Is it Possible to Append Variables to a Query String?

[nbomike]

I am trying to integrate a custom page into a shopping cart app written in PHP. The custom page is basically a part finder widget that helps customers find a car part based on the car's make, model, year, etc. This custom page has a form that submits the page to itself. It does this because I have four drop down menus, and the data in each following drop down is dependent on the previous selection. Since there was so much data, I didn't want to preload the page using Javascript. Instead, I did everything in PHP and just had the form submit to itself every time a drop down selection is made like this:

[HTML]<select name="carmake" onchange="this.form.submit()">[/HTML]

When I run this widget independently, it works. However, when I try to integrate it into the shopping cart, I run into problems because custom pages must be accessed through a "target" variable in the query string of the URL like this:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?target=custompage

When I submit the form, instead of going to this page:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?targ...age&make=honda

It goes to this page:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?make=honda

In other words, the page is reloading to the index page, instead of to my custom page. So my question is this: Is it possible to reload to a URL that has a query string appended to it, and then add new variables to the query string when the page submits to itself?

The interesting thing is that when I type the whole URL directly into the address bar, the page works. I just can't accomplish this same behavior through the select lists.

I've been looking all over, and I haven't found anything helpful. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[nbomike]

I am trying to integrate a custom page into a shopping cart app written in PHP. The custom page is basically a part finder widget that helps customers find a car part based on the car's make, model, year, etc. This custom page has a form that submits the page to itself. It does this because I have four drop down menus, and the data in each following drop down is dependent on the previous selection. Since there was so much data, I didn't want to preload the page using Javascript. Instead, I did everything in PHP and just had the form submit to itself every time a drop down selection is made like this:

[HTML]<select name="carmake" onchange="this.form.submit()">[/HTML]

The "action" attribute of the form is set to submit to the current page.

When I run this widget independently, it works. However, when I try to integrate it into the shopping cart, I run into problems because custom pages must be accessed through a "target" variable in the query string of the URL like this:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?target=custompage

When I submit the form, instead of going to this page:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?targ...age&make=honda

It goes to this page:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?make=honda

In other words, the page is reloading to the index page, instead of to my custom page. So my question is this: Is it possible to reload to a URL that has a query string appended to it, and then add new variables to the query string when the page submits to itself? If it's possible, can somebody show me how to do this? I'm thinking that maybe my action attribute needs to be set to something different.

The interesting thing is that when I type the whole URL directly into the address bar, the page works. I just can't accomplish this same behavior through the select lists.

I've been looking all over, and I haven't found anything helpful. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Atli]

Hi.

You could add a hidden <input> element in your form, which contains the variable you need to pass.
Like so:

$targetValue = $_GET['target'];
echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"target\" value=\"$targetValue\" />";
 

Now, given that the form uses the GET method, the 'target' variable will be added to the url, along with it's old value and any other <input> elements that belong to the form.

[nbomike]

Hi.

You could add a hidden <input> element in your form, which contains the variable you need to pass.
Like so:

$targetValue = $_GET['target'];
echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"target\" value=\"$targetValue\" />";
 

Now, given that the form uses the GET method, the 'target' variable will be added to the url, along with it's old value and any other <input> elements that belong to the form.

Thanks for the response! I actually just found this out myself a little while ago. I changed the form method to POST, too. Thanks again.

[Atli]

Thanks for the response! I actually just found this out myself a little while ago. I changed the form method to POST, too. Thanks again.

I'm glad you found your answer.
Changing to POST is a very good idea!

Good luck and I hope I'll be seeing you around.

[pbmods]

Heya, Mike.

I'll go ahead and move your thread to the Forum where an Expert will be more likely to find it.

[pbmods]

Merged duplicate threads.