Adding multiple inputs to file php form submit

Question

I have a form that looks like so:

<label for="fullpath"><span class="required">*Full Path of folder to change access:</span></label>
            <input name="fullpath" id="it10" type="text" size="50" maxlength="50" />
            <br />
            <small>Example: g:\A\Folder or j:\Your\Folder</small><br />
            <div class="bgdiff">
              <label for="userpermissiongroup">User Permission Group to be changed:</label>
              <input name="userpermissiongroup" type="text" id="it11" size="50" maxlength="50" />
              <small>If Known...</small></div>
            <br />
            <label for="addreadaccess">Additional users requiring read access:</label>
            <input name="addreadaccess" type="text" id="it12" size="15" maxlength="15" />
            <br />
            <small>AD Username</small><br />
            <div class="bgdiff">
              <label for="addauthoraccess">Additional users requiring author access:</label>
              <input name="addauthoraccess" type="text" id="it13" size="12" maxlength="12" />
              <br />
              <small>AD Username</small></div>
            <br />
            <label for="removeaccess">Users to be removed from access:</label>
            <input name="removeaccess" type="text" id="it14" size="12" maxlength="12" />
            <br />
            <small>AD Username</small><br />
            <div class="bgdiff">
              <label for="supervisor"><span class="required">*Data Steward, Program Manager, Project Lead, or Supervisor who can authorize access changes:</span></label>
              <input name="supervisor" type="text" id="it15" size="30" maxlength="30" />
              <br />
              <small>AD Username</small></div>
            <br/>
            <label for="phoneapprover"><span class="required">*Phone number of approving official: </span></label>
            <input name="phoneapprover" type="text" id="it16" size="30" maxlength="30" />
            <br />
            <small>999-999-9999</small><br />
          </fieldset>
        </div>

I would like to give users the option to add all of this info to this form more than 1x before submitting. (say 10x max) I have run a couple ideas through my head. 1 is using Javascript to create the new fields and then parse them with my php script somehow. 2 is put say 10 code snips just like the form above in the code and hide them until the user clicks ADD ANOTHER.

Each input needs to be unique as I am submitting this info thought a simple $_REQUEST php script. I understand how to do this with 1 input and a for each loop, but am not sure how to make it work with such a large amount of inputs, labels, etc...

<?php
foreach($_POST['newdata'] as $value) {
echo "$value <br />";
}
?>

Anyone have some suggestions on the best way to go about this? I am not sure adding his form via JS is the best idea, so just displaying the new info from a hidden div seems quicker and easier...

Answer 1

If you append [] to your form field names, PHP will take those fields and turn them into an array, eg

<input type="text" name="field[]" value="first" />
<input type="text" name="field[]" value="second" />
<input type="text" name="field[]" value="third" />

would produce the following $_POST structure:

$_POST = array(
    'field' => array(
         0 => 'first',
         1 => 'second',
         2 => 'third',
    )
);

The alternative is to append incrementing numbers to each field name, as you duplicate the existing field sets for each new block. This provides a nice separation between blocks and allows you guarantee that related fields have the same numerical tag, but it does complicate processing.

Answer 2

It's not so difficult: main idea is to use IDs for each iteration, so your inputs will have unique names and will be processed without problems

for ($i=0;$i<10;$i++){
   echo "<input name='removeaccess' type='text' id='it14_{$i}' size='12' maxlength='12' />";
}

So, you take your code of current set of inputs with lables and add to input names IDs, formed on each circle iteration. Be carefull about ' and " !