CodeIgniter form_multiselect

Question

I have a populated CodeIgniter form_multiselect. With values in it

Code for that is as follows:

<select multiple="multiple" name="EMPLOYEES_id[]">
 <option value="8">Employee 8</option>
 <option value="1">Employee 1</option>
 <option value="12">Employee 12</option>
</select>

This runs on a system where you can send messages to multiple users. So what I'd like to do is say the user selects value 1 and value 8. I would like to run two inserts with the same data in but the only difference is the EMPLOYEES_id field in the database is different each time.

My Model is as follows:

function create()
{
    $this->template->set('title', 'Create Message');


    // Validate the form input
    $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<span class="help-inline">', '</span>');
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('MESSAGE_summary', 'Message Summary', 'trim|required|xss_clean');
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('MESSAGE_body', 'Message Body', 'trim|required|xss_clean');


    if($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)
    {

        // Get all users in same company as logged in user
        $comapny_contacts = $this->Employees_model->read_company_contacts($this->viewinguser->BUSINESSES_id);
        $comapny_contacts = $comapny_contacts->result();

        foreach($comapny_contacts as $contacts)
        {
            $comapny_contacts_options[$contacts->EMPLOYEES_id] = $contacts->EMPLOYEES_firstname . ' ' . $contacts->EMPLOYEES_surname;
        }

        $this->template->set('comapny_contacts_options', $comapny_contacts_options);


        // form has not been run or there are validation errors
        $this->template->build('messages/create');
    }
    else
    {

        /*
         * Lets create the new message in the database
         */
        $insert_data = new stdClass();
        $insert_data->MESSAGES_summary = $this->input->post('MESSAGE_summary');
        $insert_data->MESSAGES_body = $this->input->post('MESSAGE_body');
        $insert_data->MESSAGES_level = $this->input->post('MESSAGES_level');
        $insert_data->MESSAGES_type = $this->input->post('MESSAGES_type');
        $insert_data->MESSAGES_createdby = $this->activeuser->EMPLOYEES_id;
        //$insert_data->EMPLOYEES_id = $this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id');
        foreach($this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id') as $employee_id)
        {
            $insert_data->EMPLOYEES_id = $employee_id;

            // Save to new message in the database
            $this->Messages_model->create($insert_data);
        }

        /*
         * Now lets save a notification email in the database to be sent to the user
        */
        $notification_body = '
        <p>A new message has been added for you  by ' . $this->session->userdata('activeuser')->EMPLOYEES_firstname . '<br />
        ------------------------------</p>
        <p><strong>Summary:</strong> ' . $this->input->post('MESSAGE_summary') . '</p>
        <p>------------------------------<br />
        <a class="btn" href="' . base_url('messages') . '">Click to view full messages</a>';

        // Get the info for the user who the notification is for
        $notify_user_info = $this->Employees_model->read_single_switch($this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id'));
        $notify_user_info = $notify_user_info->result();

        // Set all the data
        $insert_data = new stdClass();
        $insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_toname = $notify_user_info[0]->EMPLOYEES_firstname . ' ' . $notify_user_info[0]->EMPLOYEES_surname;
        $insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_toemail = $notify_user_info[0]->EMPLOYEES_email;
        $insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_subject = 'A new message has been added for you';
        $insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_htmlbody = $notification_body;
        //$insert_data->EMPLOYEES_id = $this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id');
        foreach($this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id') as $employee_id)
        {
            $insert_data->EMPLOYEES_id = $employee_id;

            // Save to new notification to the database
            $this->Notifications_model->create($insert_data);
        }

        // show user confirmation
        $this->session->set_flashdata('success_message', 'New message created successfully.');
        redirect('messages');
    }

Answer 1

The easiest way would be to set up all the common parameters and then insert data on each foreach iteration of the $this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id') .

 foreach($this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id') as $eid){
      // insert data using $uid as the employer id here
 }

Answer 2

$employees = $this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id')

$employees is actually an array of IDs, so you must iterate it (use foreach). Do a var_dump($employees) by yourself to check it's structure.

The final code should look like this:

// Set all the data
$insert_data = new stdClass();
$insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_toname = $notify_user_info[0]->EMPLOYEES_firstname . ' ' . $notify_user_info[0]->EMPLOYEES_surname;
$insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_toemail = $notify_user_info[0]->EMPLOYEES_email;
$insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_subject = 'A new message has been added for you';
$insert_data->NOTIFICATIONS_htmlbody = $notification_body;
foreach($this->input->post('EMPLOYEES_id') as $employee_id)
{
  $insert_data->EMPLOYEES_id = $employee_id;

  // Save to new notification to the database
  $this->Notifications_model->create($insert_data);
}