Easiest way for clients to add select options in form

[onjegolders]

Scratching my head here. I'm trying to find a simple way for the client to be able to add options to a select tag in a form.

Do I really have to use pages here?

I can use a textarea - convert new lines to <li> tags but that won't cut it for <option> tags.

Repeater field? If that is the best option could anyone tell me how I would output the results as <li> tags?

Ideally it would be a fieldtype where each drop-down was some sort of item that I could loop in <option> tags.

Thanks

Edit: I've come up with this code for a repeater file and it seems to be doing the trick.

<?php
echo "<ul>";
foreach ($page->subject_options as $item) {
 echo "<li>$item->subject_option</li>";
}
echo "</ul>";
?>

I would be interested though if there was a faster or 'cleaner' way of doing this.

Edited April 9, 2012 by onjegolders

[Soma]

Pages are great for this. A recent new feature allows you to add pages in a page select, you can enable it in the fields input settings.

Using pages you could setup a section for the user to add pages used as options later, and even sort them in the tree. No need to even have a select page field on the page.

You could also just use that "section" and it's childs to output the options.

echo "<select name='myoptions'>";
foreach($pages->get("/myoptions/")->children() as $option){
   echo "<option value='$option->name'>$option->title</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

or if through a page select field "select_options" on page it would be

echo "<select name='myoptions'>";
foreach($pages->selet_options as $option){
   echo "<option value='$option->name'>$option->title</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

Other ways would be to have a textarea and each new line render as an option. Then the code would be like this:

in optionstext field:

Option1
Option2
Option3

echo "<select name='myoptions'>";
foreach(explode("\n",$page->optionstext) as $option){
   echo "<option value='$option'>$option</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

[diogo]

Again late

I buit a function for the newlines solution:

function newlinesToOption($field){
 $select = "<select>";
 foreach(explode("\n", $field) as $line){
$line = trim($line);
$lowerLine = strtolower($line);
$select .= "<option value='$lowerLine'>$line</option>";
 }
 $select .= "</select>";
 return $select;
}
echo newlinesToOption($page->yourField);

[onjegolders]

Wow thanks both of you!

Again late

I buit a function for the newlines solution:

function newlinesToOption($field){
 $select = "<select>";
 foreach(explode("\n", $field) as $line){
$line = trim($line);
$lowerLine = strtolower($line);
$select .= "<option value='$lowerLine'>$line</option>";
 }
 $select .= "</select>";
 return $select;
}
echo newlinesToOption($page->yourField);

Diogo, is this code that I can copy and paste into a new module?

Pages are great for this. A recent new feature allows you to add pages in a page select, you can enable it in the fields input settings.

Using pages you could setup a section for the user to add pages used as options later, and even sort them in the tree. No need to even have a select page field on the page.

You could also just use that "section" and it's childs to output the options.

echo "<select name='myoptions'>";
foreach($pages->get("/myoptions/")->children() as $option){
echo "<option value='$option->name'>$option->title</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

or if through a page select field "select_options" on page it would be

echo "<select name='myoptions'>";
foreach($pages->selet_options as $option){
echo "<option value='$option->name'>$option->title</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

Other ways would be to have a textarea and each new line render as an option. Then the code would be like this:

in optionstext field:

Option1
Option2
Option3

echo "<select name='myoptions'>";
foreach(explode("\n",$page->optionstext) as $option){
echo "<option value='$option'>$option</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

Soma, thanks, I do really want to use native PW functionality, I am just finding it really hard to get my head around the workflow in setting it all up.

Create template, add fields, disable editing of parent - I know it's like this at the beginning for everybody probably, but my head's in a spin!

There's lots of great documentation in the forums but the one thing I think is lacking is a real walkthrough - as much to see seasoned users' workflows as the code itself.

[diogo]

It makes more sense to keep the select tags outside the function, so you can control the attributes

new code goes like this:

function newLinesToOptions($field){
 $options = "";
 foreach(explode("\n", $field) as $line){
  $line = trim($line);
  $lowerLine = strtolower($line);
  $options .= "\t<option value='$lowerLine'>$line</option>\n";
 }
 return $options;
}?>

<select name="name">
<?php echo newLinesToOptions($page->yourField); ?>
</select>

edit:

Diogo, is this code that I can copy and paste into a new module?

No, this is only a normal function. If you have to use it more then once, put the function on an include file and call it with this part of the code:

<select name="name">
<?php echo newLinesToOptions($page->yourField); ?>
</select>

[onjegolders]

It makes more sense to keep the select tags outside the function, so you can control the attributes

new code goes like this:

function newLinesToOptions($field){
 $options = "";
 foreach(explode("\n", $field) as $line){
  $line = trim($line);
  $lowerLine = strtolower($line);
  $options .= "\t<option value='$lowerLine'>$line</option>\n";
 }
 return $options;
}?>

<select name="name">
<?php echo newLinesToOptions($page->yourField); ?>
</select>

edit:

No, this is only a normal function. If you have to use it more then once, put the function on an include file, and call it with this part of the code:

<select name="name">
<?php echo newLinesToOptions($page->yourField); ?>
</select>

OK thanks.