add object array to form object

Question

I have a html form like this:

<form action="/create" method="POST">

    <input type="text" placeholder="title" name="title">
    <input type="text" placeholder="year" name="toYear">
    <input type="text" placeholder="genre" name="genre">
    <input type="text" placeholder="director" name="director">    
    <input type="url" placeholder="poster" name="poster">
    <textarea name="plot" placeholder="plot..." cols="30" rows="10"></textarea>            

    <div id="actors">
        <h5>Actors</h5>
        <button type="button" id="addActor">Add Actor</button>
    </div>

    <div id="ratings">
        <h5>Ratings</h5>
        <button type="button" id="addRating">Add Rating</button>
    </div>
<button type="submit">Add to Collection
</button>
</form>

And my script below it:

document.getElementById('addRating').addEventListener('click', function () {

    var ratingsElem = document.getElementById('ratings');

    var sourceElem = document.createElement("input");
    sourceElem.setAttribute('type', 'text');
    sourceElem.setAttribute('placeholder', 'Source');
    sourceElem.setAttribute('name', 'ratingsSource');

    var valueElem = document.createElement("input");
    valueElem.setAttribute('type', 'text');
    valueElem.setAttribute('placeholder', 'value');
    valueElem.setAttribute('name', 'ratingsValue');


    ratingsElem.appendChild(sourceElem);
    ratingsElem.appendChild(valueElem);

})

document.getElementById('addActor').addEventListener('click', function () {

    var ActorsElem = document.getElementById('actors');

    var actorElem = document.createElement("input");
    actorElem.setAttribute('type', 'text');
    actorElem.setAttribute('placeholder', 'Name');
    actorElem.setAttribute('name', 'actors');

    ActorsElem.appendChild(actorElem);
});

Everything goes well on submit but I want to make the Ratings values into an array of rating objects like this:

"Ratings": [
{
  "Source": "Internet Movie Database",
  "Value": "8.8/10"
},
{
  "Source": "Rotten Tomatoes",
  "Value": "91%"
},
{
  "Source": "Metacritic",
  "Value": "92/100"
}
  ]

and append it to form data sent to server. How may I achieve this? ........................................

Answer 1

var formData = JSON.stringify($("#myForm").serializeArray());

You can use it later in ajax. Or if you are not using ajax; put it in hidden textarea and pass to server. If this data is passed as json string via normal form data then you have to decode it using json_decode. You'll then get all data in an array.

$.ajax({
  type: "POST",
  url: "serverUrl",
  data: formData,
  success: function(){},
  dataType: "json",
  contentType : "application/json"
});

Reference : How to send a JSON object using html form data

Answer 2

There is few ways this can be done, but here is the simpliest one

var rating = 0;

document.getElementById('addRating').addEventListener('click', function () {
  var ratingsElem = document.getElementById('ratings');

  var sourceElem = document.createElement("input");
  sourceElem.setAttribute('type', 'text');
  sourceElem.setAttribute('placeholder', 'Source');
  sourceElem.setAttribute('name', 'Ratings[' + rating + '][Source]');

  var valueElem = document.createElement("input");
  valueElem.setAttribute('type', 'text');
  valueElem.setAttribute('placeholder', 'value');
  valueElem.setAttribute('name', 'Ratings[' + rating +  '][Value]');

  ratingsElem.appendChild(sourceElem);
  ratingsElem.appendChild(valueElem);

 rating++;

});

If you want to do it without adding variable rating, on each new input for source you can calculate his index and than add input value with same index...

I hope this was helpful...

Here is output when I tested:

{
  "title": "",
  "toYear": "",
  "genre": "",
  "director": "",
  "poster": "",
  "plot": "",
  "Ratings": [
    {
      "Source": "1",
      "Value": "2"
    },
    {
      "Source": "2",
      "Value": "3"
    }
  ]
}