Auto populate Dropdown with jQuery AJAX in Laravel 9

Dropdown menus are a common element in web applications, it provides a list of options to choose from.

While dropdowns can be manually populated with a set of predefined options, it’s often more efficient to retrieve the options dynamically from a server. In this case, user is restricted to select an option from the dropdown. The list gets updated based on the parent element selection.

In this tutorial, I show how you can autopopulate dropdown with MySQL database data using jQuery AJAX in Laravel 9.

Auto populate Dropdown with jQuery AJAX in Laravel

Demo

Database Configuration
Create Tables
Model
Controller
Route
View
Demo
Conclusion

1. Database Configuration

Open .env file.

Specify the host, database name, username, and password.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=tutorial
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

2. Create Tables

Create departments and employees table using migration and add some records.

php artisan make:migration create_departments_table
php artisan make:migration create_employees_table

Now, navigate to database/migrations/ folder from the project root.
Find a PHP file that ends with create_departments_table and open it.
Define the table structure in the up() method.

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('departments', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Similarly, find a PHP file that ends with create_employees_table and open it.
Define the table structure in the up() method.

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('employees', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('username');
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('email');
        $table->integer('department');
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Run the migration –

php artisan migrate

The table is been created and I added some records in it.

3. Model

Create 2 Models –

Departments –

php artisan make:model Departments

Specify mass assignable Model attributes – name using the $fillable property.

Completed Code

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Departments extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = [
         'name'
    ];
}

Employees –

php artisan make:model Employees

Specify mass assignable Model attributes – username, name, email, and department using the $fillable property.

Completed Code

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Employees extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = [
         'username','name','email','department'
    ];
}

4. Controller

Create a DepartmentsController controller.

php artisan make:controller DepartmentsController

Create 2 methods –

index() – Fetch all records from the departments table and assign to $departments['data'].

Load index view and pass $departments.

getEmployees() – Using this method return dropdown data.

Fetch records from the employees table where department = $departmentid and assign to $empData['data'].

Return $empData in JSON format.

Completed Code

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\Departments;
use App\Models\Employees;

class DepartmentsController extends Controller {

    public function index(){

         // Fetch departments
         $departments['data'] = Departments::orderby("name","asc")
              ->select('id','name')
              ->get();

         // Load index view
         return view('index')->with("departments",$departments);
    }

    // Fetch records
    public function getEmployees($departmentid=0){

         // Fetch Employees by Departmentid
         $empData['data'] = Employees::orderby("name","asc")
              ->select('id','name')
              ->where('department',$departmentid)
              ->get();

         return response()->json($empData);

    }
}

5. Route

Open routes/web.php file.
Define 2 routes –
- / – Load index view.
- /getEmployees/{id} – This is use to send AJAX GET request to fetch department employees list.

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentsController;

Route::get('/', [DepartmentsController::class, 'index']);
Route::get('/getEmployees/{id}', [DepartmentsController::class, 'getEmployees']);

6. View

Create a new index.blade.php file in resources/views/ folder.

HTML –

Create two <select > elements –

The first <select > element is for departments. Loop on the $departments['data'] to add <option>.
The second <select > element is for employees. Data is loaded in this dropdown based on the department selection using jQuery AJAX.

jQuery –

Define on change event on the first dropdown.

Read selected value and assign to id variable. Empty the second dropdown except the first <option>.

Send AJAX GET request to 'getEmployees/' and also pass id value, set dataType: 'json'.

On successful callback check response length. If length is greater than 0 then loop on the response.

Create options and append in #sel_emp.

Completed Code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Auto populate Dropdown with jQuery AJAX in Laravel 9</title>
</head>
<body>

    <!-- Department Dropdown -->
    Department : <select id='sel_depart' name='sel_depart'>
        <option value='0'>-- Select department --</option>

        <!-- Read Departments -->
        @foreach($departments['data'] as $department)
            <option value='{{ $department->id }}'>{{ $department->name }}</option>
        @endforeach

    </select>

    <br><br>
    <!-- Department Employees Dropdown -->
    Employee : <select id='sel_emp' name='sel_emp'>
        <option value='0'>-- Select Employee --</option>
    </select>

    <!-- Script -->
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script type='text/javascript'>
    $(document).ready(function(){

        // Department Change
        $('#sel_depart').change(function(){

             // Department id
             var id = $(this).val();

             // Empty the dropdown
             $('#sel_emp').find('option').not(':first').remove();

             // AJAX request 
             $.ajax({
                 url: 'getEmployees/'+id,
                 type: 'get',
                 dataType: 'json',
                 success: function(response){

                     var len = 0;
                     if(response['data'] != null){
                          len = response['data'].length;
                     }

                     if(len > 0){
                          // Read data and create <option >
                          for(var i=0; i<len; i++){

                               var id = response['data'][i].id;
                               var name = response['data'][i].name;

                               var option = "<option value='"+id+"'>"+name+"</option>";

                               $("#sel_emp").append(option); 
                          }
                     }

                 }
             });
        });
    });
    </script>
</body>
</html>

7. Demo

View Demo

8. Conclusion

In the example, I dynamically populated data on a single dropdown but you can do this on more than one dropdown by following the same steps.

Use the same code if you are on Laravel 8.

You can also view this tutorial if you want to implement it using Livewire.

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Contents

1. Database Configuration

2. Create Tables

3. Model

4. Controller

5. Route

6. View

7. Demo

8. Conclusion