Combine values from checkboxes and text/repeater fields

• nickfindley

• November 21, 2020 at 9:32 am

I am setting up a poll with a front end form. I would like to show a list of checkboxes of possible answers, and then also a text or repeater field to add your own answers.

Once someone has added an answer, I would like that answer to be given its own checkbox in the list for future participants to be able to choose. So, the manually entered answer from the text/repeater field would then become a value for the list of checkboxes.

I apologize if this question is too vague or conceptual, but I don’t even know where to start with the code to bring the checkbox fields in the text/repeater fields together. Any help is appreciated!

• nickfindley

• November 22, 2020 at 9:04 am

Here’s where I’m starting to build the form: make a list of checkboxes from previous answers and assign them to the $checkboxes[] variable.

if ( $poll_responses->have_posts() ) :
    while ( $poll_responses->have_posts() ) :
        $poll_responses->the_post();
        if ( have_rows( 'poll_answer', get_the_ID() ) ) :
            while ( have_rows( 'poll_answer', get_the_ID() ) ) :
                the_row();
                // print checkboxes for each existing answer
                echo '<input type="checkbox" name="checkboxes[]" ';
                echo 'value="' . get_sub_field( 'answer', get_the_ID() ) . '">';
            endwhile;
        endif;
    endwhile;
    wp_reset_postdata();
endif;

// text or repeater field to add your own custom poll answer
// (this part works fine, values added as expected, show up in list of previous answers)

Then I save the checkbox answers and the new custom answers:

function dutchtown_save_poll_response( $post_id )
{
    if ( get_post_type( $post_id ) !== 'poll_response' ) : return; endif;
	if ( is_admin() ) : return; endif;
    
	$post = get_post( $post_id );

    if ( have_rows( 'poll_answer', $post_id ) ) :
        while ( have_rows( 'poll_answer', $post_id ) ) :
            the_row();
            $answer[] = get_sub_field( 'answer', $post_id );
        endwhile;
    endif;

    if ( ! empty( $_POST['checkboxes'] ) ) :
        for ( $i = 0; $i < count( $_POST['checkboxes'] ); $i++ ) :
            if ( $_POST['checkboxes'][$i] != '' ) :
                add_row( 'poll_answer', array( 'answer' => $_POST['checkboxes'][$i] ) );
            endif;
        endfor;
    endif;
}

The custom answers show correctly when the list is refreshed. The checkbox answers get inserted into the database, but show as blank both in the new checkbox list and when I go to look at the created post in wp-admin. I’m not sure where the disconnect is—or if I’m going about this all wrong.

• John Huebner

• January 4, 2021 at 9:45 am

Do do this you need to create an acf/save_post action.

1. In your filter you need to get the value from the repeater
2. use get_field_object() to get the checkbox field.
3. Add the new choices to $field[‘choices’]
4. call acf_update_field($field) to permanently add the choices to the field
5. delete the values from the repeater.