I agree. You would need to write some AJAX code on the page that communicates with a separate php file. The php file could send data back to your page without reloading it. I was just working on something very similar this morning.
Something like this might work for you...
On the page with the select element:
<script type="text/javascript">
function doSomethingOnServer(){
if(window.XMLHttpRequest){
//code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Safari
xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else{
xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function(){
if(xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200){
document.getElementById("my_paragraph").innerHTML = xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET", "do-something.php, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
<select id = "my_select" onChange = "doSomethingOnServer()">...</select>
<p id="my_paragraph"></p>
On a separate php file named do-something.php:
<?php
//do something
$user_asking = $username;
echo("Write out data that you want to sent back as responseText here. i.e., user asking = $user_asking");
?>
