Repeating Form Fields In Laravel - php

Question

I have a form which is submitting data to 2 separate models.
The model SalesItem belongs to Sale. A Sale can have many SalesItems.
I know I need to get the repeating fields into an array, but I'm not entirely sure how I should go about doing that. I though I had the right idea, but my controller isn't catching the array as the variable I was trying to set it up as.
Can see relevant code here: http://laravel.io/bin/Qzk24
All help is greatly appreciated!
/*** Sale Model ***/
class Sale extends \Eloquent {
public function user(){
return $this->belongsTo('User');
}
public function salesItem()
{
return $this->hasMany('SalesItem');
}
}
/*** SalesItem Model ***/
class SalesItem extends \Eloquent {
protected $table = 'SalesItems';
public function sale()
{
return $this->belongsTo('Sale');
}
}
/**** SalesController#store ****/
public function store()
{
$sale = new Sale();
if(Auth::user()){
$userID = Auth::user()->id;
$sale->user_id = $userID;
}
$sale->invoice_number = Input::get('invoice_number');
$sale->name_of_purchaser = Input::get('name_of_purchaser');
$sale->date_of_sale = Input::get('date_of_sale');
// For each saleItem that exists
foreach($items as $item)
{
//Create new salesitem
$saleItem = new SalesItem();
//Save attributes
$saleItem->product_id = $item['equipment'];
$saleItem->selling_price = $item['selling_price'];
$saleItem->serial_number = $item['serial_number'];
$saleItem->save();
//associate with the sale
$sale->salesItem()->associate($salesItem);
}
$sale->save();
return "Sale Saved";
}
/**** sales/create.blade.php *****/
{{ Form::open(array('action'=>'SalesController#store')) }}
<ul>
<li>
{{ Form::label('invoice_number','Dealer Invoice Number:')}}
{{ Form::text('invoice_number')}}
{{ $errors->first('invoice_number','<small class="error">:message</small>')}}
</li>
<li>
{{ Form::label('name_of_purchaser','Name of Purchaser:')}}
{{ Form::text('name_of_purchaser')}}
{{ $errors->first('name_of_purchaser','<small class="error">:message</small>')}}
</li>
<li>
{{ Form::label('date_of_sale','Date of Sale:')}}
{{ Form::text('date_of_sale')}}
{{ $errors->first('date_of_sale','<small class="error">:message</small>')}}
</li>
<li>
<h2> Sale Items </h2>
<ul class="repeatable">
<li>
{{ Form::label('items[0][equipment]','Equipment:')}}
{{ Form::text('equipment[0]', Input::get('equipment'), array('class' => 'form-control clone'))}}
{{ $errors->first('equipment','<small class="error">:message</small>')}}
</li>
<li>
{{ Form::label('selling_price[0]','Selling Price:')}}
{{ Form::text('selling_price[0]', Input::get('selling_price'), array('class'=>'form-control clone'))}}
{{ $errors->first('selling_price','<small class="error">:message</small>')}}
</li>
<li>
{{ Form::label('serial_number[0]','Serial Number:')}}
{{ Form::text('serial_number[0]', Input::get('serial_number'), array('class'=>'form-control clone'))}}
{{ $errors->first('serial_number','<small class="error">:message</small>')}}
</li>
<li>
<button href="#" class="add" rel=".clone"><i class="fa fa-plus-square"></i> Add Item</button>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
{{ Form::submit($buttonText) }}
</li>
</ul>
{{ Form::close(); }}
/**** Getting this error Undefined variable: items
* /app/controllers/SalesController.php
****/

Answer 1

Well you have a few errors in your code, but I'll try to give you a direction..
Replace the input fields with something like this:
{{ Form::text('items[0]["equipment"]', array('class' => 'form-control clone'))}}
....
{{ Form::text('items[0]["selling_price"]', array('class' => 'form-control clone'))}}
....
Grab the items using $items = Input::get('items'); (btw this is the point where php threw an error: you never got the $items from the request)
Iterate over the items array and add every single one of it to your Sale model..