Need help with PHP-MYSQL-Forms and checkboxes (lots of them)

I designed a book database (mysql) and am now making the user interface for
it (php).
The main table is books and contains quite a lot of information (title,
subtitle, isbn, pages, size, ...) but for example not the author, because a
book can have more then one author. So I also have a table authors and a
table link_books_authors.
The same with genres (humour, action, fantasy, history, spy, ....); a book
can belong to more then one genre.
The list of genres is represented in the input form by a list of checkboxes


<table>
<tr>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="5" value="1"> Action</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="4" value="1"> Biology</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="8" value="1"> Chemistry</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="3" value="1"> Fantasy</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="15" value="1"> Horror</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="7" value="1"> Science</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="2" value="1"> Science-Fiction</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="9" value="1"> Tao</td>
</tr>
<tr>
..
</tr>
</table>


The list is automatically created, alphabeticaly, with the contents of the
table genres and the "name" is the id of the genre in the genres-table.
So far so good. Now I must proces the information of the form and insert it
in the database. If I hardcode the processing of each genre, still no
problem :

if (isset($_REQUEST["1"]) && ($_REQUEST["1"] == 1)
{
$sqlBookGenre = "INSERT INTO link_books_genres VALUES (" . $intBookID
. ", " . $_REQUEST["1"] . ")";
}

execute query and then next checkbox

if (isset($_REQUEST["2"]) && ($_REQUEST["2"] == 1)
{
$sqlBookGenre = "INSERT INTO link_books_genres VALUES (" . $intBookID
. ", " . $_REQUEST["2"] . ")";
}

For the moment I have already 15 genres, but I will create more, so I have
to put the above coding in a loop. So again I read the list of genres (at
least the id's) and store them in an array $arrGenres.
With a while-loop I want to check if a checkbox is checked (isset and value
== 1) or not.
But how do I do that. How do a obtain the value of $_REQUEST["1"],
$_REQUEST["2"], ... when it is in a loop ?
$_REQUEST[$arrGenres["id"]] and $_REQUEST["$arrGenres["id"]"] don't work. I
also tried to put the values of the checkboxes on the screen with echo and
printf, but didn't succeed in it.
I suppose an alternative would be a select or listbox and allowing multiple
selects but I don't have an example for that either.

Thanx for ur time.

Pugi!

Reply to group

Hi,

This may be of some help:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.ht...faq.html.arrays

Oli


Pugi! wrote:
> I designed a book database (mysql) and am now making the user interface fo
r
> it (php).
> The main table is books and contains quite a lot of information (title,
> subtitle, isbn, pages, size, ...) but for example not the author, because 
a
> book can have more then one author. So I also have a table authors and a
> table link_books_authors.
> The same with genres (humour, action, fantasy, history, spy, ....); a book
> can belong to more then one genre.
> The list of genres is represented in the input form by a list of checkboxe
s
>
>
> <table>
>  <tr>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="5" value="1"> Action</td>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="4" value="1"> Biology</td>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="8" value="1"> Chemistry</td>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="3" value="1"> Fantasy</td>
>  </tr>
>  <tr>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="15" value="1"> Horror</td>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="7" value="1"> Science</td>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="2" value="1"> Science-Fiction</td>
>   <td><input type="checkbox" name="9" value="1"> Tao</td>
>  </tr>
>  <tr>
>    ...
>  </tr>
> </table>
>
>
> The list is automatically created, alphabeticaly, with the contents of the
> table genres and the "name" is the id of the genre in the genres-table.
> So far so good. Now I must proces the information of the form and insert i
t
> in the database. If I hardcode the processing of each genre, still no
> problem :
>
>   if (isset($_REQUEST["1"]) && ($_REQUEST["1"] == 1)
>     {
>       $sqlBookGenre = "INSERT INTO link_books_genres VALUES (" . $intBookI
D
> . ", " . $_REQUEST["1"] . ")";
>     }
>
>  execute query and then next checkbox
>
>   if (isset($_REQUEST["2"]) && ($_REQUEST["2"] == 1)
>     {
>       $sqlBookGenre = "INSERT INTO link_books_genres VALUES (" . $intBookI
D
> . ", " . $_REQUEST["2"] . ")";
>     }
>
> For the moment I have already 15 genres, but I will create more, so I have
> to put the above coding in a loop. So again I read the list of genres (at
> least the id's) and store them in an array $arrGenres.
> With a while-loop I want to check if a checkbox is checked (isset and valu
e
> == 1) or not.
> But how do I do that. How do a obtain the value of $_REQUEST["1"],
> $_REQUEST["2"], ... when it is in a loop ?
> $_REQUEST[$arrGenres["id"]] and $_REQUEST["$arrGenres["id"]"] don't work. 
I
> also tried to put the values of the checkboxes on the screen with echo and
> printf, but didn't succeed in it.
> I suppose an alternative would be a select or listbox and allowing multipl
e
> selects but I don't have an example for that either.
>
> Thanx for ur time.
>
> Pugi!
>
> Reply to group
>
>

Search for variable variables on www.php.net

ie
<input type = checkbox name=mycheckbox$i>

Oli Filth wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This may be of some help:
>
> http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.ht...faq.html.arrays
>
> Oli
>
>
> Pugi! wrote:
> 

Switch from:

<input type="checkbox" name="5" value="1">

to:

<input type="checkbox" name="genre[5]" value="1">

or

<input type="checkbox" name="genre[]" value="5">


Then you'll get an array $_REQUEST['genre'][...]:
- indexed by genre ID (first case),
- containing genre IDs (second case).


so you can use (code for second case):

foreach( $_REQUEST['genre'] as $genreID )
{
$sqlBookGenre =
'INSERT INTO link_books_genres '.
'VALUES (' . intval( $intBookID ) . ', ' . intval( $genreID ) . ')';
do_something_with_sql_query( $sqlBookGenre );
}


Hilarion

Search for variable variables on www.php.net

ie
<input type = checkbox name=mycheckbox$i>

Oli Filth wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This may be of some help:
>
> http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.ht...faq.html.arrays
>
> Oli
>
>
> Pugi! wrote:
> 

"Hilarion" <hilarion@SPAM.op.SMIECI.pl> schreef in bericht
news:cq6djc$qha$1@news.onet.pl...
> Switch from:
>
> <input type="checkbox" name="5" value="1">
>
> to:
>
> <input type="checkbox" name="genre[5]" value="1">
>
> or
>
> <input type="checkbox" name="genre[]" value="5">
>
>
> Then you'll get an array $_REQUEST['genre'][...]:
> - indexed by genre ID (first case),
> - containing genre IDs (second case).
>
>
> so you can use (code for second case):
>
> foreach( $_REQUEST['genre'] as $genreID )
> {
>  $sqlBookGenre =
>    'INSERT INTO link_books_genres '.
>    'VALUES (' . intval( $intBookID ) . ', ' . intval( $genreID ) . ')';
>  do_something_with_sql_query( $sqlBookGenre );
> }
>
>
> Hilarion
>

Thank u. Works very well.

Pugi!