HTTP_POST_FILES and dynamic forms

Anon

I am trying to build a set of forms that are dynamically created and and maintained. One of the things I am doing is using HTTP_POST_VARS to generate my SQL statements and it seems to be fine except I have some file upload elements in the form as well. Since it appears that these paticular form elements don't show up in HTTP_POST_VARS I am trying to use HTTP_POST_FILES. My challenge is that the form element name is dynamically generated so, how do I get the form element name form HTTP_POST_FILES? Assuming there could as many as 8 of these elements.

mistcat

I'm not really sure what you are asking, but perhaps you could use the array_keys function in conjunction with the $$var syntax for variable variables documented at:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.variable.php

? Let me know if this helps, maybe you can clarify your problem a little more if this doesn't. =)

-nate

Anon

Sorry I wasn't very clear...

Simply, I have a scenerio wher a user is going to upload X number of files so, they choose how many files to upload and they are then presented with the number of form elements with which to upload their chosen number of files.

What I want to accomplish is to generate a SQL update statement on the fly that will update the database table with the file info.

I initially was going to use HTTP_POST_VARS and loop through this but it seems that HTTP_POST_VARS doesn't pickup the file upload form elements so, I turned to HTTP_POST_FILES to get the same kind of info(form field name, file name) form it to populate the SQL statement with. I just can't see how to get the form field name from HTTP_POST_FILES.

Thanks

mistcat

ohh...
well thats pretty easy...
=)
two options: create a hidden variable for each form element the user wants, call it something like
<input type="hidden" name="element_names[]" value="upload1">
make sure you name the element with the brackets. Now you have a nice array of the names of the form elements and you are off to the races, like a delorean with a nuclear reactor strapped to its fender. =)

second option: Do the same type of thing with sessions, i.e. make a little array that you dump the form upload element names into.

Hope this helps!

Nate

Anon

Thanks for the tips. That is the direction I was thinking in, I just wasn't sure how to assign the file field data to an array. So, if I name my fields something like 'file[0],file[1],file[2],ect' does that automatically create an array named 'file'?

Thanks

George Loch

mistcat

exactly, it makes an array on the php side called $file that has all that jazz in it. Very handy.

Note in javascript you need to use a syntax like this to reference those elements:
document.forms['formName'].elements['myvarwith[]'].value
etc, you can do the same thing with document.formname.elements['myvarwith[]'] but I do it with both associative arrays out of habit. =)