Automatic Form Fill-in with ASP

[writhe]

I'm doing a form in HTML that is automatically filled in for the customer, by way of hidden form fields on another page. I'm doing it like this:

<input type="text" name="fname" value="<%= strFirstName %>">

That works great for all the text fields, but I'm not sure how to do it for a select field, which I'm using for the customer to choose which state they are from. Code is like so:

<select class="fielder" name="bill[state]">
<option value="AK">AK</option>
<option value="AL">AL</option>
<option value="AR">AR</option>
...
<option value="WI">WI</option>
<option value="WV">WV</option>
<option value="WY">WY</option>
</select>

I want the form to automatically select whichever state I tell it to, based on the hidden fields. Has anyone done this before?

[moospot]

So, you want it automatically selected based on the user information, but the user can still select another state from the drop down menu if he/she decides to change it?

[writhe]

moospot-

Exactly.

Basically, I'd like to set my form up so that the user won't have to fill in any information, unless they want to or some of the info is wrong.

[iTec]

State=bill("state") %>

<select class="fielder" name="bill[state]">
<option value="AK"<% if state="AK" then response.write " selected"%> > AK</option>
<option value="AL"<% if state="AL" then response.write " selected"%> > AL</option>
<option value="AR"<% if state="AK" then response.write " selected"%> > AK</option>
...
<option value="WI"<% if state="WI" then response.write " selected"%> > WI</option>
<option value="WV"<% if state="WV" then response.write " selected"%> > WV</option>
<option value="WY"<% if state="WY" then response.write " selected"%> > WY</option>
</select>

[writhe]

iTec-

Beautiful. Thanks.

[Jeremy W.]

I would do it slightly more efficiently (skipping in and out of ASP mode is slower):

Something kinda like this:

<%
dim a(5)
a(0)="AK"
a(1)="AL"
a(2)="AR"
a(3)="WI"
a(4)="WV"
a(5)="WY"

State=bill("state") 

mess="<select class=""fielder"" name=""bill[state]"">
for i=0 to 5
	if State=a(i) then
		selected="selected"
	else
		selected=""
	end if
	mess=mess & "<option value=""" & a(i) & """ " & selected & ">" & a(i) & "</option>"
next
mess=mess & "</select>"
response.write mess
%>

[iTec]

no worries writhe.

yer Jerermy, i agree, but it was the firth thing that poped into my little head

[Jeremy W.]

No worries, just figured I'd help out a touch. Your code would have worked, I've just been learning more about optimization recently, hence my rewrite

[writhe]

Jeremy-

I'm gonna test this out in a bit. Thanks for your input ... it looks a lot faster. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Jeremy W.]

Great, have fun and good luck!

What we actually do is have a database, it's even better

[writhe]

Jeremy-

It works fantastically. I've got one question, however. Is there a way to put in a new line character so my HTML code is a little easier to read? More simply, how do you put in a new line character? \n doesn't seem to work.

[writhe]

Jeremy-

Never mind ... I found it on MSDN: VbCrLf.

Thanks anyway.

[westmich]

Forgive my ignorance, but this seems rather complicated and a lot additional proccessing. What about...

<select name="states">
<%
selectedState = some value

If Len(selectedState) > 0 Then
  Response.Write("<option value='" & selectedState & "'")
End If
%>
<option value="AL">
<option value="AK">
-------
</select>

The dynamic value is simply appended to the top of the normal select list.

[writhe]

westmich-

The thing that makes Jeremy's code nice is that the selected state is in sequence with the alphabetical list of states. If I understand your code correctly, the selected state comes before the rest of the states. If, for example, the selected state is TX, it will come before AK in an alphabetical list.

[Jeremy W.]

We've wrestled with this, and in terms of usability and clarity it really is best to do the "extra processing" which in reality isn't really extra processing because:

-There's no response buffer
-You're not switching modes

Couple of extra lines perhaps, but unnoticeable if there is a tiny slowdown.