Add mutiple values to one column - php

Question

We are working on a website based on SilverStripe and this site is connected with a SugarCRM database.
We have created a Form with a CheckboxSet with multiple values and store it a variable called $data['Interessen']
$set_entry_parameters = array(
"session" => $session_id,
"module_name" => "Contacts",
"name_value_list" => array(
array(
"name" => "interessen_c",
"value" => $data['Interessen']['fotografie']
),
array(
"name" => "interessen_c",
"value" => $data['Interessen']['dance']
)
)
);
Now the last array with "interessen_c" overwrites the previous values. We want to add more than one value at one time.
How is this possible?

Answer 1

If the contents of $data['Interessen'] can only have values from a fixed list of possibilities, I'd recommend making the field interessen_c into type multienum ("Multi-Selection Dropdown" field).
For that field create a list of all available items in Sugar (e.g. in Studio or creating the app_list_strings entry manually via code).
Sugar will then support multiple values in this field and display them nicely.
If your program writes the data by communicating with the Sugar REST API you can then just pass the $data['Interessen'] array as the value for interessen_c and Sugar will know what to do with it.
If your program writes the data directly to the interessen_c field in the database, then the field contents must adhere to the following format:
^value1^,^value2^,^value3^
So with ^ around each value and all items being separated by ,
Here an example of how to convert the array values to such a string in PHP:
$interessen = array();
foreach ($data['Interessen'] as $value) {
// add value surrounded by ^ to array
$interessen[] = "^$value^";
}
// transform values in array to string with items being separated by ,
$interessen = implode(',', $interessen);
Side-Note:
From within Sugar one can use encodeMultienumValue($arr) and unencodeMultienum($string) to convert from array to db-string format and back.
Both functions are defined in include/utils.php