[RESOLVED] possible to "group" variables in POST array?

Bjom

I'd like to make it so that I have the variables in the POST super global array arranged according to a structure that I define via fieldsets. The result that I would like to achieve would be one array per fieldset, like in the example below:

<fieldset id="fs1">
    <input type="checkbox" name="cb1" value ="xy" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="cb2" value ="xy" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="cb3" value ="xy" />
</fieldset>
<fieldset id="fs2">
    <input type="checkbox" name="cb4" value ="xy" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="cb5" value ="xy" />
</fieldset>

I would like to get a POST array like this:

array
   'fs1' => array
                'cb1' => string 'xy' (length=2)
                'cb2' => string 'xy' (length=2)
                'cb3' => string 'xy' (length=2)
    'fs2' => array
                'cb4' => string 'xy' (length=2)
                'cb5' => string 'xy' (length=2)

(currently this would result in a POST array like this:

array
'cb1' => string 'xy' (length=2)
'cb2' => string 'xy' (length=2)
'cb3' => string 'xy' (length=2)
'cb4' => string 'xy' (length=2)
'cb5' => string 'xy' (length=2)
)

any way of getting to the first structured array? if fieldsets are not the way to achieve it...any other way?

Bjom

johanafm

By using the name value

if (!empty($_POST)) {
	echo '<pre>' . print_r($_POST,1) . '</pre>';
}
?>

<form action="" method="post">
	<fieldset id="fs1">
		<input type="checkbox" name="fs1[cb1]" value ="xy" />
		<input type="checkbox" name="fs1[cb2]" value ="xy" />
		<input type="checkbox" name="fs1[cb3]" value ="xy" />
	</fieldset>
	<fieldset id="fs2">
		<input type="checkbox" name="fs2[cb4]" value ="xy" />
		<input type="checkbox" name="fs2[cb5]" value ="xy" />
	</fieldset>

<div>
	<input type="submit" value="submit" name="submit"/>
</div>
</form>

Fieldset's only purpose is conceptually grouping elements for the user. Programmers need to deal with such concepts themselves 😉

Bjom

Thanks for your answer!
That's right, that would work.

However I was hoping to find something "outside" the actual input fields' properties, so that I do not have to tinker with those.

jay6390

It's not possible to do except for how johanafm has demonstrated. <fieldset> is not an input and therefore you cannot get any value from it through a form. The method johanafm has shown is simple enough to generate

johanafm

You could deal with it in various automated ways. Either when creating output, maybe by using a fieldset class containing a collection of other objects for which it manages the name attribute. Or, if javascript is required, you could deal with it client side instead
for body onload

function fsNames() {
	var fsets = document.getElementsByTagName('fieldset');
	for (var i = 0; i < fsets.length; ++i) {
		if (fsets[i].hasAttribute('id')) {
			for (var j = 0; j < fsets[i].childNodes.length; ++j)*{
				if (fsets[i].childNodes[j].nodeType != 3 && fsets[i].childNodes[j].hasAttribute('name'))
					fsets[i].childNodes[j].name = fsets[i].id + '[' + fsets[i].childNodes[j].name + ']';
			}
		}
	}
}

Which only deals with child nodes of fieldsets, not nested relations. But it would be easy to, for each fieldset, getElementsByTagName() for input, select and textarea to remove any direct descendant requirement.

Bjom

It's not too hard to create the output, that's right. I have a fieldset class and an input class dealing with that anyway, just makes it a tad less elegant than I had hoped and I still feel a little reluctant to changing all those name attributes.

So I'll either go with the unstructured array or I'll put some extra work into what I've got so far and take it up a notch (I guess I'll do the latter 🙂)...just needs some thinking what will be the best approach in the longrun.

Thanks for the help both of you. (and for that script, J)

Bjom