Moving items between listboxes in ASP.net/PHP example

Ever wanted to move items between two listboxes in ASP.net (or PHP for that matter)?



Someone wanted the exact same thing on codeproject.com a while ago but I didn't give much thought to it, until someone at work asked me how to do it - since he wasn't able to find a viable solution on the internet.

The solution I scripted wasn't as simple as I thought, nor would have liked it to be, my feeling was that one would be able to alter the two listboxes easily using javascript and simply "harvest" the changes (from the Request variables) when its submitted to the server.

The reality however is that only items selected(or highlighted) in the listboxes, will be returned to the server, not the state of the listboxes - so we need to somehow send the state of the listboxes along with the page request.

What I did was, I wrote a javascript script, that serialized the contents of the listboxes as xml to a hiddenfield on the page - whenever you submit the form to the server, a xml string containing the state of the listboxes get sent along - which one can easily process server side (which I will show you just in a while).

You can download the full working source code here, contains sources for ASP.net(C# & VB.NET) and PHP source code.

 
function move(fromID, toID, containerID)
{
    var from = document.getElementById(fromID);
    var to = document.getElementById(toID);
 
    for (var i = 0; i < from.options.length; i++)
    {
        if (from.options[i].selected)
        {					
            to.options.add(new Option(from.options[i].text,from.options[i].value))
            from.remove(i--);
        }
    }
 
    var container = document.getElementById(containerID);	
    container.value = escape("<listboxes>" + serialize(from) + serialize(to) + "</listboxes>");
}
 
function serialize(dropdown)
{	
    var value = '<' + dropdown.id + '>';	
    for (var i = 0; i < dropdown.options.length; i++)
    {
        value+= '<option><key><![CDATA[' + dropdown.options[i].text + ']]></key><value><![CDATA[' + dropdown.options[i].value + ']]></value></option>';
    }
    value+='</' + dropdown.id + '>';
    return value
}
 
function unselect(listbox)
{
    document.getElementById(listbox).selectedIndex=-1;
}
 


Tying it all together (javascript with some .net code), you can easily write yourself an usercontrol, like I did in my example, or create a composite control.

The .net code below is pretty straighforward, you'll noticed two publicly exposed ListBox properties (lstFrom, lstTo), giving us easy access to the listboxes.

If you really need to, you can easily add third, forth listboxes (with slight changes to the javascript code)

The PHP code is quite a bit more involved, I had to create a few classes that give similiar control of what you would expect from an ASP.NET server side control. There is a lot easier ways to do this, but I believe this is a fairly manageable approach.

C#

 
using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Xml;
 
public partial class ListPicker : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
    private XmlDocument _xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
 
    public ListBox fromListBox
    {
        get
        {
            return lstFrom;
        }
    }
 
    public ListBox toListBox
    {
        get
        {
            return lstTo;
        }
    }
 
    private void PopulateListBox(ListBox listBox)
    {
        listBox.Items.Clear();
        XmlNodeList nodes = _xmlDocument.SelectNodes("listboxes/" + listBox.ClientID + "/option");
        foreach (XmlNode node in nodes)
        {
            listBox.Items.Add(new ListItem(node["key"].InnerText, node["value"].InnerText));
        }
    }
 
    private void PopulateListBoxes()
    {        
        _xmlDocument.LoadXml(HttpUtility.UrlDecode(hdnDropdowns.Value));
        PopulateListBox(lstFrom);
        PopulateListBox(lstTo);
    }
 
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("listboxjs", Page.TemplateSourceDirectory + "/js/listbox.js");
 
        if (!IsPostBack)
        {
            String movejs = "move('{0}','{1}','{2}')";
            String unselectjs = "unselect('{0}')";
            lstFrom.Attributes["onclick"] = String.Format(unselectjs, lstTo.ClientID);
            lstTo.Attributes["onclick"] = String.Format(unselectjs, lstFrom.ClientID);
            btnTo.Attributes["onclick"] = String.Format(movejs, lstFrom.ClientID, lstTo.ClientID, hdnDropdowns.ClientID);
            btnFrom.Attributes["onclick"] = String.Format(movejs, lstTo.ClientID, lstFrom.ClientID, hdnDropdowns.ClientID);
        }
        else
        {
            if (!(String.IsNullOrEmpty(hdnDropdowns.Value)))
            {
                PopulateListBoxes();
            }
        }
    }
}
 

