php form with multiple item checkbox populate excel spreadsheet - php

Question

I am building a form in php that will send the owner an email with the request and link to a page where a table will show all requests. I keep getting "array" in the output with the multiple item checklist... Here is what I have
<form>
<input type="checkbox" name="multimedia[]" value="Assessment" />Assessment<br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="multimedia[]" value="elearning module" />E-Learning Module<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="multimedia[]" value="Photography" />Photography<br />
Video Shoot
Other
<?php
$multimedia = array();
echo implode(',', $_POST['multimedia']);
$multimedia_string = implode(',', $multimedia);
?>
//variables in each cell
$variables = array();
$variables['fname'] = $_POST['fname'];
$variables['lname'] = $_POST['lname'];
$variables['email'] = $_POST['email'];
$variables['projectTitle'] = $_POST['projectTitle'];
$variables['$multimedia_string'] = $_POST['$multimedia_string'];
$variables['credentialing'] = $_POST['credentialing'];
$variables['description'] = $_POST['description'];
$variables['results_data_page'] = $results_data_page;

Answer 1

Change this:
$variables['$multimedia_string'] = $_POST['$multimedia_string'];
...to:
$variables['multimedia_string'] = implode(',', $_POST['multimedia']);
Explanation:
PHP interprets $_POST['multimedia'] as an array due to having the square brackets [] after the name, as in multimedia[], so you can implode it using the comma as a separator and get a string returned.
There are some other issues, so try this instead:
<?php
//variables in each cell
$variables = array();
$variables['fname'] = $_POST['fname'];
$variables['lname'] = $_POST['lname'];
$variables['email'] = $_POST['email'];
$variables['projectTitle'] = $_POST['projectTitle'];
$variables['multimedia_string'] = implode(',', $_POST['multimedia']);
$variables['credentialing'] = $_POST['credentialing'];
$variables['description'] = $_POST['description'];
$variables['results_data_page'] = $results_data_page;
?>
Issues:
The first three lines don't seem to do anything.
$multimedia = array(); // never populated
echo implode(',', $_POST['multimedia']);
$multimedia_string = implode(',', $multimedia); // still not populated, so implodes to an empty string.
A couple things here:
$variables['$multimedia_string'] = $_POST['$multimedia_string'];
PHP variables are NOT interpolated in single quoted string. In other words, to translate PHP variables from the variable name $name to the value, in a string, you need to use either double quotes or HEREDOC:
echo "I $emotion you very much.";
$html = <<<EOT
<table>
<tr>
<td>We $emotion camping.</td>
</tr>
</table>
EOT;
So '$multimedia_string' is simply a string containing a dollar sign and the text "multimedia_string".
The other thing is it appears there is no $_POST var with that name or whatever you intended $multimedia_string to translate to.