LiveCycle Designer 8.0 Drop-down menu help - newbie

Question

I am new with LiveCycle and do not know much about coding and the like. I've search the forums and have not found quite what I need. (It might be because I don't know the correct terms to search - so I apologize in advance if there was a previous posting regarding this)
I am creating a form for lab tests for referring physicians to fill out.
for simplicity, I will just use the state, city example.
>>>>>> QUESTION 1.
I have dragged/dropped a drop-down menu icon onto the form, gone through the Palette>Object>Field>List Items to compile the list of states (in my real case, a list of lab tests)
How can I get the second drop down menu to show the corresponding cities based on the "state" selected in the first drop down menu? So that when I choose "California" I have the option in the second drop-down menu to choose from "Los Angeles," "Orange County," "Long Beach," etc
VERSUS
if I select "Texas" the list will retrieve "Houston," "Sugarland," "Dallas," etc.
I read about hardcoding and although I'm not quite sure what that means, I think that is what I will be doing as I will not be referencing outside of my form.
Also, the items in these menus are long/descriptive in nature, is there a way to refer to the lists in the code without having to type everything out? In my form (instead of "state") I will have lab tests "Test_1" with CPT codes attached, that is the list includes items like:
93880 - carotid duplex scan, bilateral
93882 - carotid duplex scan, unilateral
and in drop-down list 2 I have items like:
454.0 - varicose vein with ulcer
454.1 - varicose veins with inflammation
it would be such a pain to type each out in the code, but if there are no other ways around it, that is fine too.
>>>>>>> QUESTION 2.
The referring physician will have the option to email this form to the vascular lab scheduler. To prevent an "accidental" changes, I would like the form to be a "live form" for people to fill out, but upon return, the form to be a static PDF file, that is, the person receiving the email does not have the option to make any changes (purposeful or accidental), is there a way to do this?
THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!
again, I apologize for asking for help for what I'm sure is an easy fix. I don't know very much about the coding language, if it is not too much to ask - step-by-step would be helpful.
I'm using Adobe LiveCycle Designer 8.0.
Thank you.
-Viv

Answer 1

Hi Geo,
Thank you for the link.
Sorry, this is very difficult for me to explain not knowing the scripting language, but I will try my best not to confuse you too much.
I was able to get Thom's example to work, and based on that, I was able to get this hypothetical situation to work:
< script contentType="application/x-javascript" name="Example2" >var oTestOrdered = {
12345678912345678: [ ["-"], ["AAA (Endologix)"], ["AAA (GORE)"], ["Aortic Arch"],["other"]],
56565: [ ["-"], ["Varicose Vein"], ["Venous Insufficiency"], ["Spider Veins"],["Symptomatic Var Veins"]],
46546: [ ["-"], ["TA biopsy"], ["CEA"], ["amputation"], ["debridement"]]
function SetTestEntries()
ICD9_2.clearItems();
ICD9_2.rawValue = null;
var aTests = oTestOrdered[xfa.event.change];
if(aTests && aTests.length)
for(var i=0;i<aTests.length;i++)
ICD9_2.addItem(aTests[i][0].toString());
</ script >
HOWEVER, I cannot get something like this one to work (the only difference is that I added a "9" to the first option) it seems as though I cannot insert anything beyond 17 consecutive characters (no dashes and underscores are allowed either):
< script contentType="application/x-javascript" name="Example2" >var oTestOrdered = {
123456789123456789: [ ["-"], ["AAA (Endologix)"], ["AAA (GORE)"], ["Aortic Arch"],["other"]],
56565: [ ["-"], ["Varicose Vein"], ["Venous Insufficiency"], ["Spider Veins"],["Symptomatic Var Veins"]],
46546: [ ["-"], ["TA biopsy"], ["CEA"], ["amputation"], ["debridement"]]
function SetTestEntries()
ICD9_2.clearItems();
ICD9_2.rawValue = null;
var aTests = oTestOrdered[xfa.event.change];
if(aTests && aTests.length)
for(var i=0;i<aTests.length;i++)
ICD9_2.addItem(aTests[i][0].toString());
</ script >
The form I am creating is a Vascular Lab request form, where the test ordered (drop down box 1)has a CPT code to reference the test being ordered (i.e., 93880 - Carotid Duplex Scan, bilateral) and the test has a set of diagnoses (ICD-9 codes) in drop down box 2, associated with that test (i.e., 459.81 - Venous Insufficiency)
I have found that I do not have a problem with the "diagnoses" but I cannot add the descriptive test select in the first place. That is, the code works fine if I leave it as "93880" but not "93880 - description." I have also run into the problem that I cannot use dashes or underscores, nor can I type more than 17 characters otherwise the code no longer works.
Is there something I need to add or remove in order to make this work?
Thank you in advance for your help and patience!