Is this a PHP Bug - checkbox array?

[maest]

Hi

I create a dynamic list of candidates for a Recruitment Web Site. Besides each name is a checkbox which when selected will signal that that candidate is to be emailed. The following works great when there is more than one candidate in the list. However, if there is only one candidate then 'form.elements['email[]'].length' returns 'undefined' and so the for loop never gets actioned. This then returns the alert message 'Please Select A Candidate To Email' even though the one candidate has had their checkbox ticked. Any ideas? Is this a bug using the PHP dynamic array i.e. email[], or am I missing something in my code? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

echo "<script language=\"JavaScript1.2\">\n";
echo "function checkEmailSelect(form){\n";
echo " var emailbool = false;\n";
echo " for(i=0;i<form.elements['email[]'].length;i++){\n";
echo " alert(form.elements['email[]'].value);\n";
echo " if(form.elements['email[]'].checked){\n";
echo " emailbool = true;\n";
echo " }\n";
echo " }\n";
echo " if(emailbool == false){\n";
echo " alert(\"Please Select A Candidate To Email.\");\n";
echo " }else{\n";
echo " form.submit();\n";
echo " }\n";
echo "}\n";
echo "</script>\n";


//the following is in a while loop
while(dataexists){
echo " <td align=\"center\"> <input type=\"button\" name=\"emails\" value=\"EMAIL\" onclick=\"checkEmailSelect(document.confirm);\"></td>\n";
}

[jackinva]

I had the same problem with some javascript. I don't think it's a bug. The problem is that even though PHP thinks it's an array using the name with []. Javascript doesn't define it as an array since one one value was assigned. To resolve this, I modified my javascript so that I did another test after doing the FOR loop and checked to see if the field (as if defined as not an array) was checked. This resolved the problem in both Netscape and IE for me:

var categorySelected = false;
categoryIDArray = document.forms["searchForm"].elements["categoryID[]"];
for (i=0; i < categoryIDArray.length; i++) {
    if (categoryIDArray[i].checked) categorySelected = true;
}
if (categoryIDArray.checked)  categorySelected = true;
if (categorySelected == false) {
	errMsg = errMsg + "Please choose at least one category to search within.\n";
	valid = false;
}

Hope this helps,
Jack

[maest]

Nice one Jack.

That's been bugging me all day.

Just had to take part of it out of the for loop to get your suggestion to work for one checkbox

echo "<script language=\"JavaScript1.2\">\n";
echo "function checkEmailSelect(form){\n";
echo " var emailbool = false;\n";
echo " candidateIDArray = form.elements['email[]'];\n";
echo " if(candidateIDArray.checked){\n";
echo " emailbool = true;\n";
echo " }\n";
echo " for(i=0;i<candidateIDArray.length;i++){\n";
echo " if(candidateIDArray.checked){\n";
echo " emailbool = true;\n";
echo " }\n";
echo " }\n";
echo " if(emailbool == false){\n";
echo " alert(\"Please Select A Candidate To Email.\");\n";
echo " }else{\n";
echo " form.submit();\n";
echo " }\n";
echo "}\n";
echo "</script>\n";


Cheers mate

[slevytam]

Hi,

I have a question along the same lines I was hoping you could help with.

You posted this javascript code

for (i=0; i < categoryIDArray.length; i++) {
if (categoryIDArray.checked) categorySelected = true;

}

I am looking to do the same thing but with php. ie. I have a checkbox array that I post to a php page.

How can I go through and get the value of each checked box.

Thank you,

--sL

[diego25]

If the checkbox is named "favColor", then you can use $POST['favColor'] in your PHP script. If you named your checkbox like "favColor[]" so that you can get multiple values to the PHP script, you'd use $POST['favColor'][0], $_POST['favColor'][1], etc to access the selected checkboxes.

Diego