Member Avatar for printsmarter

we've got an issue on our new test site that i'd like you to be able to solve;

we have product pages; example page:
http://www.printsmarter.co.uk/newPrinttest/34-Brochures.html

there is a selection of menus on the screen that you can change select different options to show you a price.

issue is as follows; i want to be able to create url's for every product in the database for google adword purposes; for example if they click on the google ad they come direct to the page/selection from the table/drop downs that is what they want. currently we have got as far as creating the below link;

this link will take you to the product, but the drop downs from the menus haven't changed, just the price and the quantity.

i need to know of a way of selecting from the database and it be able to change the drop downs from a specific url.

our problem is we need to populate a select option in order of the one we send.

possible?

hope that makes sense!

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  • 18 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by macneato

Dani AI

Generated

Short, practical plan to make ad URLs land on a product page with the dropdowns actually preselected.

As described, you want a single link a visitor can click from an ad that shows the exact options and price. is on the right track (read GET, pull DB values) — but do that with safer, modern patterns and one of two reliable flows: server-side render or client-side apply + trigger.

Server-side (best for ads/SEO)

  • Read and strictly validate GET params (cast IDs to integers; never interpolate raw strings).
  • Query options for that product with an ORDER BY column that defines display order.
  • Render the <option> elements so the matching option includes the selected attribute; output is the canonical state the page needs.
  • If price is calculated by JavaScript on change, run the same calculation on page load or ensure the page emits the same update after you set selected.

Client-side / AJAX (if options are built dynamically)

  • Parse the query string with URLSearchParams.
  • After the AJAX that populates the <select> completes, set select.value to the requested value and dispatch a change event so existing listeners recalc price:
    const params = new URLSearchParams(location.search);
const wanted = params.get('paper'); 
if (wanted) {
const sel = document.querySelector('select[name="paper"]');
if (sel) {
  sel.value = wanted;
  sel.dispatchEvent(new Event('change'));
}
}

Do this safely

  • Use prepared statements (PDO/mysqli) and map URL params to option IDs (not free-form labels).
  • Validate that the requested option exists for that product; if not, fall back to a default.
  • For Google Ads, decide if each variation should be indexed or use landing parameters + canonical to avoid duplicates.

These steps keep behavior deterministic (ads show the exact selection), avoid SQL injection, and ensure the UI actually updates to match the price shown.

Member Avatar for macneato

Ok I think im getting you. By default you already have all the information saved within your db im assuming.

So why don't you try something long these lines;

<?php

$recordId = $_GET['id'];

$query="SELECT * FROM products WHERE id='$recordId'";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$num=mysql_numrows($result); 
mysql_close();


	$i=0;
	while ($i < $num) {
	
	$f1=mysql_result($result,$i,"data");
	$f2=mysql_result($result,$i,"data2");
	$f3=mysql_result($result,$i,"data3");
	$f4=mysql_result($result,$i,"data4");


++$i;
} 

	if ( empty($f1) ) $f1 = "";

?>

<select id="item3" name="item3" value="<?php echo $f1; ?>">
    <option value="'170gsm matt'">170gsm matt</option>
    <option value="'150gsm gloss'">150gsm gloss</option>
    <option value="'130gsm gloss'">130gsm gloss</option>
</select>
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