How to send serialize form data using JQuery if th

Question

I have this piece of code in my PHP code:

while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
{
    extract($row);
    echo "<tr>";
    echo "<td bgcolor='#FFFFFF'><input id='bookArray[]' name='bookArray[]' type='checkbox' value='$book_id' />$book_id</td>";
    echo "<td bgcolor='#FFFFFF'>$threat_name</td>";
    echo "</tr>";
}

In HTML page, I want to use jQuery serialize() method to sent array of selected books in bookArray[]. In my JavaScript,

var selectedbooks = $("book_form").serialize();
alert (selectedbooks); 

In the alert message box, i did not get any value (empty string).

Previously when i am using Prototype, it worked nicely.

Answer 1

Thanks Tomalak.

In the PHP file, I am using the following code now:

while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    extract($row);
    echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td bgcolor='#FFFFFF'><input id='$book_id' name='bookArray[]' type='checkbox' value='$book_id' />$book_id</td>";
        echo "<td bgcolor='#FFFFFF'>$book_name</td>";
    echo "</tr>";
} // while

**The book_id is unique.

Using tvanfosson solution, now i am able to get array of input value

var selectedBooks = $('form#book_form').serialize(); alert (selectedBooks);

From the alert message box, I get ==> bookArray%5B%5D=T2.05&bookArray%5B%5D=T2.81

Now, when I sent the serialize input value to PHP file using JQuery

var selectedBooks   = $('form#book_form').serialize();
alert (selectedBooks);

var url = 'saveBookList.php';

// Send to server using JQuery
$.post(url, {bookArray: selectedBooks}, function(responseData) {
    $("#save-result").text(responseData);
});

Inside saveBookList.php to process the serialize form, i got this error "Invalid argument supplied for foreach()".

Inside saveBookList.php,

// If you have selected from list box.
if(isset($_POST['bookArray'])) {

    // Get array or bookID selected by user
    $selectedBookId = $_POST['bookArray'];
    echo $selectedBookId;

    foreach($selectedBookId as $selectListItem) {
        echo "You sent this -->" . $selectListItem . "\n";
    }
}

The PHP code above works fine if i am sending using Prototype.

For Prototype when i do echo $selectedBookId;

I got Array.

For JQuery, when i do echo $selectedBookId;

I got ==> bookArray%5B%5D=T4.11&bookArray%5B%5D=T4.38

My question, does jQuery support array value for post method?

Answer 2

If you have to post that array only and not other input fields, this is a clean and quick solution:

var selectedbooks = $('book_form input[name^="bookArray["]').serialize();
alert (selectedbooks); 

Explaination:

The selector ^= selects all elements with a name attribute value starting with 'bookArray', the open square bracket '[' makes sure the element is the array we want to serialize and not just a variable starting with the string 'bookArray'.