Well, you should come up with a definitions table.
Create an array out of the definitions table (I'd recommend keeping
everything in one array, for recursive efficiency). Then go over THIS array,
and check for the existence of variables in the form array. That way you can
output all the checkboxes and not just the ones that are checked, and all
your definitions are stored in the database.
Later on you may want to make a simple web based tool to add options (for
non-coders).
-Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hutchins, Richard" <Richard.Hutchins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "PHP-DB (E-mail)" <php-db@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 11:37 AM
Subject: Checkbox Array Question - Iteration
> I am developing a page where people check off items for which they would
> like to volunteer. For now, this page has around 50 checkboxes on it, but
it
> could conceivably change frequently and grow much larger than the current
50
> items once it goes live.
>
> I have all of the checkboxes arranged into nice little arrays and named
> things like name="kitchen[waitstaff]" and name="kitchen[cook]",
> name="professional[paint]". I take the checked boxes, serialize them, and
> store them in columns in MySQL that bear the same name as the array (e.g.,
> kitchen, professional). All of this works fine and I'm very happy with it.
>
> Now, when the person revisits the page to update his/her selections, I
query
> the database and unserialize the column data. I then search the resulting
> array and if the name of the checkbox is found in the array, I echo
> "checked" to select the checkbox. See below:
>
> <snip>
> while($row = mysql_fetch_array($curRecord)){
> $vid=$row["vid"];
> $pID=$row["pID"];
> $kitchen = unserialize($row["kitchen"]);
> $kitchenevt = unserialize($row["kitchenevt"]);
> $profesional = unserialize($row["professional"]);
> .
> .
> .
> }
>
> //BUNCHA' IRRELEVENT STUFF CUT OUT OF HERE
>
> <span class="bodyBold">General Kitchen Help</span><br>
> <?php
> echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"kitchen[waitstaff]\"";
> if(in_array("waitstaff",$kitchen)){
> echo "checked";
> }
> echo "> <span
> class=\"body\">Waiter/Waitress</span><br>";
>
>
> echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"kitchen[cook]\"";
> if(in_array("cook",$kitchen)){
> echo "checked";
> }
> echo "> <span class=\"body\">Cook</span><br>";
> .
> .
> .
> //AND SO ON FOR EVERY SINGLE CHECKBOX.
> ?>
>
> </snip>
>
> So, having set up a sample section of checkboxes on my page using the
logic
> in the snippet above, I am wondering if there is a much more efficient way
> to look at the arrays that get returned from the database, check to see if
> the given checkbox is contained therein, then, if it is, echo "checked".
The
> solution snippet above works just fine, but whenever I find myself
> contemplating doing the same thing over and over in code, that's obviously
a
> flag for investigating an iterative solution.
>
> Right now, though, I'm struggling with trying to noodle out whether
setting
> up some sort of iterative function would be more work than simply doing
what
> I'm doing now. Obviously, iteration is always great for handling
repetitive
> work, but I'm just not having much luck coming up with a solution.
>
> I am aware that this is probably slightly off-topic since it isn't a
direct
> php/db question, but I was hoping somebody might be kind enough to offer
up
> suggestions as to how I might construct such a solution anyway.
>
> Thanks in advance for you time.
>
>
> Rich
>
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