remove record id from static name in form action script

dbdummy

Hi,

I am creating a page that has multiple dynamic forms, two of my form elements are using a static name and the record id (this is needed for another reason.) I need to remove the record id, so my post in my update script will be:

$date_start=$POST['start'];
$date_finish=$POST['finish'];

<input type="text" name="start<?php echo $task_number; ?>" value="<? echo $date_start; ?>">

and

<input type="text" name="finish<?php echo $task_number; ?>" value="<? echo $date_finish; ?>">

In the update script I can access the input value by using the variable ${'start'.$task_number}

Is there a way to remove $task_number from it so it posts as 'start' and 'finish'?

Do I somehow need to provide the form action script a list of task_numbers via an array serialized and urlencoded via a hidden field to decode and unserialize? If so, does anyone know how? If not, does anyone know how I can do this?

thanks
Barbara

devinemke

why not simply pass the data as an array? like this:

<input type="text" name="data[<?php echo $task_number; ?>][start]" value="<? echo $date_start; ?>">
<input type="text" name="data[<?php echo $task_number; ?>][finish]" value="<? echo $date_finish; ?>">

then in your form processing code you could access task #3 like this:

echo $_POST['data'][3]['start'];
echo $_POST['data'][3]['finish'];

dbdummy

I kind of understand. But the database is not getting updated. I am using task_number as it is the primary key for the table, but using it to make sure each input name is different, (due to the fact that I have some javascript calendar popups for start and finish dates that needs the input name to be unique.)

the input names when I go to the page on the net are now:

//other stuff starting this form1
<input type="text" name="data[1][start]" value=""> 
<input type="text" name="data[1][finish]" value=""> 
//ending form1 on the page

//other stuff starting this form2
<input type="text" name="data[2][start]" value=""> 
<input type="text" name="data[1][finish]" value=""> 
//ending form2 on the page

//other stuff starting this form3
<input type="text" name="data[3][start]" value=""> 
<input type="text" name="data[3][finish]" value=""> 
//ending form3 on the page

etc...

I want to somehow get whichever form is being updated to post like:

$date_start=$_POST['start'];
$date_finish=$_POST['finish'];

the full update script is:

<?php require_once('db_fns.php');

$conn = db_connect();
  	if (!$conn)
    	return 'Could not connect to database server - please try later.';

$task_id=$_POST['task_id'];
$date_start=$_POST['start'];
$employee_start=$_POST['employee_start'];
$date_finish=$_POST['finish'];
$employee_finish=$_POST['employee_finish'];
$notes=$_POST['notes'];

$query = "UPDATE admin_tbl SET date_start = '$date_start', employee_start = '$employee_start', date_finish = '$date_finish', employee_finish = '$employee_finish', notes = '$notes' WHERE task_id = '$task_id'";
mysql_query($query);

mysql_close();

?>

Is this possible?

devinemke

is there a specific reason that you need to have multiple forms? why not just have one big form so users can update multiple records in one shot. as per my suggestion you are already passing all of the data as an array. just loop thru that array and do an UPDATE query on each iteration.

dbdummy

The page lists specific tasks to specific areas of a customer's job — and trouble tickets and call logs to that specific task. There is quite a bit going on. Each task is in it's own form for updating. So, this page lists all administrative tasks to that particular customer. One big form wouldn't work, mostly due to the addition of trouble tickets and call logs to that particular task...

I can go about doing it the first way I tried, and then having an in-between script that takes the update to a particular update script, posting 'start21', etc, but that is too much work (there are four main task areas, and hundreds of tasks for each customer.) I thought I could somehow remove the numbers from start and finish, so it is text only...thus:

start21 <<remove numbers or $task_number
finsih21 <<remove numbers or $task_number

variable variable ${'start'.$task_number} <<do something
variable variable ${'finish'.$task_number} <<do something

to be able to post just
'start'
'finish'

dbdummy

If I use
<input type="text" name="[<?php echo $task_number; ?>][start]" value="<? echo $date_start; ?>">
[/code]

can I somehow have, or list all the input names and have them ='start'?

ie
[1][start]
[2][start]
[3][start]
[4][start]
[5][start]
[6][start]
[7][start]
[8][start] = 'start'

then have $date_start=$_POST['start'];