CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phparraysformspostmultidimensional-array
shotdsherrif
shotdsherrif

Reputation: 563

PHP $_POST from dynamically generated form

I am creating a form based on a user selection of $node_number ... so the form looks like:

function createForm($node_number) {
            echo "<form id=\"form\" name=\"form\" action=\"molecule_display.php\" method=\"post\">";
           for ($n = 1; $n <= $node_number; $n++) {
                echo "<fieldset class=\"step\">
                            <input id=\"node_title" . $n . "\" name=\"node_title" . $n . "\" />
                            <input id=\"node_comment" . $n . "\" name=\"node_comment" . $n . "\" type=\"textarea\"  />
                     </fieldset>";
                            }
            echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"node_number\" value=\"" . $node_number . "\">
                    <button id=\"submit_node\" type=\"submit\">Submit</button>"
            echo "</form>";
            }

Which will create $node_number of versions of that form element. My question is how to dynamically name the form elements to be able to manage them easier when I am processing them. The way I'm doing it right now, by adding the $n iterator to the name attribute is not ideal I think.

I understand that I can declare the name="" attribute as an array like name[]="" ... in terms of giving each sub-element of the larger form a unique name.

I'm guessing I want a multi-dimensional array of the individual form segment ... just not sure how to best handle those within a form and within the $_POST variable.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1681

Answers (3)

Wirone
Wirone

Reputation: 3373

I think you can do it this way:

function createForm($node_number) {
    echo '<form id="form" name="form" action="molecule_display.php" method="post">';
    for ($n = 1; $n <= $node_number; $n++) {
        echo '<fieldset class="step">
        <input id="node_title'.$n.'" name="nodes['.$n.'][node_title]" />
        <input id="node_comment'.$n.'" name="nodes['.$n.'][node_comment]" type="textarea"  />
        <button id="submit_node" type="submit">Submit</button></p>
        </fieldset>';
    }
    echo '</form>';
}

And then get $_POST['nodes'] which will be multidimensional array, which you can iterate with foreach. You will get $_POST['nodes'][1] = array('node_title'=>... , 'node_comment'=>...); and so on.

Upvotes: 2

teynon
teynon

Reputation: 8288

If you use the array like you were saying in your post you should be able to access them pretty easily.

function createForm($node_number) {
    echo "<form id=\"form\" name=\"form\" action=\"molecule_display.php\" method=\"post\">";
    for ($n = 1; $n <= $node_number; $n++) {
        echo "<fieldset class=\"step\">
                  <input id=\"node_title_" . $n . "\" name=\"node_title[" . $n . "]\" />
                  <input id=\"node_comment_" . $n . "\" name=\"node_comment[" . $n . "]\" type=\"textarea\"  />
                  <button name=\"submit_node[" . $n . "]\" type=\"submit\">Submit</button></p>
              </fieldset>";
     }
     echo "</form>";
}

I also changed the submit_node to a name and gave it an array value because an ID must be unique, which will cause errors if you are referencing it somewhere.

You could loop through the results like this:

foreach ($_POST['node_title'] as $key => $response) {
    $title = $response;
    $comment = (!empty($_POST['node_comment'][$key])) ? $_POST['node_comment'][$key] : "";
    // Save title / comment here.
}

Upvotes: 2

Eugen Rieck
Eugen Rieck

Reputation: 65264

Since every form has its own submit button, nothing stops you from using name="node_title" in all of them. If you now add <input type="hidden" name="index" value="$n"> and read this first, your logic becomes very easy.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions