Dynamic checkboxes & text fields into MySQL

Question

I'm trying to create an inventory tracker. My problem is that the inventory can be anywhere from 1 item to 1 metric buttload (give or take) of items. The basic form is this:

eq.issue.php

<form name="form" method="post" action ="issue.e.php">
    <?
        $kit_query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM eq_kit");
        while($fetch_kits = mysql_fetch_array($kit_query){
        $kitId = $fetch_kits['kit_id'];
        $kitSn = $fetch_kits['kit_sn'];
        $kitQty = $fetch_kits['kit_qty'];
    ?>
    <tr>
        <td>
            <input type="checkbox" name="kit_row[]" value="<?=$kitId?>" id="<?=$kitId?>">
        </td>
        <td>
            <input name="qty[]" type="text" id="<?=$kitQty?>" value="<?=$kitQty?>">
        </td>
        <td>
            <input name="sn[]" type="hidden" id="<?=$kitSn?>" value="<?=$kitSn?>"
        </td>
    </tr>
    <? } ?>
    <input type="submit" name="Submit" id="Submit" value="Submit">
</form>

on the receiving side:

issue.e.php

<? // all the database crap

if(is_array($kit_row)){
    foreach($_POST['kitrow'] as $key=>$val){
        $sn=$_POST['sn'];
        $serial = $sn[$val];
        $qty = $_POST['qty'];
        $quant = $qty[$val];

    mysql_query("INSERT INTO eq_issue SET issue_sn = '$serial', issue_qty = '$quant'")or die(mysql_error());

This works well for an individual item as well as consecutive items.

With an example of this as my eq.issue.php form:

|Check | Qty | SN  |
==================== 
| X    | 100 |12345| 
|      | 1   |23456| 
|      | 1   |98765| 
| X    | 999 |19283|
==================== 
|Submit|

My problem is that if I choose the 1st and 4th option for example, the arrays now appear like this:

kit_row => Array
  0 => 4
  1 => 3

qty => Array
  0 => 100
  1 => 1
  2 => 1
  3 => 999

sn => Array
  0 => 12345
  1 => 23456
  2 => 98765
  3 => 19283

Thus, as my script plays out, I get values for the 4th option as kit_row => 3 qty => 1 sn=> 23456, where I want it to display kit_row=> 3 qty => 999 sn => 19283.

Any suggestions on how I can make this work? For a better visual reference, I am trying to acheive the same concept as PHPMyAdmin's multi-value insert page using checkboxes to say which group (or rows) of records I want to insert.

Look into prepared statements. Executing a metric buttload of queries would be faster with prepared statements and you also get rid of the whole SQL injection problem you have. — Mike
– Mike, Commented Jun 9, 2012 at 22:06
Will do. Not concerned with the SQL inject so much as the concept right now. It's on a dev machine w/ no internet access so I'm the only dummy who can attack it right now (....I hope....) — thebarless
– thebarless, Commented Jun 9, 2012 at 22:08

Wolfgang Stengel · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-10 06:45:14Z

1

You could foreach over $_POST['qty'] or $_POST['sn'] instead of $_POST['kit_row'].

Or use the kit_id as index for your form fields, which would make it possible on the server side to know what's what:

<input type="checkbox" name="kit_row[<?=$kitId?>]" value="1">
<input name="qty[<?=$kitId?>]" type="text" id="<?=$kitQty?>" value="<?=$kitQty?>">
<input name="sn[<?=$kitId?>]" type="hidden" id="<?=$kitSn?>" value="<?=$kitSn?>">

This way you can access the posted data on the server with the ID from the database, rather than using 0, 1, 2... like this:

if (is_array($_POST['kit_row']))
{
    foreach ($_POST['kit_row'] as $kitId => $val)
    {
        $sn=$_POST['sn'];
        $serial = $sn[$kitId];
        $qty = $_POST['qty'];
        $quant = $qty[$kitId];

Also possible is adding a hidden field with the same name and value 0 in front of each checkbox. You'd have to replace kit_row[] with a real index though:

<input type="hidden" name="kit_row[<?php echo $i; ?>]" value="0">
<input type="checkbox" name="kit_row[<?php echo $i++; ?>]" value="1">

This way the value gets submitted in both cases, ticked and unticked.

edited Jun 10, 2012 at 6:45

answered Jun 9, 2012 at 23:00

Wolfgang Stengel

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2 Comments

thebarless Over a year ago

Regarding your second paragraph, what do you mean by using kit_id as an index? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

thebarless Over a year ago

Thanks! That made the difference.

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