Drop down menu help

X82 · 22 Jun 2013 at 20:28

Hi guys

I'm sure this is a simple one, but I'm baffled by it.
Basically using Dreamweaver, I create a drop down menu of 5 locations.
But I want it so when I choose a location, drop down menu 2 will then populate with information. For example, I pick Male and the second drop down will populate with a list, 100+, names. When I click on a name I can click go and it will load a webpage I set.

To add to this, if the above is possible, is it also possible that when I choose a name, say Male/David, that information would appear below the choice? So like Male/David, This guy was born etc... Pulling the information from a spreadsheet or database?

Can the above be done? Sorry if I explained it badly.

visibleman · 23 Jun 2013 at 12:43

Javascript or jQuery will do what you want.

roger that · 23 Jun 2013 at 14:41

As Javascript is client-side in the browser you will need a server-side solution to open files from the web server or database.

JimAroo · 23 Jun 2013 at 14:49

jQuery is the tool for the job.

.change() and .ajax() will do this for you.

visibleman · 23 Jun 2013 at 15:11

Missed the bit about DB; as Roger mentioned, you'll need to use a server-side language to pull data from a database. The opensource solution tends to be PHP and MySQL for the DB.
Couple that with jQuery and AJAX (to handle parsing data between the server-side script and the browser) and it'll make a decent solution.

Plenty of tutorials around, so it's worth having a Google.

cypto · 24 Jun 2013 at 10:45

Rustled this up for you quickly, As others have said you'll need Ajax to load in the database stuff. That is just an example of a simple toggle dropdown menu which makes navigating complex dropdowns much easier. You just need to repeat the concept for the 2nd dropdown + ajax data along with adding a few lines to hide the dropdown if not active.

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/HzbdK