VB.net

 
Imports System.Xml
 
Partial Class ListPicker
    Inherits System.Web.UI.UserControl
 
    Private _xmlDocument As New XmlDocument()
 
    Public ReadOnly Property fromListBox() As ListBox
        Get
            Return lstFrom
        End Get
    End Property
 
    Public ReadOnly Property toListBox() As ListBox
        Get
            Return lstTo
        End Get
    End Property
 
    Private Sub PopulateListBox(ByVal lstBox As ListBox)
        lstBox.Items.Clear()
        Dim nodes As XmlNodeList = _xmlDocument.SelectNodes("listboxes/" + lstBox.ClientID + "/option")
        For Each node As XmlNode In nodes
            lstBox.Items.Add(New ListItem(node.Item("key").InnerText, node.Item("value").InnerText))
        Next
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub PopulateListBoxes()
        _xmlDocument.LoadXml(HttpUtility.UrlDecode(hdnDropdowns.Value))
        PopulateListBox(lstFrom)
        PopulateListBox(lstTo)
    End Sub
 
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("listboxjs", Page.TemplateSourceDirectory & "/js/listbox.js")
 
        If Not IsPostBack Then
            Dim movejs As String = "move('{0}','{1}','{2}')"
            Dim unselectjs As String = "unselect('{0}')"
 
            lstFrom.Attributes("onclick") = String.Format(unselectjs, lstTo.ClientID)
            lstTo.Attributes("onclick") = String.Format(unselectjs, lstFrom.ClientID)
            btnTo.Attributes("onclick") = String.Format(movejs, lstFrom.ClientID, lstTo.ClientID, hdnDropdowns.ClientID)
            btnFrom.Attributes("onclick") = String.Format(movejs, lstTo.ClientID, lstFrom.ClientID, hdnDropdowns.ClientID)
        Else
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(hdnDropdowns.Value) Then
                PopulateListBoxes()
            End If
        End If
    End Sub
End Class
 

PHP

 
<?php
 
require_once("controls.php");
require_once("listbox.php");
 
class listpicker extends controls
{
    var $lstFrom;
    var $lstTo;
    var $deserializable;
 
    function listpicker($id)
    {
        $this->attributes['id'] = $id;
        $this->lstFrom = new listbox($id.'_lstFrom');
        $this->lstFrom->attributes['style'] = 'width:200px';
        $this->lstFrom->attributes['onclick'] = "unselect('".$id."_lstTo')";	
        $this->lstTo = new listbox($id.'_lstTo');
        $this->lstTo->attributes['style'] = 'width:200px';
        $this->lstTo->attributes['onclick'] = "unselect('".$id."_lstFrom')";
 
        if ($_REQUEST[$id.'$hdnDropdowns'])
        {
            $this->deserializable = true;
            $this->xml(urldecode($_REQUEST[$id.'$hdnDropdowns']));			
        }	
    }
 
    function render()
    {	
    $id = $this->attributes['id'];
    $html='<table>
                <tr>
                    <td>'
                        .$this->lstFrom->render().
                    '</td>
                    <td>
                        <input id="btnTo" type="button" value=">>" onclick="move(\''.$id.'_lstFrom\',\''.$id.'_lstTo\',\''.$id.'_hdnDropdowns\')" />
                            <br />
                        <input id="btnFrom" type="button" value="<<" onclick="move(\''.$id.'_lstTo\',\''.$id.'_lstFrom\',\''.$id.'_hdnDropdowns\')" />
                    </td>
                    <td>'		
                        .$this->lstTo->render().
                    '</td>
                </tr>
            </table>
	        <input type="hidden" ID="'.$id.'_hdnDropdowns" name="'.$id.'$hdnDropdowns" />';		
    return $html;
    }
 
