Question

I’m using CakePHP 2.2. I’m adapting a method of dynamically updating a selectbox which I got from: http://www.willis-owen.co.uk/2011/11/dynamic-select-box-with-cakephp-2-0/#comment-10773 which works without issue. It updates the ‘hotels’ selectbox contents when the users selects a ‘region’ from another select box.

On the same form, I want to automatically populate multiple ‘team’ fields with address details from the ‘hotels’ model when a user selects a ‘hotel’ from the selectbox.

The user can then modify the address … all of this before the user clicks submit on the ‘team’ add view.

In Team\add.ctp view I have the following code:

    echo "<div id='address'>";
    echo $this->Form->input('address_1');
    echo $this->Form->input('address_2');
    echo $this->Form->input('address_3');
    echo $this->Form->input('city');
    echo $this->Form->input('postcode');
    echo $this->Form->input('country');
    echo "</div>";

…

    $this->Js->get('#TeamHotelId')->event('change',
        $this->Js->request(array(
            'controller'=>'hotels',
            'action'=>'getAddress'
            ), array(
            'update'=> '#address',
            'async' => true,
            'method' => 'post',
            'dataExpression' => true,
            'data'=> $this->Js->serializeForm(array(
                'isForm' => true,
                'inline' => true))
                        )
        )
    );

In my HotelsController.php I have:

public function getAddress() {
    $hotel_id = $this->request->data['Team']['hotel_id'];
    CakeLog::write('debug', print_r($hotel_id, true));
    $address = $this->Hotel->find('first', array(
            'recursive' => -1,
            'fields' => array('hotel.address_1', 'hotel.address_2', 'hotel.address_3', 'hotel.city', 'hotel.postcode', 'hotel.country'),
            'conditions' => array('Hotel.id' => $hotel_id)
            ));
    CakeLog::write('debug', print_r($address, true));
    $this->set('hotels', $address);
    $this->set(compact('address'));
    $this->layout = 'ajax';
}   

hotels\get_address.ctp:

    <?php 
        echo $this->Form->input('Team.address_1', array('value'=> $address['Hotel']['address_1']));
        echo $this->Form->input('Team.address_2', array('value'=> $address['Hotel']['address_2']));
        echo $this->Form->input('Team.address_3', array('value'=> $address['Hotel']['address_3']));
        echo $this->Form->input('Team.city', array('value'=> $address['Hotel']['city']));
        echo $this->Form->input('Team.postcode', array('value'=> $address['Hotel']['postcode']));
        echo $this->Form->input('Team.country', array('value'=> $address['Hotel']['country'])); ?>

This now works and the code has been updated.

Answer 1

You can not do in that way as you are trying to accomplish. However, there is a way in which you can update as you want by passing an id from dropdown using ajax and populating all the other fields on the basis of that id. Please make sure in 'update'=>#id you should put the div id of a div containing all the fields you want to show on the page where you want your contents to appear on ajax request.

Note: Please follow the Richard link which you have given i.e. http://www.willis-owen.co.uk, it will definitely help you that you are trying to do.