Question

jQuery plugin to organize 3 dropdown menus

Asked by: ussher

Im looking for a jQuery way to organize the contents of 3 dropdown menus.

each of the dropdown menus has a different list of characteristics.

MAKER             | MODEL            | TYPE
honda             xl            car
honda            at            car
honda            sx            bike
honda            tt            truck
mitsubishi      xl            truck
mistubishi      405            car
mitsubishi      at            bike


Once on item is selected from one list then the contents of the others are limited.  But selection can be made starting from any of the 3 lists.

So a user might start by selecting TYPE as 'car' then the contents of the other 2 lists would be limited to :

MAKER             | MODEL            | TYPE
honda             xl            car
honda            at            car
mistubishi      405            car

or they might start by selecting MAKER as 'honda' in which case the others would be limited to

MAKER             | MODEL            | TYPE
honda             xl            car
honda            at            car
honda            sx            bike
honda            tt            truck

or they might start by selecting MODEL as 'xl' in which case the others would be limited to

MAKER             | MODEL            | TYPE
honda             xl            cark
mitsubishi      xl            truck

Is there a plugin for jQuery that can handle this in this manner?

(The data is stored in a mysql database and the site is in php if this makes any difference.)

Thanks

---edit---
How I think it would work:
the values of the dropdown menu are populated by ajax that calls the database and requests all the values

MAKE
"SELECT make FROM `cars` WHERE 1 "

MODEL
"SELECT model FROM `cars` WHERE 1 "

TYPE
"SELECT type FROM `cars` WHERE 1 "

as each selection is selected the options for the remaining pages are re-requested.
MAKE
(honda selected)

MODEL
"SELECT model FROM `cars` WHERE make = 'honda' "

TYPE
"SELECT type FROM `cars` WHERE make = 'honda' "

Then on the next level
MAKE
(honda selected)

MODEL
(xl)

TYPE
"SELECT type FROM `cars` WHERE make = 'honda' AND MODEL = 'xl'

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Asked On
2009-07-23 at 00:30:28ID24593701
Tags

jquery

,

ajax

,

javascript

Topics

Jquery

,

JavaScript

,

Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX)

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: x_comPosted on 2009-07-24 at 00:51:53ID: 24932860

Hi ussher,
You may try this cascade JQuery plugin,  a lot of sample available for the usage of the plugin. The documentation also ready to check there
http://plugins.jquery.com/project/cascade

 

by: ussherPosted on 2009-07-24 at 03:42:36ID: 24933587

Hey x_com,

Yeah, i've been trying out different plugins all day.  I cant seam to find one that works like i want it to work.

The ones ive seen all seam to want to go PARENT->CHILD->YOUNGER CHILD.

but im looking for one that goes PARENT <-> PARENT <-> PARENT

eg most ive seen will happily do
SOLAR SYSTEM -> PLANET -> CONTINENT

but i want to be able to also select 'North America' as the first choice and have EARTH selected in the list before it too.

The concept being that there _might_ be other planets with the continent 'North America'' on them.


This one is close: http://jetlogs.org/jquery/jquery_list_filter_multiple.html
and tried for hours to get this one to work: http://remysharp.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/select-chain.php

I need it to start out with
(all car makers) | (all car models) | (all car types)

where there is the possibility that HONDA and MAZDA both make a model called the GTO and it is both possible to select HONDA from list one and have GTO left in list 3 OR to select GTO from list 3 and have HONDA and MAZDA left in list one.

This is what im looking for.  (and after todays search have pretty much given up hope of it existing.)

Thanks for the help.

 

by: hieloPosted on 2009-07-30 at 13:17:57ID: 24984001

You said:

>>they might start by selecting MAKER as 'honda' in which case the others would be limited to
 
MAKER             | MODEL            | TYPE
honda             xl            car
honda            at            car
honda            sx            bike
honda            tt            truck
 
 
If I understand you correctly, if my original options for maker are honda and mitsubishi and I first choose honda, then (from what you posted), my maker list no longer will show "mitsubishi". What if I accidentally choose honda. How then do I go about choosing mitsubishi?
 
It seems to me that if you choose honda, then you should narrow your list model AND type lists, but NOT your maker list. Is this acceptable?
                                              
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Select allOpen in new window

 

by: ussherPosted on 2009-07-30 at 19:20:43ID: 24986169

hino: "If I understand you correctly, if my original options for maker are honda and mitsubishi and I first choose honda, then (from what you posted), my maker list no longer will show "mitsubishi". What if I accidentally choose honda. How then do I go about choosing mitsubishi?"

if you select HONDA  then you are selecting from the makers list then the OTHER two columns change not the one your on.

MAKERS
honda
mitsubishi

TYPES:
car
truck

MODELS
sx
tl


honda car sx
mitsubishi car sx
mitsubishi truck tl

click on mitsubishi and the visible options would be
MAKERS
honda
mitsubishi

TYPES:
car
truck

MODELS
sx
tl

because mitsubishi has trucks and cars, it also has sx and tl's

click on honda and you would get
MAKERS
honda
mitsubishi

TYPES:
car

MODELS
sx

because honda doesnt have a truck or a tl.

I can see what your saying though i need to add a reset button.  but first i need the functionality before a reset button.

hielo: "It seems to me that if you choose honda, then you should narrow your list model AND type lists, but NOT your maker list. Is this acceptable?"  YES absolutely that is preferable.  sorry for not being clearer.

 

by: ussherPosted on 2009-09-20 at 23:12:54ID: 31606860

didnt find the solution i was looking for. not interested in it anymore. please close and split the points between everyone.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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