How to use Select Cascade with Free Queries

The Plugin Field Select Dynamic Cascade can be used with 2 modes:

  • Construction: the query which will populate de select is predefine. You just have to fill the different inputs with good names.
  • Free: You write the query entirely like you need.

The Construction mode is describ in Select dynamic Cascade Product Sheet.


In this tutorial, we will see how to work with the free mode.

The goal is to allow the user to select the city in which he lives by first selecting the region and the department and the city.


So, for the example, we will work with 3 tables:

Regions: #__cck_more_regions


Departments: #__cck_more_departments


Cities: #__cck_more_cities

Important : each select in the cascade must have the SAME group Identifier
NOTE : to pass the value selected in the previous select, you can use the placeholder [parent] or #parent_id#. For values that are not numeric you need to use double quotes around placeholder.


the first Select "Region"

SELECT nom AS text, id AS value FROM #__cck_more_regions ORDER BY text


The second Select "Department"

SELECT nom AS text, id AS value FROM #__cck_more_departments WHERE region_id= #parent_id# ORDER BY text

The Last Select "City"

SELECT nom AS text, id AS value FROM #__cck_more_cities WHERE departement_id= [parent] ORDER BY text