Pass data from jQuery to PHP file in one set - php

Question

I have a table and some <td> have a data, but not all of them. On a button click I run jQuery function which checks each <td> and where the data is present, grabs the data.
After that the data is being passed to php file and inserted into my DB. Everything works great.
function insert_data() {
if(confirm("\nAre you sure?.\n")) {
$("#myTable td").each( function() {
var worker = $(this).attr("id");
var quarter = $(this).attr("title");
var station = $(this).attr("name");
var type = $(this).attr("class");
$.post({ url: "insert_data.php", data: {worker:worker, quarter:quarter, station:station, type:type} });
});
}
else { return false; }
}
I am wondering if instead of calling the php with ajax for every <td>, maybe there is a way to pass the data like one package? I checked at least couple dozen different articles here and on other websites and it seems that very often JSON is used for that purpose.
I've never worked with JSON and after several days of trying different approaches, still can't figure out what I am doing wrong. I will appreciate any help.
All I need is to pass data from my table into php file (and unpack it in there). I do not need to display it simultaneously on the html page.
Here is one of the versions which doesn't work:
JS:
function insert_data() {
if(confirm("\nAre you sure?.\n")) {
var myArray = []; // var to store all records for json data transfer
$("#myTable td").each( function() {
var worker = $(this).attr("id");
var quarter = $(this).attr("title");
var station = $(this).attr("name");
var type = $(this).attr("class");
var record = {worker:worker, quarter:quarter, station:station, type:type}; // sd - short for schedule data
myArray.push(record); // add every record to same array
});
console.log(myArray);
$.post({ url: "insert_data.php", data: {myArray: myArray }, success: function(data){ alert('Items added'); }, error: function(e){ console.log(e.message); } });
}
else { return false; }
}
In console I see following data (it looks like the data is being added to the array without issues):
(4) [{...}, {...}, {...}, {...}]
0: {worker: "556", quarter: "1", station: "abc_15", type: "rework"}
1: {worker: "147", quarter: "2", station: "abc_37", type: "rework"}
2: {worker: "345", quarter: "3", station: "abc_15", type: "rework"}
3: {worker: "12", quarter: "4", station: "abc_15", type: "rework"}
PHP:
$mySchedule = array();
$mySchedule[] = $_POST["myArray"]; // get the json array
var_dump($mySchedule);
foreach ($mySchedule as $sched) {
$worker = $sched['worker']; // or: $sched->worker; - doesn't change the result
$quarter = $sched['quarter'];
$station = $sched['station'];
$type = $sched['type'];
// code to insert data into my DB - works fine when I pass data one by one instead of array
}
HTML:
I also added this script to the page with my table:
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-json/2.6.0/jquery.json.min.js"></script>
I am not sure if it is needed or not.
--
It feels that the problem is in the way how I "unpack" the array. But I am not sure... I tried to follow all advises I could find here, but maybe I just miss something really important.
I tried:
$mySchedule[] = json_decode($_POST["myArray"]); // in insert_data.php
data: { json: JSON.stringify(myArray) } // in jQuery function
and some other advises...

Answer 1

update
I got some help from one of my colleges. So, the jQuery code stayed without changes. PHP code had couple minor changes and it works fine now. The changes in PHP:
$mySchedule = $_POST["myArray"]; // get the json array
instead of:
$mySchedule = array();
$mySchedule[] = $_POST["myArray"]; // get the json array
That is it. Thank you very much for help and advises. I hope this example will be helpful to others.