Preprocessing form data before saving to the database

Question

I have a series of checkboxes on my form that together form an array when POST'ed. I want to save this data as a string instead (e.g., "##,##,##") before committing to the database.

Here's what I have in the \models\componentname.php:

public function save($data)
{
    $input = JFactory::getApplication()->input;
    $filter  = JFilterInput::getInstance();

    if(isset($data['dancer_id'])) {     
        $data['dancer_id'] = implode(",", $data['dancer_id']);
    }

    if (parent::save($data))
    {
        return true;
    }

    return false;
}

And here is the custom field type I've created (\models\fields\fieldname.php):

<div class="dancer"><input id="dancer_id" type="checkbox" name="dancer_id[]" value="XXX" />XXX</div> 

All other fields in the form save except for this one. Any thoughts? Also I'm not sure how the $data is being passed to the save() function ... maybe I've missed a call somewhere? To get this far, I followed the HelloWorld MVC component tutorial on the Joomla site and the response in this related thread.

Answer 1

Have you tried retrieving the form input directly without using JFilterInput?

Try this:

replace:

$filter  = JFilterInput::getInstance();

with:

$dancers = $input->get('dancer','','array');

you can then do

$data['dancer_id'] = implode(",", $dancers);

From there you can finish up with your save methods

Answer 2

I've figured it out with the help of someone on the Joomla DEV Google Groups (details): I did not have my custom field dancer_id added to the jform array like so:

<input id="dancer_id" type="checkbox" name="jform[dancer_id][]" value="2261" checked>

Once I did so, it all worked. Details linked above.