[SOLVED] Form Help (Looping)

[dfowler]

Hey guys, I am having trouble with a dynamic form.  This will allow a customer to edit fields in a database (no matter how many are in the database).  Here is my form:

<?php
include '../../header.php';

$query = "select * from meals where active='1'";
$meals = array();
$result=mysql_query($query);
while (($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) !== false) {
  $meals[] = $row;
}
?>
<form action="editM2.php" method="POST">
<table>
<?php 
	foreach ($meals as $m) {
?><tr>
   	<td valign="top">Name:</td>
<td valign="top"><input type="text" name="<?php echo $m['name']; ?>" value="<?php echo $m['name']; ?>" /></td>
<td valign="top">Description: </td>
<td valign="top"><textarea name="d<?php echo $m['name']; ?>"><?php echo $m['description']; ?></textarea></td>
  </tr>
<?php
}
?>
<tr>
<td><input type="submit" value="Submit" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
<?php
include '../../footer.php';
?>

 

Now here is my big problem....how I do I process these results?  Here is what I was attempting, but it doesn't work.  I don't know how to get the information from the form.

 

<?php
include '../system.php';

$query = "select * from meals where active='1'";
$meals = array();
$result=mysql_query($query);
while (($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) !== false) {
  $meals[] = $row;
}

  foreach ($meals as $m) {
$$m['name'] = $_POST['$m['name']'];
$d$m['name'] = $_POST['d$m['name']'];
  }

?>

[GingerRobot]

Your code seems slightly bizarre - if you are allowing the users to edit the name of the meal, then how can you expect to retrieve this from the form using the old name stored in the database?

[Norsk.Firefox]

Change the HTML code to this:

<input type="text" name="name[<?php echo $m['name']; ?>]" value="<?php echo $m['name']; ?>" />
and
<textarea name="desc[<?php echo $m['name']; ?>]"><?php echo $m['description']; ?></textarea>

 

And then loop through:

<?php
foreach($_POST['name'] as $n => $v) {
  mysql_query("UPDATE database SET name='". $v ."', description='". $_POST['desc'][$n] ."' WHERE name = '". $v ."'");
}
?>

 

DO NOT use this code without validating the user input. And you should create one query to update instesd of one for every entry.

[dfowler]

Your code seems slightly bizarre - if you are allowing the users to edit the name of the meal, then how can you expect to retrieve this from the form using the old name stored in the database?

Yeah it is bizarre.  The basic idea is that the user can change the name and description of the meals in the database.  I know there is probably a better way to do this, I just can't think of it.  (I'm sure it's something simple too)

[dfowler]

Change the HTML code to this:

<input type="text" name="name[<?php echo $m['name']; ?>]" value="<?php echo $m['name']; ?>" />
and
<textarea name="desc[<?php echo $m['name']; ?>]"><?php echo $m['description']; ?></textarea>

 

And then loop through:

<?php
foreach($_POST['name'] as $n => $v) {
  mysql_query("UPDATE database SET name='". $v ."', description='". $_POST['desc'][$n] ."' WHERE name = '". $v ."'");
}
?>

DO NOT use this code without validating the user input. And you should create one query to update instesd of one for every entry.

 

I tried this and although it doesn't give me any errors.  It doesn't seem to be updating the database at all.  (I switched 'database' to the actual name of the database). 

[dfowler]

Ok I figured it out, the loop does pull the names correctly.  However, I have to change the WHERE value in order for it to work.  Thanks!