Question

I have to send a two-dimensional JavaScript Array to a PHP page.
Indeed, I’m working on a form-builder, in which the user can add or remove fields.
These fields are added (or removed) using JavaScript (jQuery). When the user is done and hit a ‘publish’ button, I have to get all the fields concerned and send them to a PHP page which would build a real form with it.
I found a way to do it but I’m pretty sure it’s not very clean :

addedFields = new Array();
$("#add-info .field").each(function() {
    addedFields.push(new Array($(this).find('.name').val(), $(this).find('.type').val(), $(this).find('.size').val()));
});

Basically, the “.field” class objects are <tr> and the “.name“, “.type” and “.size” objects are inputs.
So I get an array of [name, type, size], then I convert it into a string using

addedFields = addedFields.join(";");

Finally, I go to the PHP form that way ;

document.location.href = "create.php?addedfields=" + addedFields;

Concerning the PHP code, I create a PHP array using the explode() function:

$addedFields = explode(";", $_GET['addedfields']);

and then I use it again for each element in the array:

foreach ($addedFields as $field) {
    $field = explode(",", $field);
    echo "<li>Field with name : '$field[0]', of '$field[1]' type and with a size of $field[2]</li>";
}

So it works, but it seems very dirty…

Answer 1

Try consider using JSON to interact data between PHP and JavaScript.

JSON is built into Javascript and there is an awesome library for PHP. Check them out.