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[jquery] Populate select box from external file?

Asked by Axel,

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Grand Master

Axel

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Hi all,

I suspect what I'm trying to achieve is relatively simple to some of you experts but I'm stumped.

I want to create a CSV file with a bunch of addresses. The address will be in one column, and the corresponding google maps link in the column next to it.

I then want to populate an option box with the addresses. Then have the relevant google maps link fill a text box below the address that has been selected.

Does this make sense?

Many thanks,

Alex

9 answers to this question

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Grand Master

lnmnky

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Look up the $.load() in query. That can reference an external file.

Or just $.ajax() and then manipulate the results. Split the string on the comma.

You might be better off with a proper XML file, as it might be easier to grab the nodes. Then you don't have to worry about the NewLines and commas.

Any reason it's a CSV?

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Grand Master

Axel

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  On 20/05/2013 at 17:36, lunamonkey said:

Any reason it's a CSV?

Only to make it easier for the people in the office to edit the value's if and when they change. I'm definitely not a pro with this stuff so my solution may be a bit arse about face.

I'm trying to create a form to stick on the company's web portal. The idea is that the user (in the office) can fill in the fields which then get loaded into a standard email template and then sent to the client in a standard email format.

i.e.

Hi NAME,

Your appointment is booked on DATE at TIME at LOCATION. etc.

It's all manual at the moment so it's a bit of a nightmare. Anything to streamline to operations!

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Grand Master

threetonesun

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Posted
  On 20/05/2013 at 17:22, Axel said:

I want to create a CSV file with a bunch of addresses. The address will be in one column, and the corresponding google maps link in the column next to it.

Really? You really want to do this? :laugh:

Sounds like the perfect place to use a database of some sort, be it XML or SQL of some sort. I think, based on your use case, you'll get a very nice implementation up and running with a CSV list, and then someone will ask for a change and it will be a right pain to fix it.

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SinsOfCube

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Posted

Instead of CSV or XML you could use JSON, it's very similar to CSV, but a lot easier to work with in javascript.

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Untitled Document</title>
&lt;script src="jquery-2.0.0.min.js"></script>;script&gt;
//Global variable with some example json entries
var jsondata = [
	{"address":"Some address 1","link":"http://maps.google.com/1"},
	{"address":"Some address 2","link":"http://maps.google.com/2"}
];

$(function(){
	 //Use Jquery's getJSON, it automaticly parses the data into a usable json object
	 $.getJSON( 'file.json', function( data ){
		  //Put the retreived json in the global variable
		  jsondata = data;

		  var mySelect = $('#address');

		  //Go through each object in the jsondata
		  $.each( jsondata, function( index, row ){
			  //The array index as a value of the option
			  mySelect.append( $( '&lt;option&gt;&lt;/option&gt;' ).val( index ).html( row.address ) );
		   });
	 });

	$('#address').change( function(){
		//Get the array index from the select element and use it with the json array
		$('#link').val( jsondata[ $(this).val() ].link );
	});
});
&lt;/script&gt;
&lt;/head&gt;
&lt;body&gt;
&lt;select id="address" name="test"&gt;&lt;option disabled&gt;Select Address&lt;/option&gt;&lt;/select&gt;
&lt;input type="text" id="link"&gt;
&lt;/body&gt;
&lt;/html&gt;

More info on json: http://json.org/example.html

The contents of file.json should be as followed:

[
	{"address":"Some address 1","link":"http://maps.google.com/1"},
	{"address":"Some address 2","link":"http://maps.google.com/2"},
    {"address":"Some address 3","link":"http://maps.google.com/3"}
]

  • Axel and lnmnky
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killerninja

Posted
Posted
  On 20/05/2013 at 17:22, Axel said:

Hi all,

I suspect what I'm trying to achieve is relatively simple to some of you experts but I'm stumped.

I want to create a CSV file with a bunch of addresses. The address will be in one column, and the corresponding google maps link in the column next to it.

I then want to populate an option box with the addresses. Then have the relevant google maps link fill a text box below the address that has been selected.

Does this make sense?

Many thanks,

Alex

Just go to settings, click on file type, look at CSV and then punt a dog in the vagina

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Grand Master

Axel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for all the responses. I really like the JSON idea SinsOfCube. For the time being I've just solved it by loading a bunch of addresses from a .txt file and then just generating a google maps link. Dirty solution I know but it seems to work:

&lt;label&gt;Location
&lt;span class="small"&gt;Please select the location&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/label&gt;
&lt;select name="location" id="location" &gt;
&lt;?php
$locationlist = file('locationlist.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES);
foreach ($locationlist as $value) {
echo "\n";
echo '&lt;option value="'.$value.'"&gt;'.$value.'&lt;/option&gt;';
echo "\n";
}
?&gt;
&lt;/select&gt;


$maplink = 'https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q='.str_replace, "+", $location);

This: 

10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA

Becomes: 

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?qA&hl=en&=10+Downing+Street,+London,+SW1A+2AA

If these methods end up failing me then I suppose I'll have to resort to killerninja's advice and punt a dog in the vagina.

  • killerninja
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Grand Master

lnmnky

Posted
Posted

Sins has totally just built what I was going to build after I got back from the tip. (But I was going to go longhand with CSV.)

Does the quick-select statement function as expected? Isn't this too shallow to find the correct item?

jsondata[ $(this).val() ].link

Doesn't that expect a one dimensional object? Where-as yours is two objects deep. (I haven't tried it...)

Anyway, dinner time.

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SinsOfCube

Posted
Posted

jsondata is an array which holds the objects containing the address and google maps link properties. So jsondata[ x ] returns an object and with the ".propertyName" after it, you get the property value, which is the 2nd dimension. You could also write it as "jsondata[ $(this).val() ][ 'link' ]", which makes it more noticable that it has 2 dimensions.

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