Lithium PHP, MongoDB and form helpers for arrays - php

Question

I'm trying to create an edit form using Lithium to edit some MongoDB data. My data (produced by another tool) looks like this:
{
"thing_a" : "value_a",
"thing_b" : "value_b",
"settings" :
{
"sub_thing_a" : ["sub_value_a", "sub_value_b"]
}
}
The problem I'm having is with the array 'sub_thing_a' in 'settings'. I need to display a text box for each value so I can edit them and save them back. The ultimate aim here is to use some jQuery to add/delete text boxes to/from the form and then values from the array - but for now I'm trying to just get a simple version working that will let me edit the values and save them away.
My model is really simple:
<?php
namespace app\models;
class Test extends \lithium\data\Model {
protected $_meta = array('source' => 'test');
}
?>
and the controller likewise:
<?php
namespace app\controllers;
use app\models\Test;
class TestsController extends \lithium\action\Controller {
public function index() {
$tests = Test::all();
return compact('tests');
}
public function edit($id=null) {
if(isset($id)) {
$test = Test::find($id);
} else {
$test = Test::create();
}
if ($this->request->data) {
if ($test->save($this->request->data)) {
$this->redirect('/tests/index');
}
}
return compact('test');
}
}
?>
Problems start with the edit form - As I have it now, it will display the values of my array, but the data does not get written correctly. Any clues as to how I should approach this? (Note: As I mentioned earlier, I will need to produce a dynamic version of this that allows me to add/delete text boxes to/from the form, so I do need to be able to take some sort of control of the helper - in case there is some really easy 'convention' way of doing this.)
edit.html.php:
<?=$this->form->create($test); ?>
<?=$this->form->field('thing_a'); ?>
<?php foreach ($test->settings->sub_thing_a as $i=>$elem): ?>
<?=$this->form->field('settings.sub_thing_a',array('label'=>'thing', 'value'=>$test->settings->sub_thing_a[$i]));?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
<?=$this->form->submit('save'); ?>
<?=$this->form->end(); ?>
and index.html.php (for completeness)
<?php foreach($tests as $test): ?>
<h2><?=$this->html->link($test->thing_a,'/tests/edit/'.$test->_id); ?></h2>
<?php foreach($test->settings->sub_thing_a as $item): ?>
<h4><?=$item ?></h4>
<?php endforeach; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Answer 1

Ok, so in the end, it was (of course) quite simple. in the edit.html.php file we can simply write:
<?=$this->form->field('settings[sub_thing_a][]',array('value'=>$test->settings->sub_thing_a[$i]));?>
The settings[sub_thing_a][] creates the array containing an array of the string values from the form.