MySQL Insert Query on dynamically generated form fields

You're on the right lines with naming your form fields using an array.

When you name your fields like this, you effectively receive the data as an array at the server side, so assume you have this in your HTML

<input type="text" name="email[]">
...
<input type="text" name="email[]">
...

When your form is POSTed to the server, the value in the $_POST['email'] variable would be an array, so you would need to loop over:

foreach ( $_POST['email'] as $email ):
   // do something with each $email
endforeach;

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Using the array syntax actually means that you can be a bit smarter with naming your fields to make it easier to manage at the server-side. For example, take a look at the following HTML:

<input type="hidden" name="id">

<input type="text" name="user[1][email]">
<input type="text" name="user[1][firstname]">
<input type="text" name="user[1][lastname]">

<input type="text" name="user[2][email]">
<input type="text" name="user[2][firstname]">
<input type="text" name="user[2][lastname]">

<input type="text" name="user[3][email]">
<input type="text" name="user[3][firstname]">
<input type="text" name="user[3][lastname]">

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What this now means is that you can loop over your data in a more meaningful way:

foreach ( $_POST['user'] as $user ):
    // $user is now an array containing email, firstname, lastname
    echo $user['firstname'];
    echo $user['lastname'];

    // you could even pass the whole array into your DB if you wanted (do some sanity checks first though!)
    $id = $this->main_data_model->insert( $user );
endforeach;

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This is where I am at the moment but everything is being entered as NULL.


Controller:

 $entity_type = 'Surgeon Assistant';
            $sequence_no = '';
            $name = isset($_POST['ii_pi_name']) ? $_POST['ii_pi_name'] : '';
            $email = isset($_POST['ii_pi_email']) ? $_POST['ii_pi_email'] : '';
            $phone = isset($_POST['ii_pi_phone']) ? $_POST['ii_pi_phone'] : '';
            $work_phone = isset($_POST['ii_pi_work_phone']) ? $_POST['ii_pi_work_phone'] : '';
            $cell_phone = isset($_POST['ii_pi_cell_phone']) ? $_POST['ii_pi_cell_phone'] : '';


            $insert_assistant = array('record_id' => $id,
                'parent_id' => $seller_id,
                'date' => $date,
                'entity_type' => $entity_type,
                'sequence_no' => $sequence_no,
                'name' => $name,
                'email' => $email,
                'phone' => $phone,
                'work_phone' => $work_phone,
                'cell_phone' => $cell_phone,
            );
            if ($this->input->post('id')) {
                $id = $this->main_data_model->update($insert_assistant, $this->input->post('id'));
            } else {
                $id = $this->main_data_model->insert_sa($insert_assistant);
            }

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Model

 function insert_sa($value) {
$i=0;
        foreach ($value as $contact) {
            $data[] = array(
                'record_id' => $contact['id'],
                'parent_id' => $contact['seller_id'],
                'date' => $contact['date'],
                'name' => $contact['name'],
                'phone' => $contact['phone'],
                'entity_type' => $contact['entity_type'],
                'sequence_no' => $i,
                'name' => $contact['name'],
                'email' => $contact['email'],
                'phone' => $contact['phone'],
                'work_phone' => $contact['work_phone'],
                'cell_phone' => $contact['cell_phone']
            );
            $i=$i+1;
        }


        $this->db->insert_batch($this->table_name, $data);
        $insert_id = $this->db->insert_id();
       // echo $this->db->last_query(); die;
        return $insert_id;

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View

   <div class="row">
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Name:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="ii_pi_name[]" value="<?= $ii_pi_name1 ?>" ></textarea>
                                    </div>

                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Email:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="ii_pi_email[]" value="<?= $ii_pi_email1 ?>" ></textarea>
                                    </div>
                                    <!--  START Phone  -->
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Phone:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="ii_pi_phone[]" value="<?= $ii_pi_phone1 ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Work Phone:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="ii_pi_work_phone[]" value="<?= $ii_pi_work_phone ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Cell Phone:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="ii_pi_cell_phone[]" value="<?= $ii_pi_cell_phone ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>

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Nothing seems to be entering into my DB.  I have turned on error reporting and it is in a form.
I'm getting the error:
A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined property: Login::$post

Filename: controllers/login.php

Line Number: 253

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice

Message: Trying to get property of non-object

Filename: controllers/login.php

Line Number: 253

Line 253 is: if ( is_array( $this->post->contact ) ):

Sorry - I'd made a typo in the code I posted, which I've now corrected. Instead of:

$this->post->contact

it should read

$this->input->post('contact')

And that will only work if you've named your <input> fields correctly ie. contact[1][email] etc.

I actually figured that one out on my own.  However, I am not getting any errors and nothing is going into the DB.  I will keep looking.

