Drupal: Custom Form POST not being populated on submit

PHP
1

I have a created a function to be called by drupal_get_form() to build a custom form but the form_state doesn’t seem to be populated with any submitted values. Anyone know why this is the case?


function storyteller_filter_form(&$form_state,$type = null) {

	echo '<pre>',print_r($form_state),'</pre>'; // post is empty on submit
	
	/*
	* Select options
	*/
	$books = array('0'=>'--');
	$chapters = array('0'=>'--');
	$pages = array('0'=>'--');
	
	/*
	* form configuration
	*/
	$form = array();
	
	$form['book'] = array(
		'#title'=>t('Book')
		,'#type'=>'select'
		,'#required'=>false
		,'#options'=>&$books
	);
	
	$form['chapter'] = array(
		'#title'=>t('Chapter')
		,'#type'=>'select'
		,'#required'=>false
		,'#options'=>&$chapters
	);
	
	$form['page'] = array(
		'#title'=>t('Page')
		,'#type'=>'select'
		,'#required'=>false
		,'#options'=>&$pages
	);
	
	$form['submit'] = array(
		'#type'=>'submit'
		,'#value'=>'Submit'
		,'#weight' => 40
	);
	
	/*
	* Get the storyteller DAO
	*/
	$dao = dao_get('storyteller');
	
	/*
	* Load all books as select options
	*/
	foreach($dao->list_all_books() as $book) {
		$books[$book['nid']] = $book['title'];
	}
	
	$books_id = 0;
	foreach($books as $id=>$book) {
		$books_id = $id;
		break;
	}
	
	/*
	* Load chapters for selected book
	*/
	foreach($dao->list_all_chapters('n.title,n.nid,c.chapter_number',sprintf("c.books_id = &#37;s",db_escape_string($books_id))) as $chapter) {
		$chapters[$chapter['nid']] = "{$chapter['chapter_number']}.) {$chapter['title']}";
	}
	
	$chapters_id = 0;
	foreach($chapters as $id=>$chapter) {
		$chapters_id = $id;
		break;
	}
	
	/*
	* Load pages for selected chapter
	*/
	foreach($dao->list_all_pages('p.page_number,n.nid',sprintf('p.chapters_id = %s',db_escape_string($chapters_id))) as $page) {
		$pages[$page['nid']] = $page['page_number'];
	}
	
	return $form;

}

Edit:

Even the $_POST array seems to be empty upon submitting the form.

2

I figured it out.

When a form is submitted and has no validation errors it gets redirected. Normally, that is fine considering the redirect page just has some feedback on it. However, in my case I always want to rebuild the form as its a filter for mining data. So the solution I have at this moment is to always set an error on the form. That way it will never actually be redirected retaining the state as it was submitted.

If anyone else has a better way to achieve it I would be open ideas though. Setting a form error to avoid the redirect just seems dirty.

3

The redirect can also be killed by using #redirect = false for the form configuration. That will kill the default redirect behavior without hacking the validation workflow.

4

Adding a hook to alter the form and still the form_state doesn’t seem to be populated with any submitted values.


function storyteller_form_storyteller_filter_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state) {
	echo '<pre>',print_r($form_state),'</pre>';
}
5

You saved me on this solution. I was trying to figure out why the POST values was not being passed back with the $form_state.

Thanks