How to retain the value of dropdown list and checkboxes of a form

[Da-Omiete Iboroma]

Hello Everybody,

Please I am finding it difficult retaining the value of the select option and checkboxes when the information a user enters does not meet the validation. 

How to retain the value of dropdown list and checkboxes in my form?

<form class=\"form-horizontal\" method=\"post\" action=\"$PHP_SELF\" enctype=\"multipart/form-data\">

 <div class=\"form-group\">

               <label for=\"conference\" class=\"col-sm-3 control-label\">Conference</label>

                <div class=\"col-sm-9\">

                 <select class=\"form-control\" name=\"conference\" value=\"$_POST[conference]\">

                     <option>--- Select Conference ---</option>

                     <option>Marketing</option>

                    <option>Public Speaking</option>

                    <option>Construction</option>

                 </select>

                </div>

              </div>

<div class=\"form-group\">

               <label for=\"tech\" class=\"col-sm-3 control-label\">Technology Needs</label>

                <div class=\"col-sm-9\">

                     $display_technology_block

                </div>

              </div>

</form>

Please not where;

$display_technology_block .= "

<input type=\"checkbox\" value=\"$_POST[technology_display]\" name=\"tech[]\"> $_POST[technology_display]&nbsp;

";

Please assist.

Thanks

Damelinks

[Robert Gonzalez]

dropdown lists do not use a "value" attribute, they use <option> elements with value attributes and a selected state. To default a selection in a dropdown you simply have to add a 'selected' attribute to the option element you want selected.

<select name="my_dropdown_list" id="my_dropdown_list">

    <option value="0">-- No Value --</option>

    <option value="1">First</option>

    <option value="2">Second</option>

    <option value="3" selected="selected">Third</option>

    <option value="4">Fourth</option>

</select>

As far as checkboxes go, you use the "checked" attribute to default its checked state, like this:

<input type="checkbox" name="my_checkbox" checked="checked" />

Now when coupling this with your server side code, you just need to use the right conditional logic to get your markup to look like this. I would highly recommend NOT using your superglobal vars directly in your views like that. But I am sure you're only doing that for testing and development at the moment.

--

Robert Gonzalez