Scenario: Massive data are expected to populate in JSP's dropdown boxes. Assume there is this JSP, named SAMPLE.jsp, which contains 5 cascaded dropdowns, say, options in dropdown_2 is determined by the selection of dropdown_1, and go on; Each dropdown comprises more than 500 options initially.

Requirement: The user can't bear frequent round-trips between client and the server eachtime a option is chosen and a HTTP request is triggered by javascript to go fetch the corelative data for the next dropdown. Immediate population of the next dropdown is in demand.

How should I do it?

ENV: J2EE, Oracle, IE
Note: Applet would be the last consideration.

Thanks for all kindly help in advance.

well...if u are not hitting the server, i can think of using xml metadata. But not sure, how much it would impact your client side. Let me also know if u find any better solutions.

well...if u are not hitting the server, i can think of using xml metadata. But not sure, how much it would impact your client side. Let me also know if u find any better solutions.

XML metadata? Don't quite get u. Mind giving more details off top of ur mind?

No impact to worry about. Stiil in solution-collecting phase. :}

If you are *really* against going back to the server via XML requests, or gets/posts, then a javascript solution might be in order.

Essentially you would have to load the entire dataset, then use javascript to refresh the drop downs.

Unfortunately I am not a JScript guru, but google is ;)