update data using jquery

[semanticnotion]

I have a page that lists records from a database call. I want to have an 'edit' link on each row that will popup a Jquery dialog so that the row can be edited. My question is how do I pass the data from the selected row to the jquery dialog box so that it can be edited?
i have the code which open jquery popup but the textboxes are empty.

<div id="boxes">

<div id="dialog2" class="window">
<form method="post" action="update_books_a.php">
  <input name="name" type="text" value="<?php echo $ing['book_name']; ?>"/><br/>
  <input name="author" type="text" value="<?php echo $ing['author']; ?>"/>

    <input type="hidden" name="book_id" value="<?php print $ing['book_id'];?>" />
    <br/><br/>
<input type="submit" value="Update" class="close"/>
</form>
</div>

myphp code is

$select=mysql_query("select * from books where book_id='$book_id'") or die(mysql_error());
while($ing=mysql_fetch_array($select))
{
 ?>
<tr>
    <td><a href="#dialog2" name="modal"><?php echo $ing['book_name'];?></a></td>
    <td><?php echo $ing['author'];?></td></tr>
<?php
}
?>

and the java scipt is

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.pack.js"></script>
<script>

$(document).ready(function() {

	//select all the a tag with name equal to modal
	$('a[name=modal]').click(function(e) {
		//Cancel the link behavior
		e.preventDefault();

		//Get the A tag
		var id = $(this).attr('href');

		//Get the screen height and width
		var maskHeight = $(document).height();
		var maskWidth = $(window).width();

		//Set heigth and width to mask to fill up the whole screen
		$('#mask').css({'width':maskWidth,'height':maskHeight});

		//transition effect
		$('#mask').fadeIn(1000);
		$('#mask').fadeTo("slow",0.8);

		//Get the window height and width
		var winH = $(window).height();
		var winW = $(window).width();

		//Set the popup window to center
		$(id).css('top',  winH/2-$(id).height()/2);
		$(id).css('left', winW/2-$(id).width()/2);

		//transition effect
		$(id).fadeIn(2000);

	});

	//if close button is clicked
	$('.window .close').click(function (e) {
		//Cancel the link behavior
		e.preventDefault();

		$('#mask').hide();
		$('.window').hide();
	});

	//if mask is clicked
	$('#mask').click(function () {
		$(this).hide();
		$('.window').hide();
	});

});

</script>
<style type="text/css">
body {
font-family:verdana;
font-size:15px;
}

a {color:#333; text-decoration:none}
a:hover {color:#ccc; text-decoration:none}

#mask {
  position:absolute;
  left:0;
  top:0;
  z-index:9000;
  background-color:#000;
  display:none;
}

#boxes .window {
  position:absolute;
  left:0;
  top:0;
  width:440px;
  height:200px;
  display:none;
  z-index:9999;
  padding:20px;
}



#boxes #dialog2 {
  background:url(../images/notice.png) no-repeat 0 0 transparent;
  width:326px;
  height:229px;
  padding:50px 0 20px 25px;
}</style>

[Joseph Cobham]

you could use jquery to execute the php script and return values to a named div for example

the html code

Bla Bla Bla Title <br />
<div style="width:950px">
<div style="float:left; width:450px">
Your List of Book here
<div id="dialog2" class="window">
<form method="post" action="javascript: editBook();">
  <input name="name" type="text" value="<?php echo $ing['book_name']; ?>"/><br/>
  <input name="author" type="text" value="<?php echo $ing['author']; ?>"/>
 
    <input type="hidden" name="book_id" value="<?php print $ing['book_id'];?>" id="book_id" />
    <br/><br/>
<input type="submit" value="Update" class="close" onclick="javascript: editBook();"/>
</form>
</div>

<div style="float:left" id="showedit">
<!--your edit will show here-->
</div>
</div>

Note the form action attribute value well as well as the div id showedit and the hidden form field id book_id. your html ends here...


Now time for the javascript function

    <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
	   function editBook(){
	$("#showedit").html("Preparing Book Edit <br /><img src=\"images/load.gif\" />"); $.get("edit.php",{ cmd: "edit", b_id: $("#book_id").val() } ,function(data){  $("#showedit").html(data); });
	   }
	</script>

your javascript ends here...

Now the php file named edit.php should be on the same directory as your current page...

<?php

include 'my_database_connection_file or settings.php';

$b_id = mysql_real_escape_string($get['b_id']);

$select=mysql_query("select * from books where book_id='$b_id'") or die(mysql_error());
while($ing=mysql_fetch_array($select))
{
 ?>
<tr>
    <td><a href="#dialog2" name="modal"><?php echo $ing['book_name'];?></a></td>
    <td><?php echo $ing['author'];?></td></tr>
<?php
}
}

?>

this should work without reloading the page and if you run into error please let me know.