Cakephp form has to be submitted twice to work - php

Question

I am trying to sort out an issue with a form submit that I have been unable to understand. When I first submit the form, after changing the value of a dropdown, the $this->request->data array is empty. If I submit again I see what I would expect. This happens every time I change either of the dropdowns on the form.
Here is the form:
<?php
echo $this->Form->create('Refine', array('url' => '/ServiceDirectoryResults/refine'));
echo $this->Form->input('state', array(
'type' => 'select',
'label' => 'State',
'options' => $all_states,
'selected' => array('state_selected', $state_selected),
'id' => 'state',
));
echo $this->Form->input('solution', array(
'type' => 'select',
'label' => 'Solution',
'options' => $solutions,
'selected' => array('selected', $solution),
'id' => 'solutions',
));
echo $this->Form->input('region', array(
'before' => '<fieldset id="Region">',
'multiple' => 'checkbox',
'options' => $regions,
'selected' => $reg_selected,
'after' => '</fieldset>'
));
echo $this->Form->input('tags', array(
'before' => '<fieldset id="TagBox">',
'multiple' => 'checkbox',
'options' => $narrow,
'selected' => $tag_selected,
'after' => '</fieldset>'
));
echo $this->Form->end('Refine Search');
?>
The form is rendering fine. If the states or solutions dropdowns are changed and the form is submitted the $this->request->data array is empty. If I submit a second time, without changing anything, the array contains what I would expect to see.
In my Controller I have
if(isset($this->request->data['Refine']['state']))
{
$state = $this->request->data['Refine']['state'];
}
Obviously if the array is empty I get nothing in the state variable the first time the form is submitted.
I would appreciate it if anyone could shed some light on this behaviour. Have I done something wrong in my form creation?
As requested here is the js that is used with this form. The idea is that it just takes care of setting or clearing the checkboxes if the "All" checkbox, which is the first checkbox created for both regions and tags in the controller.
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#RefineRegion0").click(function(){
if ($("#Region #RefineRegion0").is(':checked')) {
$("#Region input[type=checkbox]").each(function (e) {
$(this).prop("checked", true);
});
} else {
$("#Region input[type=checkbox]").each(function (e) {
$(this).prop("checked", false);
});
}
});
$("#RefineTags0").click(function(){
if ($("#TagBox #RefineTags0").is(':checked')) {
$("#TagBox input[type=checkbox]").each(function (e) {
$(this).prop("checked", true);
});
} else {
$("#TagBox input[type=checkbox]").each(function (e) {
$(this).prop("checked", false);
});
}
});
$("#RefineViewForm").submit(function(){
if($('#state').val() == "" || $('#solutions').val() == ""){
alert("Please select a State and Solution before continuing")
}
});
});
Hope that helps

Answer 1

I noticed two things:
1) The form's url: controllers names are lowercase and underscored: service_directory_results. See the cakephp names convetions: http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/getting-started/cakephp-conventions.html . But I think its better to use the array for the url so your routes
can be matched:
echo $this->Form->create('Refine', array('url' => array('controller' => 'service_directory_results', 'action' => 'refine')));
2) On your Js if these fields are empty don't send the post adding return false; (also missing a ;)
$("#RefineViewForm").submit(function(){
if($('#state').val() == "" || $('#solutions').val() == ""){
alert("Please select a State and Solution before continuing");
return false;
}
});