how to redirect to selected option

[lukkas]

I need a php redirect scrip to go to a particular state from a drop-down select
I want to use an array.
<?php
$states_arr = array('AL'=>"Alabama",'AK'=>"Alaska",'AZ'=>"Arizona",'AR'=>"Arkansas",'CA'=>"California",'CO'=>"Colorado",'CT'=>"Connecticut",'DE'=>"Delaware",'DC'=>"District Of Columbia",'FL'=>"Florida",'GA'=>......);
?>

Should I use this in the htmlpart?


<select name="states">
<option value="0">Choose a state</option>
<?php echo showOptionsDrop($states_arr); ?>
</select>

<input type="submit" value="Find">
</form>
or please advise..

Thanks

[crmalibu]

if (isset($_GET['states']) && isset($states_arr[$_GET['states']]) {
    header('Location: ' . $states_arr[$_GET['states']]);
    exit;
} 

[lukkas]

crmalibu,

I forgot to mention it will be on a parsed html page.

and I am not sure how to impliment what you suggest here?

Thanks

[Yesideez]

Forst let's build your HTML for the drop-down box (presuming $arrStates contains your list of states)

$htmStates='';
foreach ($arrStates as $abbrev => $state) {
  $htmStates.='<option value="'.$abbrev.'"'.($abbrev==$strState ? ' selected' : '').'>'.$state.'</option>';
} 

That will build all your HTML into the variable $htmStates. This also presumes that you've used $_POST to read the state from your form beforehand and uses it as a default value should the form have to be presented to the user again - it remembers what was chosen.

Let's say your form looks like this:

<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
State: <select name="state"><option value="XX">-- Choose --</option><?php echo $htmStates; ?></select><br>
<input type="submit" name="substates" value="Submit State">

Now, to detect the submit button and that the state is valid we can use this:

if (isset($_POST['substate'])&&$_POST['state']!='XX') {
  header('Location: '.$_POST['state'].'.html.');
  exit;
} 

Let's say you've chosen Alabama - it'll try and redirect to AL.html

Note the exit after the header() function - this is to make sure the script terminates after redirecting.

[TeNDoLLA]

Also don't use PHP_SELF, use $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] instead. PHP_SELF is vulnerable to attacks when not used correctly. With a little help of js you can also make your select to submit automatically and redirect by adding <select name="states" onchange="this.form.submit();">. Disadvantage in this is that if the user clicked wrong state then he would be immediately redirected to wrong page.

[lukkas]

Thanks Tendolla,

Yeah, I prefer a way that is not code heavy and now not as vulnerable.

Forgive me for asking but why can't it just be a short jump script with something I had above

[TeNDoLLA]

It can be no problems. I just brought up a another way for submit. The actual problem you had was with redirect right? That happens just the way crmalibu and Yesideez has shown above. Depending on the method you are using in your form (GET/POST).