Coding Like Variables in Separate Fields

cbrendlinger,

Sounds interesting, but I don’t have enough information to give you a solution. My guess is that what you want to do is use the same field for both, but just restrict what the user can input into that field based on which form they are using. For that you will need to use a custom template that changes the presentation of the expertise field depending on which form is being shown. There are several ways to do that, you can do it with CSS or javascript or even alter the field object before it’s displayed.

xnau,

I have already created custom templates… One for basic which excludes the premium expertise field and one for premium that excludes the basic expertise field. Works beautifully with the exception of the full list of participants. I only want one column for expertise so I think I can just set the premium variable equal to the basic variable displaying then only the premium variable in the list, no?

Yes, you can do it that way, but you may find it’s easier to use only one field for both, as I suggested. If, for instance, a user went from basic to advanced, you wouldn’t have to change their data, it would already be where it needed to be.

OK… Either way I still could use a little help with the code. Let’s assume that I go with the CSS solution of modifying my custom template to display expertise depending on the current form. If I am going to seek a solution in this way, I need to know how to change the expertise form element type depending on the field group, right? Insight?

cbrendlinger,

Well, it’s all going to require a bit of know-how on your part. For me to go into detail, I’d need to know what kind of field you’re using for your expertise field.

You’ll need to set up a custom template for the basic form. Set up your expertise field to have all the options. Then in the template for your basic form, include CSS rules that hide the options you don’t want shown.

The form element for expertise in the basic form is dropdown/other and in the premium form it is multiselect/other. I already have the custom template in place. The fields are identical regarding the options that are displayed… I just want the basic form to allow for only one selection while the premium form allows for multiple… don’t really care how many. Thank you Roland.

cbrendlinger,

OK, this can’t be done with CSS. I suggest you use this code (which you may have to modify) to change the type of field based on the type of user. In your basic signup form template, right after the line that contains $this->the_field(); put something like this:

<?php
        if ($this->field->name == 'expertise') {
          $this->field->form_element = 'select-other';
          $value = implode( '', (array) $this->field->value );
          if ( empty( $value ) ) $this->field->value = '';
        }
?>

This changes the field type to a regular select-other that only allows one selection. If you are using the same template for both, you just need to add something to the first “if” statement that prevents this from executing for the advanced users.

xnau,
I cannot thank you enough. The solution worked perfectly and I was even able to modify the help text. Could not have done it without you… brilliant work around.