastname1']

Or rather, to cycle through the numbered elements or to access them specifically: $_POST['details'][textfield_lastname.$i]

Where: $i is the loop counter variable.

Which is an array element. This means I can group all of the form elements in a particular form into one array...

 

[octane]

Yes I have an example, but I'd prefer not to let people use it.

It has a vehicle registration & postal code look up system [socket connections linking to web access commands on a Sun server] and every time you do a look up, it costs the client to perform the look up...

 

[Arden]

Alrighty then, so what's the array, $i? For it to behave as such you need to include the array paramaters, $i[], $i[para, meter], etc.

Can you make a mockup? Even if you can't let us actually use the system, a working model would be better than nothing.

 

[octane]

Alrighty then, so what's the array, $i? For it to behave as such you need to include the array paramaters, $i[], $i[para, meter], etc...

Arden, read through it again.

The examples I've given you are valid, sound and currently working away as we speak.

The variable: $i is merely a loop variable: for ($i=0; $i<count($array_name); $i++) {