Dynamic Selection

[Yaik]

I know i probably gave the worst subject title ever, but bare with me here.
My knowledge in ajax is next to none, so I had to come to the experts.

I am attempting to do something kinda like this (

http://www.carparts.com/).

You see where in the top left there is a form where you have to put the year of the car, then the make, then model, etc... I am trying to do something like that.

I need someone (you guys) to point me in the right direction on how to accomplish this because I have no clue where to start. I do know, though, that this must require some type of ajax, since that is the reason I am posting here.

Any type of help would be great. Thanks.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

The flow is quite simple:

1) Start with no details selected
2) Modify details
3) Pass details to server
4) Pass back relevant content for current details
5) Populate drop-downs with relevant content
6) Either 'find my part' or go to step 2

You'll need to decide:

1) How you are going to send the details to the server - the page you gave as an example uses directory names in the URL, e.g.:

"/partfinder/submodel/year/1995/make/Ford/model/Escort"

But you could just as easily use common-or-garden URL parameters, e.g.:

"/partfinder?submodel=&year=1995&make=Ford&model=Escort"

2) How you are going to pass the content back to the browser - the page you gave as an example uses a pipe-delimited string, e.g.:

"Base|GT|LX|LX Sport"

But you could just as easily use XML instead, and parse it client-side.

Personally, I'd start with the server-side, as the server-side technologies you have available to you will probably drive 1), and 2) con be done in many ways. For this, I'd ask in the forum for whatever server-side technology you'll be using (ASP, .Net, PHP, JSP, etc).

Hope this helps,

Dan



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