checkbox question

Anon

I am generating a page that displays username, email, and then generates checkboxes for mailing lists i have, and checks them if the user is subscribed to them.

I can do this with PHP, no problem.

Now what I want to do, is if I change the checkbox to a different state than it was in, (checked or unchecked) and then press update, to have the php script update the database with the new information.

so i have 3 tables

username_table
user_id, first, last, email

subject_table
subject_id, description

subscription_table
subscription_id, user_id, subject_id

the subscription table keeps tracks of the mailing list subscriptions and is what i use to check the checkboxes the user is subscribed to.

so the problem i'm running into is having to update the database with the checkbox values...here is my html code from the generated page that displays the usernames and checkboxes, can anyone help me?

Last Name</font></b></td><td><b><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">First Name</font></b></td><td><b><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Email</font></b></td><td><b><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">OFDA_List1</font></b></td><td><b><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">OFDA_List2</font></b></td><td><b><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">testing?</font></b></td></tr><tr bgcolor ="#CCCCCF"><td><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#333333">Doe</font></td><td><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#333333">John</font></td><td><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#333333"><a href ="mailto: username@domainname.com">username@domainname.com</a</font></td><input type = "hidden" name=email[] value =22><td><input type="checkbox" name="skills[]" value=1 checked></input></td><td><input type="checkbox" name="skills[]" value=2></input></td><td><input type="checkbox" name="skills[]" value=6></input></td></tr><br></tr><tr bgcolor ="#CCCCCF"><td><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#333333">LastTest</font></td><td><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#333333">FirstTest</font></td><td><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#333333"><a href ="mailto: test@test.com">test@test.com</a</font></td><input type = "hidden" name=email[] value =23><td><input type="checkbox" name="skills[]" value=1></input></td><td><input type="checkbox" name="skills[]" value=2 checked></input></td><td><input type="checkbox" name="skills[]" value=6></input></td></tr><br>
</td>
</tr>

</table>

Anon

oh i should say that

skills[] value=somevalue

the somevalue is the subject id

and the email[] the value is the user_id

[deleted]

When you are wondering what is received in your script when you click on Submit, do a phpinfo() in the first line, then see what variables have been passed to your script.

In your case you should see skills as an array. Use the phpinfo() output to see which variable you want to use.

Anon

I'm not wondering what is submitted...my problem is that I somehow need to associate the person_id with the subject_id

subject_id = skills[]
person_id = emails[]

so i pass the emails[] has hidden variable, but i don't know how to associate the two.

I am thinking I need to associate the two, because I have a page that prints out all usernames, which checkboxes for each list, checked if they are subscribed to them.

so when i hit the update button, i want to update the subscription table with the new information (if i change the lists they are subscribed to). See my problem? since the subscription table is made up of subscription_id, person_id, and subject_id.

so when i update i have to do something like

UPDATE subscription SET subject_id = "new value" WHERE person_id = "personid" and subject_id= "old subject id";

or something like that...

Anon

thinking about this more, i'm not going to be able to use UPDATe, i will have to use INSERT and DELETE

[deleted]

The trouble with checkboxes is that they are not passed on when they are not selected.

So when you print 10 users with fields named userid[], you will get an array of ten users.

But if you add checkboxes and only check 5 boxes, the array of checkboxes will only contain 5 elements, which you cannot match to the user, no way no how.

The solution: add an index to the array names:

echo '<input type=text name="username[1]">';
do the same for all the other fields, give all the fields that 'belong together' the same index, and you will end up in PHP with arrays that all have corresponding data in the same index.

Everything for user 1 is in username[1], checkbox[1] etc. If a checkbox was not set, then checkbox[1] is not set, but if checkbox 5 was set, then checkbox[5] IS set, and it all still matches.

A forum, a FAQ, what else do you need?

Time to YAPF!: http://www.hvt-automation.nl/yapf/

Anon

I was thinking of something along those lines, but I'm still confused...for example I print out 4 checkboxes next to each name

so that would mean i would have 4 checkboxes username[1] value = 1 checkbox[1] value=1, checkbox[1] value=2, checkbox[1] value=3, checkbox[1], value=4

username[2] value = 2, checkbox[2] value = 1, checkbox[2] value =2, checkbox[2] value =3, checkbox[2] value=4

that will work? Maybe my understanding of checkbox[] is wrong

[deleted]

The basic idea is that you print it like this:
<input type="text" name="name[1]"><input type="checkbox" name="one[1]" value=""><input type="checkbox" name="two[1]" value="">
<input type="text" name="name[2]"><input type="checkbox" name="one[2]" value=""><input type="checkbox" name="two[2]" value="">
<input type="text" name="name[3]"><input type="checkbox" name="one[3]" value=""><input type="checkbox" name="two[3]" value="">

A forum, a FAQ, what else do you need?