populate list field based on another list field's selection

14 posts by 3 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: May 24, 2009   (RSS)

By atomicrabbit - May 4, 2009

Ok 'll try to keep this as simple as possible:

I created a section called Locations which will hold the company's locations around North America, so I've created a Country list field and a Province/State list field.

When inputting data, what I want to do is have the Province/State list field automatically updated with appropriate values when the Country list field is changed.

So if I'm adding an entry in the locations section, and I select Canada from the country field, I want the Provinces/States field to automatically be populated with Canada's provinces & territories only. And if I select US, I want it to be automatically populated with USA's states.

One way I thought of doing this is by creating a separate section that holds provinces and states and have three main fields:

Country, PS_Abbreviation, Province/State

So I would add all provinces and states from Canada and the US in the separate section and give each the appropriate country, so for example:

Canada, ON, Ontario
Canada, BC, British Columbia
United States, AL, Alabama
United States, AK, Alaska
etc etc

And MAYBE set the Province/State list field to populate using a MySQL statement using the values from the separate section, but I don't know how I'd reference the Country field that is selected.

Note: I want to do this all within the CMS backend, not on a html viewer page I create.

I hope this makes sense.

Re: [atomicrabbit] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By ross - May 5, 2009

Hi there.

Thanks for posting!

I see what you are trying to setup and right now the program isn't setup to do that in its interface. This might end up being something we can do a custom addon for you though. Send me an email through consulting@interactivetools.com with a link to this post and and an idea of the budget you had for something like this.

Thanks!
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Re: [atomicrabbit] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By Dave - May 5, 2009

Hi atomicrabbit,

Let me give this one a try. It's possible, but it is a little bit of work and requires some MySQL. One way is to create two sections: countries and states

For countries, just have a single text field called "country".

For states, start with a single text field called 'state' and then add a list (pulldown) field called "country" and in the field editor select these options:
List Options: [ Get options from database (advanced) ]
Section Tablename: countries
Use this field for option values: country
Use this field for option labels: country

Then, for the section you want these to appear in, add a field for "country" as described above and then a list (pulldown) field for "state" with these options:
List Options: [ Get options from MySQL query (advanced) ]
Query: SELECT state FROM cms_states WHERE country = '<?php echo $ESCAPED_FILTER_VALUE ?>'
Advanced Filter: Refresh list when this field changes: [ Country ]

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions about that or need clarification about anything.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By atomicrabbit - May 5, 2009 - edited: May 5, 2009

thanks for the replies Ross and Dave.

Dave, I think your idea makes sense, although I don't think I need to create a Country section, I can just create a Country list field in the state section.

But regardless, I will try your solution and post the results!

Edit: ok it seems to return the proper values from the MySQL select statement, but it gives me the following error when I change the Country list pulldown
Error:
Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /home/.sites/4/site38/web/cmsAdmin/lib/database_functions.php on line 507
<option value=''>&lt;select&gt;</option>
<option value="Alberta" ></option>
<option value="British Columbia" ></option>
<option value="Manitoba" ></option>
<option value="New Brunswick" ></option>
<option value="Newfoundland and Labrador" ></option>
<option value="Nova Scotia" ></option>
<option value="Northwest Territories" ></option>
<option value="Nunavut" ></option>
<option value="Ontario" ></option>
<option value="Prince Edward Island" ></option>
<option value="Quebec" ></option>
<option value="Saskatchewan" ></option>
<option value="Yukon" ></option>

So I'm not sure whats going on here, but right off the bat, it seems like only the values are being populated, not the visible text between the <option></option> tags

- Adam

Re: [atomicrabbit] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By Dave - May 6, 2009

Adam,

Are you using the latest version? The query may require two values (one for "value" and one for "label" in the pulldown). Try this:

Query: SELECT state, state FROM cms_states WHERE country = '<?php echo $ESCAPED_FILTER_VALUE ?>'

Let me know if that fixes it.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By atomicrabbit - May 6, 2009

The query may require two values (one for "value" and one for "label" in the pulldown)
yeah thats what I was thinking

Try this:

Query: SELECT state, state FROM cms_states WHERE country = '<?php echo $ESCAPED_FILTER_VALUE ?>'

that worked like a charm, dave. Thanks!!!! [:)]

Re: [Dave] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By atomicrabbit - May 8, 2009 - edited: May 8, 2009

is there an easy way to input the province/state entries into the database without having to do each one manually?

Can I just use a MySQL insert statement in a php page??

Re: [atomicrabbit] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By Dave - May 8, 2009

Yea, absolutely. You can insert multiple records with one query in MySQL like this:
INSERT INTO tbl_name (a,b,c) VALUES(1,2,3),(4,5,6),(7,8,9);
See: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert.html

So in a PHP page (or phpMyAdmin, etc) that would be something like this:

$query = "INSERT INTO cms_states (states) VALUES
('British Columbia'),
('Alberta'),
('etc')";

mysql_query($query) or die("MySQL Error: " .mysql_error(). " with query $query\n");

Note that the last entry has no trailing comma.

Hope that helps!
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] populate list field based on another list field's selection

By atomicrabbit - May 9, 2009

Yes, I know MySQL syntax, I just wasn't sure if I could use it with the CMS backend. That's all I needed to know.

Thanks Dave.