Multiple file upload with optional items

Question

I have a form with multiple inputs like this:

<div id="users">
<input type="text" name="title[]" required>
<input type="file" name="images[]">

<input type="text" name="title[]" required>
<input type="file" name="images[]">

<input type="text" name="title[]" required>
<input type="file" name="images[]">

</div>

<input type="button" value="add new user">
<input type="submit" value="submit">

the problem is that selecting image is optional and if the user doesn't select any image for any of titles the posted data would be like this:

title  = ["title1","title2","title3"]
images = [image1.jpg,image3.jpg]

the count of users is not fixed and user can add any desired number of titles and images by clicking on the add new user button. so "add new user" button will add a pair of these inputs to users div:

<input type="text" name="title[]" required>
<input type="file" name="images[]">

is there any way to detect if the file is selected or not? or to send a default value for not selected file inputs? I want to set null value for image if no file is selected, like this:

user1:{title="title1",image=image1.jpg}
user2:{title="title2",image=null}
user3:{title="title3",image=image3.jpg}
.
.
.

the count of the inputs is not fixed so I cant assign names like this — SH DM
– SH DM, Commented Jan 6, 2021 at 16:50

Pavol Velky · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-31 13:57:04Z

1

You can check if particular index is set for file:

var_dump($_POST['title'][0]);
if (isset($_FILES['images']['tmp_name'][0])) {
    var_dump($_FILES['images']['tmp_name'][0]);
}

edited Dec 31, 2020 at 13:57

answered Dec 31, 2020 at 13:31

Pavol Velky

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5 Comments

RiggsFolly Over a year ago

Hard coding a specific index is not require, the browser will return the array either way, but correctly indexed, arrays in PHP usually start at 0 not 1

Pavol Velky Over a year ago

You are right. I edit the answer. I was not sure if empty file inputs are sent. But yes they are.

SH DM Over a year ago

the problem is that if you leave image2 empty the input will be ignored and just two files would sent to server ex: [file1,file3] so I can't recognize that which file is set empty if the user leave the file1 empty then I have an array with two items again!

Pavol Velky Over a year ago

That's not right. Try dump $_FILES variable and see what is the structure. I test it to be sure and structure is as expected with every image input, even empty one. array(1) { ["images"]=>; array(5) { ["name"]=>; array(3) { [0]=>; string(0) "" [1]=>; string(0) "" [2]=>; string(0) "" } ...

SH DM Over a year ago

in my case if I set one file from three optional file inputs, I get an array with length of 1.

RiggsFolly · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-31 14:06:18Z

0

All you have to do is process the 2 arrays and check there is a matching image with each title. If there is not a image for each title, put anything that you like in place of the image name

<?php
  if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
  
    $output = [];

    foreach( $_POST['title'] as $idx => $title){
      $u = $idx+1;
      $output['user'.$u] = ['title'=>$title, 
                              'images'=> $_POST['images'][$idx] == '' ? 'NULL' : $_POST['images'][$idx]];
    }
    $j = json_encode($output);
    echo $j;
  }

RESULT

{
    "user1":{"title":"asss","images":"NULL"},
    "user2":{"title":"dd","images":"hammer.jpg"}
}

edited Dec 31, 2020 at 14:06

answered Dec 31, 2020 at 14:00

RiggsFolly

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1 Comment

SH DM Over a year ago

the problem is that, if user set file1 empty or file2 empty, the request would be an array with 1 item, its impossible to know which one is set to empty. in your example if the user set image1 and leave image2 empty then again I will have a array with 1 item. in both case images[1] = file , images[2]=null

SH DM · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-15 06:46:18Z

0

Thank you everybody, Pavol Velky was right partially, Although the array size is less than the number of inputs, but the browser will set an index to the array, in example if you have two inputs and just select the second one, the array will be like : item:[1:{}] (if you select first one: item:[{}]) and you can check the order by the index number.

answered Jun 15, 2021 at 6:46

SH DM

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