How to Save Multiple Values in jQuery Autocomplete to MySQLi DB? - php

Question

I'm just learning about the jQuery AutoComplete Widget. The values pop up with a comma nicely. So, the visual display to the user is great.
My issue is how do I save the multiple values to a MySQLi database?
Here is the code:
<script>
$(function() {
var availableskills = [
"ActionScript",
"AppleScript",
..........
more languages
"XML"
];
function split( val ) {
return val.split( /,\s*/ );
}
function extractLast( term ) {
return split( term ).pop();
}
$( "#skills" )
// don't navigate away from the field on tab when selecting an item
.bind( "keydown", function( event ) {
if ( event.keyCode === $.ui.keyCode.TAB &&
$( this ).data( "autocomplete" ).menu.active ) {
event.preventDefault();
}
})
.autocomplete({
minLength: 0,
// could have source as a "url"
source: function( request, response ) {
// delegate back to autocomplete, but extract the last term
response( $.ui.autocomplete.filter(
availableskills, extractLast( request.term ) ) );
},
focus: function() {
// prevent value inserted on focus
return false;
},
select: function( event, ui ) {
var terms = split( this.value );
// remove the current input
terms.pop();
// add the selected item
terms.push( ui.item.value );
// add placeholder to get the comma-and-space at the end
terms.push( "" );
this.value = terms.join( ", " );
return false;
}
});
});
</script>
Now, here's my input id for letting the user select the skills:
<div class="ui-widget">
<!--<label for="skills">Tag programming languages: </label>-->
<input type="text" id="skills" size="50" />
</div>
Not sure on how to save the skills the user selects into a database. I can save data to a MySQLi db with ease; the issue is how can I take say three skills and save them into three different rows in a table in a database.
Any help, very much appreciated.
Ken

Answer 1

for example you will do form post with the input name skills
<form method="post" action="test.php">
<div class="ui-widget">
<input type="text" id="skills" size="50" name='skills' />
</div>
</form>
then test.php would be something like
<?php
//...do some mysql connections
$skills = explode(",",$_POST['skills']);
foreach($skills as $skill){
$statement.="INSERT INTO blahblahblah SET skill = ".mysqli_real_escape_string($skill);
}
$mysqli->multi_query($statement);