Retrieving Values

Short Example

Now that you have populated and validated the form, you will want to pull the values out of the form and do something with them. You do this with the Solar_Form::values() method.

<?php
// ... start Solar, create the form object, set elements,
// and then:

// populate the form with user input
$form->populate();

// discover the request environment
$request = Solar_Registry::get('request');

// what was the submission request?
$process = $request->post('process'); 

// process a 'Save' submission
if ($process == 'Save') {

    if ($form->validate();) {
        $values = $form->values();
        // then insert $values['user_email'] into a database,
        // or forward on to another page, or whatever.
    }
}
?>

Note that the array returned by Solar_Form::values() will match the array of POST variables in the request, so if you had sub-arrays in the form, you will get sub-arrays from Solar_Form::values(). Wise use of array key names will help you keep track of what information goes in which table, and so on.

Longer Example

After a form is submitted, and values have been populated and validated, you will need to retrive the validated user input. You do so with the Solar_Form::values() method.

Let's say we have a set of elements that combine plain and array-based names, and in two different arrays:

id
user[email]
user[name]
contact[street]
contact[city]
contact[state]
contact[zip]

After the form has been populated and validated, a call to values() would result in something like this:

<?php
// create the form
$form = Solar::factory('Solar_Form');

// set up the elements
// ...

// now populate, validate, and retrieve values
$form->populate();
$valid = $form->validate();

if ($valid) {

    $values = $form->values();

    /*
    Now the $values array looks something like this:
    $values = array(
        'id' => '12345',
        'user' => array(
            'email' => 'nobody@example.com',
            'name'  => 'Nobody Example',
        ),
        'contact' => array(
            'street' => '101 Main Street',
            'city'   => 'Beverly Hills',
            'state'  => 'CA',
            'zip'    => '90210'
        ),
    );
    */
}
?>

You can also call Solar_Form::values() with one parameter, the "group" of elements you want to retrieve.

<?php
$user  = $form->values('user');
$contact = $form->values('contact');

/*                                                            
Now the arrays look something like this:

$user = array(
    'email' => 'nobody@example.com',
    'name'  => 'Nobody Example',
);

$contact = array(
    'street' => '101 Main Street',
    'city'   => 'Beverly Hills',
    'state'  => 'CA',
    'zip'    => '90210'
);
*/
?>