Forum OpenACS Q&A: select list populated from db and form templates

Hello, I'm having trouble working out how to do something which seems like it should be simple. I have a select list which is populated via a form template to the names of people in a db. I got the names from a db_list_of_list query and pass them to the form template which very nicely behind the scenes sets the value of the select option to the persons id and makes the persons name visible in the select list. The code is something like this:

        
#form template        
... set person_names [db_list_of_lists person_names_qry {        
			f_name  || ' ' || lname as name,        
			person_id        
			from person; ]]        
        
... template::element create person_form person_names -label "names"        
select -datatype text -options $person_names        
        
      
# this creates the form something like this:        
  < select name="person_names" > 
  < option value="3" selected="selected" > some name </ option 
> 
  < option value="18" > some other name </ option > 
</ select >      
 

That's all fine but I'm now having trouble working out how to get hold of the option value of the name chosen by the user from the drop down list, i.e. if they choose the first I want to grab the value 3 in the above example. Can it be done easily or am I going about it the wrong way. Any ideas gratefully received. Cheers Adam

Adam,

The value of the form element will be passed to the page specified int he forms ACTION attribute. You need to specify the variables you want to use in ad_page_contract in the target page.

The variable name is the same as the name of the form element you created. So your taget page would look like this:

ad_page_contract {
     desription of my page
} {
     person_names
     other_var_name
     ...
}

After ad_page_contract person_names would be set to the value of the item that was selected.

Adam,

The VALUE of the form element will be whatever is sepcified for the value attribute of the option that is selected. From the code you posted, the values are correct in the HTML code. All you need to do is used ad_page_contract which takes the query variables passed by the browser and sets Tcl variables with the same names in your Tcl page.

Please note, which you called the form element "person_names" the code you show has the value as the person_id of the person for each selection, not their name. The name is used for display in the select box only.