How to use a checkbox group with Laravel's from model binding

Question

I'm trying to save a checkbox group as a serialized string in my main model's database table. AudienceGroups is simply a property of my main eloquent model. If I simply do

{{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups[]', 'preschool');}}
{{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups[]', 'elementary');}}

with no logic in my model, then the database column is set as the string Array. If I drop the brackets and just use {{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups', 'preschool');}} then the column is set to the value of the last checkbox, in my case "seniors".

If I serialize the array before saving the instance of my model, it saves as a serialized array like it's supposed to, but I'm having trouble getting it to repopulate the proper checkboxes on page load (from old input or from the the saved model).

How should I attack this? Serialize the array myself and then use my own logic to control the third parameter to Form::checkbox() which controls the checked status? If so, can someone help me with that bit. I attempted it with Input::old and in_array but could never get it to work.

Thanks

Marcin Nabiałek · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-02 15:37:00Z

2

First, it's not a best solution to put properties serialized in one column. You should not do that because if you want to search something in future in DB for this data you won't be able to do that.

Solution for your problem is not complicated I think.

I've prepared 2 simple routes:

Route::get('/checkbox',function() {

    // normally you would get it from model and unserialize it
    $fromModel = ['preschool','elementary','something'];

    return View::make('form')->with('fromModel',$fromModel);

});

Route::post('/checkbox-post',function() {

    $agroups = Input::get('AudienceGroups');

    foreach ($agroups as $item) {
        echo $item."<br />";

    }
    $toModel = serialize($agroups);

    echo $toModel;

    // now you insert it into model

});

and form:

{{ Form::open(['url' => 'checkbox-post', 'role' => 'form']) }}
Preschool:
{{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups[]', 'preschool', (in_array('preschool', $fromModel) ? true : false))}}<br />

Elementary:
{{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups[]', 'elementary', (in_array('elementary', $fromModel) ? true : false))}}<br />

Something else:
{{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups[]', 'somethingelse', (in_array('somethingelse', $fromModel) ? true : false))}}<br />

Something:
{{Form::checkbox('AudienceGroups[]', 'something', (in_array('something', $fromModel) ? true : false))}}<br />

{{Form::submit('Send')}}

{{ Form::close() }}

You can run it using http://localhost/yourproject/checkbox - form is initalized with 3 checkbox checked. In blade you can use in_array to check correct checkboxes and in POST route you can simple use this Input::get('AudienceGroups') as array and serialize it.

answered Oct 2, 2014 at 15:37

Marcin Nabiałek

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2 Comments

Clayton Leis Over a year ago

Thanks for the detailed reply. However, since your example didn't use form-model binding it wasn't affected by the issue I was facing. It do however motivate me to continue exploring the underlying problem rather then just abandon the form macros for checkbox groups.

Clayton Leis Over a year ago

Also, the serialized column is due to an existing system. Not my design.

Clayton Leis · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-07 05:41:34Z

2

Update

Looks like the html helper was removed from the core repo without this ever being fixed. https://github.com/laravel/framework/issues/5078

The problem I was running into was that the third parameter of Form::checkbox() doesn't function as expected when form-model binding is used.

The laravel documentation states that the value priority is:

Session Flash Data (Old Input)
Explicitly Passed Value
Model Attribute Data

However, if you look at getCheckboxCheckedStatus() in /Illuminate/Html/FormBuilder.php, you'll see that the priority for checked status is actually:

Old Input
Model Data

Explicitly Passed Value

protected function getCheckboxCheckedState($name, $value, $checked)
{
    if (isset($this->session) && !$this->oldInputIsEmpty()
        && is_null($this->old($name))
    ) {
        return false;
    }
    if ($this->missingOldAndModel($name)) {
        return $checked;
    }
    $posted = $this->getValueAttribute($name);
    return is_array($posted) ? in_array($value, $posted) : (bool)$posted;
}

While I was in the code I also saw that Laravel has in_array built in provided that the parameter is an array. So I unserialized $myModelInstance->AudienceGroups right before calling View::make() in my controller.

edited Apr 7, 2015 at 5:41

answered Oct 2, 2014 at 18:21

Clayton Leis

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3 Comments

Clayton Leis Over a year ago

If anyone is interested in this laravel behavior, I've contributed to this bug: github.com/laravel/framework/issues/5078

Jarek Tkaczyk Over a year ago

The docs are misleading and should be adjusted. However, why would you consider this as bug?

Clayton Leis Over a year ago

I'm new to Laravel, but to me it would make sense to have it function as the docs describe, with the third parameter able to override model data, rather then act like a fallback.

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