form data capture

[Hypertype]

I have a web form and i am sending this form info to an email address.

works fine. except for the part that has checkboxes. i am using checkboxes because i want the user to be able to select more than one option. like so..

<td width="141">Orthopaedic
<input type="checkbox" name="specialty" value="Orthopaedic">
</td>
<td width="125">FAE
<input type="checkbox" name="specialty" value="FAE">
</td>

every other form object has a unique name and value. my form processor file captures all of this and sends it off to an email address. like zees...

mail( "[e-mail]", "email subject",
"Type of Exam(s) Required: $etype\ ....

the problem is checkbox section only seems to capture ONE value (i.e. the value for only one of the checkboxes checked).

all the checkboxes on the web form have the same name. should i make each one a unique name and the form processor will have to check the value of each box (whether checked or not)? if so, that might create
not very
pretty gaps
in the
email
message,
will

it not?

do i have to create some array that captures any non-empty values of the checkbox group? and, if so, how do i do that? is there some other way simpler way to do this?

thanks so much for any advice

chris

[sid]

the problem is in your code

<td width="141">Orthopaedic 
    <input type="checkbox" name="specialty" value="Orthopaedic"> 
</td> 
<td width="125">FAE 
    <input type="checkbox" name="specialty" value="FAE"> 
</td> 

that it will only keep the last checked value of "specialty" since you overwrite the $specialty with every checked box. what you can do is, either use an array:

<td width="141">Orthopaedic 
    <input type="checkbox" name="specialty[1]" value="Orthopaedic"> 
</td> 
<td width="125">FAE 
    <input type="checkbox" name="specialty[2]" value="FAE"> 
</td> 

which is probably the smoothest way (since you can just walk through it when you handle the data) or give the checkboxes unique names:

<td width="141">Orthopaedic 
    <input type="checkbox" name="specialtyOrthopaedic" value="yes"> 
</td> 
<td width="125">FAE 
    <input type="checkbox" name="specialtyFAE" value="yes"> 
</td> 

hope this helps!

sid

[Hypertype]

sid,

thanks so much for your advice. i think i see how it works now (i think). but you should know that most of the checkboxes will not actually be checked.

in the form handler i created a variable for it,
$etype = $_REQUEST['specialty'];

but i also have lots of other info to send as well (the checkbox group is just one part of the whole form)

then i later send that info to an email address; ex..

mail( "[e-mail]", "Email Subject",
"Type of Exam(s) Required: $etype\n\ CLIENT\nName: $cname

i wanted a particular layout for the email that is sent. i only want to list the boxes that WERE checked. if i go thru each and every checkbox variable in the mail section, i will end up with lots of blank spaces for the boxes that were not checked, no?

the big question is how do i "print" just the boxes that were checked?

thanks again

chris

[sid]

form:

<td width="141">Orthopaedic  

    <input type="checkbox" name="specialty[1]" value="Orthopaedic">  

</td>  

<td width="125">FAE  

    <input type="checkbox" name="specialty[2]" value="FAE">  

</td>

for handler:

<?PHP

//...

foreach ($specialty AS $key => $value) {
    print $value . ", ";
}

//...

?>

this will print a list of all checked specialty boxes separated by a comma...

rock on

[Hypertype]

sid,

thanks again. it wasn't quite the solution i was looking for, but it helped big time in pointing me in the right direction.

i was taking the info from the web form and using php's mail function to send that data out in an email.

so i did as you suggested and changed the 'specialty' variable into an array (on the form) and then stuffed it all into one array.

like zis...

$string = implode(', ',$_REQUEST['specialty']);
i put the new variable in the mail code and...

it worked like a charm! 🆒

thanks again for your pointers! i'm sure i'll be back...

chris