Double Dropdown Sorting

Hi Again,

I have the dynamic drop down working from your example "How do I build a Double Drop-down in CFv5 " but the second drop down is not sorted(I have set the order by on the db read). Can this be fixed? Looks like the json_encode is meeing up the sorting.

Hi cymak,

The json_encode won't change the order of the array. More likely that the order by is working correctly. Have you checked the output to see if it is sorted?

Bob

Hi, Yeah its definately not sorting, here is the read setting

Model ID -> GetSchData

Fields -> ID,School_Name

Order -> School_Name ASC

and the code below

<?php
$options = array();
$options[''] = 'Select School';
foreach ( $form->data['GetSchData'] as $d ) {
    $options[$d['ID']] =  $d['School_Name'];
 };
$options['ZZZ'] = 'Not Listed, Add New School to List';
echo json_encode($options);
?>

the results are attached. Any ideas? Thanks

Hi cymak,

I don't understand what is happening here, it's possible to debug this but not easy to explain. By all means PM me the site URL, the form name, and a SuperAdmin login and I'll take a quick look.

Bob

Hi cymak,

Well, the data returned from the server is OK

{"":"Select School","12":"Carolan School of Irish Dancing","16":"Downey Crawley Sch of ID","14":"Kiernan School of Irish Dance","13":"Leonard School of irish Dance","32":"Mak School of ID","15":"O’Neill School of Irish Dancing","ZZZ":"Not Listed, Add New School to List"}

and it's still OK after json_decode

Array ( [] => Select School [12] => Carolan School of Irish Dancing [16] => Downey Crawley Sch of ID [14] => Kiernan School of Irish Dance [13] => Leonard School of irish Dance [32] => Mak School of ID [15] => O’Neill School of Irish Dancing [ZZZ] => Not Listed, Add New School to List )

so I guess that the problem is somewhere after that.

I'll dig a bit further later on.

Bob

Yeah its strange, The order is exactly the same as the Indexed primary ID field in the table. i.e if I select the last dropdown option and added a new school, it will appear at the bottom of the list and the 2 manually added array items(Select School and Not Listed, Add New School to List) always appears at the below that ??

In your example It looks ok after the json because there is no key in the array, if there was one it sorts it by the key instead, not sure why, anyway to get around that? how would I code it not to have to use json? Thanks

Hi cymak,

I dug some more into this and found that the problem is with the parseJSON() method that is used to un-pack the JSON array and convert it to options. This method is what is changing the order (actually it re-sorts in the order of the values). I have experimented with a structuring the JSON array differently, I got the school order right but the options and values were broken - the text came out like 19,Schoolname :-(

I think that the only answer is to replace some of that JavaScript but I haven't yet had time to look at it again.

Bob

Hi,

thanks, if you could have a look at it when you can, it doesn't make sense if a drop down can't be sorted alphabetically when it's a long list😟 will have to get you some beer if you can get it to work, thanks!!

Hi,

Any luck on getting the list sorted alphabetically? Thanks!

Hi cymak,

Still on the To-Do list . . .

Bob

Thanks !

Hi,

Can you give me a rough idea on time, suppose to launch this weekend, Thanks

HI cymak,

Sorry this has taken a while, I think I now have a method that works but it involves hacking the core CF code :-(

Open the file /administrator/components/com_chronoforms5/chronoforms/actions/html/html.php and look around line 665 for this block of code

					"success" : function(res){
						$.each($.parseJSON(res), function(id, val){
							'.$target_field.'.append(\'<option value="\'+id+\'">\'+value+\'</option>\');
						});
					},

Change the second and third lines so they are like this

					"success" : function(res){
						$.each($.parseJSON(res), function(id, option){
							'.$target_field.'.append(\'<option value="\'+option.key+\'">\'+option.text+\'</option>\');
						});
					},

NOTE!!! changing this will affect all dynamic drop-downs on the site and hence the corresponding Custom Code will need to be updated.

Edit the Custom Code in your Ajax event so that it is like this

<?php
$options = array();
$options[] = array('key' => '', 'text' => 'Select');
foreach ( $form->data['GetSchData'] as $d ) {
  $options[] = array('key' => $d['ID'], 'text' => $d['School_Name']);
 };
$options[] = array('key' => 'ZZZ', 'text' => 'Not Listed, Add New School to List');
echo json_encode($options);
?>

Instead of a simple array of key+text pairs this creates an array of arrays each of which has named key and text entries. The parseJSON() method in the JavaScript will then keep the original sort order,

Please check the various parameter names carefully, I used different names in my testing and may not have corrected them all here.

Bob

Hi,

That worked perfectly!! Six Pack on the way to you, Thanks!