根据PHP中的用户选择发布表单值

Question

I need to make a form where users can insert products in a database. The database has columns "Name", "SKU", "Type", "Attributes". The form has fields "Name", "SKU", "Price" and a select box "Type" with three options - "Furniture", "Dvd-disc" and "Book".

Additional form fields are show based on what user chooses in the "Type" selection. For example, if the user chooses "Furniture" from the select box, then three fields, "Height", "Width", "Length", appear. If he chooses "Books", a "Weight" field appears, and if he chooses "DVD-disc", the field "Size" appears.

The jQuery funcion to hide/show required fields is not implemented yet, so don't mind that.

EDIT: When I post, for example, the type Disc and Size 700, and do "var_dump($_POST);" I get:

array(8) { ["sku"]=> string(8) "BT944RUR" ["name"]=> string(22) "Third insert from page" ["price"]=> string(5) "56.25" ["type"]=> string(8) "DVD-disc" ["size"]=> string(3) "700" ["dimensions"]=> array(3) { ["height"]=> string(0) "" ["width"]=> string(0) "" ["length"]=> string(0) "" } ["weight"]=> string(0) "" ["submit"]=> string(6) "Submit" }

It collects the Size value from the form but doesn't pass it further.

HTML form:

<form action="" method="post">
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="sku">SKU</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="sku" name="sku">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="name">Name</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="name" name="name">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="price">Price</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="price" name="price">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="type">Disabled select menu</label>
        <select id="type" name="type" class="form-control">
            <option></option>
            <option>DVD-disc</option>
            <option>Book</option>
            <option>Furniture</option>
        </select>
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="size">Size</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="size" name="size">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="dimensions[height]">Height</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="height" name="dimensions[height]">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="dimensions[width]">Width</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="width" name="dimensions[width]">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="dimensions[length]">Length</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="length" name="dimensions[length]">
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="weight">Weight</label>
        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="weight" name="weight">
    </div>
    <input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" class="btn btn-default">
</form>

PHP code so far (to pass the variables to the insert):

if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
    $sku = $_POST['sku'];
    $name = $_POST['name'];
    $price = $_POST['price'];
    $type = $_POST['type'];
    $attributes = '';

    if(isset($_POST['dimensions']) && !empty($_POST['dimensions'])) {
        $attributes = implode(' x ', $_POST['dimensions']);
    }
    else if(isset($_POST['weight']) && !empty($_POST['weight'])) {
        $attributes = $_POST['weight'];
    }
    else if(isset($_POST['length']) && !empty($_POST['length'])) {
        $attributes = $_POST['length'];
    }

    $fields = [
        'SKU'=>$sku,
        'Name'=>$name,
        'Price'=>$price,
        'Type'=>$type,
        'Attributes'=>$attributes
    ];

    $product = new Products();
    $product->insert($fields);
}

Insert function (in a different file):

    public function insert($fields) {

        $implodeColumns = implode(', ', array_keys($fields));
        $implodeValues = implode(", :", array_keys($fields));

        $sql = "INSERT INTO products ($implodeColumns) VALUES (:".$implodeValues.")";

        $result = $this->connect()->prepare($sql);

        foreach ($fields as $key => $value) {
            $result->bindValue(':'.$key, $value);
        }

        $resultExec = $result->execute();

        if($resultExec) {
            header('Location: index.php');
        }
    }

I think the if statements are wrong. I can pass the dimensions to the database in such a way but if I try to send size or weight it just passes epmty values with two "x" between them.

And additional question: can I achieve this without using conditional statements? I'm open to different approaches.

Answer 1

The problem is your first if:

if(isset($_POST['dimensions']) && !empty($_POST['dimensions'])) {

As seen in your HTML, dimension is an array of inputs: length, height, width. This means the variable will never be empty.

$dimensions = [
    'length' => '',
    'width'  => '',
    'heigth' => '',
];

echo empty($dimensions) ? 'dimensions is empty': 'dimensions is not empty'; //output: dimensions is not empty

As solution would to "clean" out nullable values from your array before testing if its empty. To do this, you can resort to array_filter

echo empty(array_filter($dimensions)) ? 'dimensions is empty': 'dimensions is not empty'; //output: dimensions is empty

demo