    function xml($text) 
    {		
        $id = $this->attributes['id'];
        $parser = xml_parser_create();
        xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $text, $vals);
        xml_parser_free($parser);
        $tag = "";
 
        for($i = 0; $i < count($vals); $i++)
        {	
            switch($vals[$i]['tag'])
            {
                case strtoupper($id.'_lstFrom') : $tag = "lstFrom";	break;
                case strtoupper($id.'_lstTo') : $tag = "lstTo";	break;
            }
 
            if (($tag) && ($vals[$i]['tag'] == "KEY"))
            {
                $this->{$tag}->addItem($vals[$i]['value'], $vals[$i+1]['value']);					
            }
        }
    }
}
 
?>
 






Comments

php tag

try replacing <?=$picker->render(); ?> with <?php echo $picker->render(); ?> on the index.php page


Hmmm

render(); ?>, this is all i see when i run the index.php


Reason

Thank you for the feedback. This is actually by design. I went on the assumption that if no xml are available it means the user didnt alter anything to the lists - hence no editing happend - in turn no update needed. But I can understand that it might be required to pass it either way in certain cases. (But generally one can simply return the original values from the db either way - if needed)


Need an onload serialize function

One thing I noticed that I had to do to get this working for me was that if the user does not touch the list you do not setup the xml. You only do this when they move an item. This is OK if it is a new form but if you are using this on say an edit feature it shows nothing once they submit the form under values. I just did a function that called your serialize function and did an onload call. This is under PHP BTW. Otherwise it is a great script!


Thanks

The code was really helpful and I could skip writing this functionality. Thanks - Madhu G


Error

Please help! Invalid Callback or post back error


XML already parsed

Hi Ken Sorry I've only noticed your comment just now. You wont need to deserialize the xml content yourself, the class already takes care of it, you'll notice two properties, lstFrom and lstTo they contain the items (plus updated items from the post request already deserialized for you) If you post to another form, you simply need to instantiate the class on the page (with the same id) eg. $picker = new listpicker("picker"); And simply iterate through the items. eg foreach($picker->lstFrom as $key=>$value) { } foreach($picker->lstTo as $key=>$value) { } Let me know if you've got any questions?


XML ignorant

Hi, Matt- I've downloaded you code and tried it and I can see where it works, but I'm stuck when it comes to the XML output. I'm working in PHP, and although I know it's terribly 20th Century of me, I've never used any XML, and when I look at the dozens of XML functions in the PHP manual I don't know where to start. In my application, I'll have a table of items with a serial number, a human-readable name and a status code (active=1, inactive=0). I can see from your sample how to load the listboxes. I want the operator to be able to move objects from the active to the inactive side and vise versa, and get back a set of arrays containing the serial numbers of the now active and inactive items so I can update the database. I'm sure I can derive this info somehow from the XML string you are returning into $_POST, but I'm having trouble getting this. If you could suggest one or two functions which are going to put me on the right road here, I'd appreciate it.


demo works

Hi Klaus, just remove the / from the link to the javascript. It is not loaded. Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("listboxjs", Page.TemplateSourceDirectory + "js/listbox.js"); Cheers, Chris


Hey Bas Seems like I made a little mistake in my php demo as well, sigh hahha, change render(); ?> to render(); ?>, helps to sometimes test demo code, I made the adjustment in the code in the download quickly as well (else nothing will display) I am guessing that your error reporting is set to display all errors? Including non defined variables? In this case that Request wont be set since its not been posted yet, hence the not being defined. Adding error_reporting(5); should hide that error, but a more more gracious approach will be to actually test if the Request on line 22 is set: if (isset($_REQUEST[$id.'$hdnDropdowns'])) { if ($_REQUEST[$id.'$hdnDropdowns']) { $this->deserializable = true; $this->xml(urldecode($_REQUEST[$id.'$hdnDropdowns'])); } }


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