How do I POST all options in a select list?

Question

I have a select multiple list that has a few items in it. It is a list of IP addresses for an ACL. People can add/remove IPs, and then save the list. However, unless you select an item on the list, $_POST[selectName] does not contain any values. How can I accomplish this? I know I can do this with javascript but I would rather stick to PHP.

The browser doesn't send those values to PHP, you'll need Javascript to manipulate the submission process. Hence, there is no PHP only way to do this — Pekka, Mar 03 '13 at 20:30
Have you seen this? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2407284/how-to-get-multiple-selected-values-of-select-box-in-php — Kamil, Mar 03 '13 at 20:31
The traditional way to do this is use making the select multi-selectable, then on form submission have javascript select all options. — Jodes, Mar 03 '13 at 20:38

Kamil · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-03T20:47:16.543

18

Edit/corrected: You need JS. There is no way to send all (selected and not selected) options via POST. You have to programatically select all options before submission.

File with form (file1.php):

<script type="text/javascript">
    function selectAll() 
    { 
        selectBox = document.getElementById("someId");

        for (var i = 0; i < selectBox.options.length; i++) 
        { 
             selectBox.options[i].selected = true; 
        } 
    }
</script>

<form method="post" action="file2.php">
    <select id="someId" name="selectName[]" multiple>
        <option value="123.123.123.123">123.123.123.123</option>
        <option value="234.234.234.234">234.234.234.234</option>
    </select>
    <input type="submit" name="submit" value=Submit onclick="selectAll();">
</form>

File that receives POST (file2.php):

<?php
    foreach ($_POST['selectName'] as $item)
    {
    print "$item<br/>";
    }
?>

edited Mar 03 '13 at 20:47

answered Mar 03 '13 at 20:33

Kamil

13,363
24
88
183

He wants *all* the available values sent from a `multiple`, not just the selected ones. – Pekka Mar 03 '13 at 20:37
@Pekka웃 aaah so maybe he should set all these options as selected? – Kamil Mar 03 '13 at 20:39
yup; he'll need JavaScript for that – Pekka Mar 03 '13 at 20:40
Can somebody confirm my new answer? – Kamil Mar 03 '13 at 20:53
That looks okay, although it might be better to bind the selectAll() to the form's `submit` event (ie. `onsubmit`) – Pekka Mar 03 '13 at 20:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '15 at 20:08

Just to tack on this you could also use the jQuery version of @Kamil's code which is a little simpler than the loop:

<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery('[name="form1"]').on("submit",selectAll);

function selectAll() 
{ 
    jQuery('[name="selectName[]"] option').prop('selected', true);
}

</script>
<form name="form1" method="post" action="file2.php">
<select id="someId" name="selectName[]" multiple>
    <option value="123.123.123.123">123.123.123.123</option>
    <option value="234.234.234.234">234.234.234.234</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value=Submit onclick="selectAll();">  
</form>

How do I POST all options in a select list?

2 Answers2

Linked