将提供一个选择选项的下拉列表更改为复选框中的多个选项

Question

I'm modifying a form and is something I've never actually had the experience in working with. For the record I don't code PHP.

In short: the html/php form has a drop down of five values (fields of research) of which you can only select one. But the client would like to be able to select more than one. So now I would like to trash the drop down and have checkboxes instead.

I would prefer to do the least mods to what is currently set-up.

Note* This is a dynamic dropdown list; so the values are pulled from another table and submitted to the database.

Here's the code I'm working with:

$query_fields_of_research = "SELECT * FROM tblOpportunityFieldOfResearch ORDER BY      
field_of_research_en ASC;";
$sql->query($query_fields_of_research, SQL_ALL, SQL_ASSOC);
$fields_of_research = $sql->record;
?>
<select name="strFieldOfStudy_en" id="strFieldOfStudy_en">
   <?php
   foreach ($fields_of_research as $field) {
       $selectedValue= "";  
       if ($strFieldOfStudy_en == $field['id'])
           $selectedValue= " selected";
       echo "\t\t\t".'<option 
       value="'.$field['id'].'"'.$selectedValue.'>'.$field['field_of_research_en']."
       </option>
";
   }
   ?>
</select>

Following this, the submitted data is also updated to a webpage in a table with this:

<tr>
<td>Fields of research</td>
<td>
<?php 
$fieldsOfResearch = array('1', '2', '3', '4', '5');
if (in_array($opp['strfieldofstudy_en'], $fieldsOfResearch)){
    echo $iri->getFieldOfResearch($opp['strfieldofstudy_en'], 'en');
}
else
    echo $opp['strfieldofstudy_en'];
?></td>
</tr>

How would I change the dropdown to checkboxes with the least amount of mods?

Answer 1

You can do this

In html page with select box

Replace :

<select name="strFieldOfStudy_en" id="strFieldOfStudy_en">
   <?php
   foreach ($fields_of_research as $field) {
       $selectedValue= "";  
       if ($strFieldOfStudy_en == $field['id'])
           $selectedValue= " selected";
       echo "\t\t\t".'<option 
       value="'.$field['id'].'"'.$selectedValue.'>'.$field['field_of_research_en']."
       </option>
";
   }
   ?>
</select>

By:

<?php
       $i = 1;
       foreach ($fields_of_research as $field) {
           $selectedValue= "";  
           if ($strFieldOfStudy_en == $field['id'])
               $selectedValue= 'checked="checked"';
          echo '<checkbox id="strFieldOfStudy_en'.$i.'" name="strFieldOfStudy_en[]"    
          value="'.$field['id'].'"'.$selectedValue.'>'.$field['field_of_research_en'];

           $i++;
       }
?>

In the submit page:

Replace:

    if (in_array($opp['strfieldofstudy_en'], $fieldsOfResearch)){
      echo $iri->getFieldOfResearch($opp['strfieldofstudy_en'], 'en');
    }
    else
     echo $opp['strfieldofstudy_en'];

By:

foreach($_POST['strFieldOfStudy_en'] as $item) {
        if (in_array($item, $fieldsOfResearch)){
           echo $iri->getFieldOfResearch($item, 'en');
        }
        else
          echo $opp['strfieldofstudy_en'];
}
// here $_POST['strFieldOfStudy_en'] includes all the values of checkbox checked in   
//the html form

// foreach extracts each value from $_POST['strFieldOfStudy_en'] into $item(say ids
//1,2,3,...).

I hope this can be of some help