OK. It makes sense if you work through this step by step. First step is to make sure you're actually getting the correct data sent through to your php script. Create a very simple controller method:

public function test() {
    var_dump( $this->input->post() );
}

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And then set your HTML form's action to that method <form method="post" action="test">. Submit your form and check the output.

Once you know that's working, then expand on it by building your $contacts array in the controller method and var_dumping that. Once you know that's all OK, then make the call to the Model.

When I add an action to the form it does not show up.

Not sure what you mean. You form must be posting somewhere! You set this by using the action attribute of the form. What you set it to will depend on your CodeIgniter setup and how you have your controllers configured. If you don't set an action, then it will get posted back to the same controller method that you use to call the view.

It is strange, the coe someplace is adding the user id on to the query and I had not accounted for that in the insert.

That seems to have done the trick.  One final thing, I have inherited this form.  What do you think the best way to insert the value, after looking at the way they have it?  Taking into consider the new array format.

<html>
         <div class="col-12">
                                        <label for="">Email:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="dme[1][di_email]" value="<?= $di_email ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>

                                    <!--  START phone  -->
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Phone:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="dme[1][di_phone]" value="<?= $di_phone ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Work Phone:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="dme[1][di_work_phone]" value="<?= $di_work_phone ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>
                                    <div class="col-12 col-print-7">
                                        <label for="">Cell Phone:</label>
                                        <textarea data-gramm_editor="false"  name="dme[1][di_cell_phone]" value="<?= $di_cell_phone ?>"></textarea>
                                    </div>

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Here is a basic working sample
Form

  <form action="t3554.php" method="post">
    <div class="address-block">
      <h2>Client Addresses <span class="addaddress float-right">+</span></h2>
      <div class="address-list">
        <div class="address-item">
          <h3>Address 1</h3>
          <div class="row">
            <label class="col-md-3">Name</label>
            <div class="col-md-9"><input type="text" class="form-control" name="name[]"></div>
            <label class="col-md-3">Email</label>
            <div class="col-md-9"><input type="text" class="form-control" name="email[]"></div>
            <label class="col-md-3">Address</label>
            <div class="col-md-9"><input type="text" class="form-control" name="address[]"></div>
            <label class="col-md-3">Phone</label>
            <div class="col-md-9"><input type="text" class="form-control" name="phone[]"></div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="text-left mt-1">
        <button class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
      </div>
  </form>

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jQuery

<script>
$(function() {
  $('.addaddress').click(function() {
    var removeBtn = $('<a>', {class: 'remove-address'}).text('x');
    var cln = $('.address-list div:first-child').clone();
    cln.prepend(removeBtn);
    $('.address-list').append(cln);
    setHeadings();
  });
  $('form').on('click', '.remove-address', function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    $(this).closest('.address-item').remove();
    setHeadings();
  });
  
  function setHeadings()
  {
    $('.address-item h3').each(function(i, e) {
      if (i == 0) return;
      this.innerHTML = 'Address ' + (1+i);
    });
  }
});
</script>

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PHP

<script>
$(function() {
  $('.addaddress').click(function() {
    var removeBtn = $('<a>', {class: 'remove-address'}).text('x');
    var cln = $('.address-list div:first-child').clone();
    cln.prepend(removeBtn);
    $('.address-list').append(cln);
    setHeadings();
  });
  $('form').on('click', '.remove-address', function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    $(this).closest('.address-item').remove();
    setHeadings();
  });
  
  function setHeadings()
  {
    $('.address-item h3').each(function(i, e) {
      if (i == 0) return;
      this.innerHTML = 'Address ' + (1+i);
    });
  }
});
</script>

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Working sample here

Not sure what you mean by 'best way to insert the value'. Can you explain.

Once the value has been set, after the POST show it in the value?  
my naming conventions are like so:
name="dme[1][di_email]" value=""  How do I write if(isset($_POST[di_email][1]'

The currently have in the value: <?= $di_email ?>

If you're posting your form using AJAX, then you don't need to because the user never leaves the page. Whatever they type in will remain. Obviously if they click on the Submit button again, then you script would re-fire and you'd end up inserting duplicate records into your DB.

If you're wanting to re-generate the page (either because you're not using AJAX or the page is re-visited), then you'd need to query your DB to get the results and then loop over the results - outputting the HTML inside the loop. In CodeIgniter, you would generally call a Model's method to retrieve all the results and then pass that into your view. Something lke this:

//Controller method
function ViewResults() {
    $contacts = $this->main_data_model->get_all_contacts();
    $this->load->view( "myView", array( 'contacts' => $contacts ) );
}

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Then your view would have a access to a variable called $contacts containing an array of records, so you'd loop over that:

<?php foreach ( $contacts as $contact ): ?>
<div>
    <p><?= $contact->name ?></p>
    <p><?= $contact->email ?></p>
    <p><?= $contact->phone ?></p>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

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This was a hug help and a great learning curve.  My brain hurts

haha. If your brain hurts, then you're doing something right ;)