Laravel - Form Input - Multiple select for a one to many relationship

Question

One of the requirements in an application that I am building is for a form input which takes in a varying number of items for a single field. For instance, sports that I play ar

Answer 1

I agree with user3158900, and I only differ slightly in the way I use it:

{{Form::label('sports', 'Sports')}}
{{Form::select('sports',$aSports,null,array('multiple'=>'multiple','name'=>'sports[]'))}}

However, in my experience the 3rd parameter of the select is a string only, so for repopulating data for a multi-select I have had to do something like this:

<select multiple="multiple" name="sports[]" id="sports">
@foreach($aSports as $aKey => $aSport)
    @foreach($aItem->sports as $aItemKey => $aItemSport)
        <option value="{{$aKey}}" @if($aKey == $aItemKey)selected="selected"@endif>{{$aSport}}</option>
    @endforeach
@endforeach
</select>

Answer 2

This might be a better approach than top answer if you need to compare 2 output arrays to each other but use the first array to populate the options.

This is also helpful when you have a non-numeric or offset index (key) in your array.

<select name="roles[]" multiple>
    @foreach($roles as $key => $value)
        <option value="{{$key}}" @if(in_array($value, $compare_roles))selected="selected"@endif>
            {{$value}}
        </option>
    @endforeach
</select>

Answer 3

A multiple select is really just a select with a multiple attribute. With that in mind, it should be as easy as...

Form::select('sports[]', $sports, null, array('multiple'))

The first parameter is just the name, but post-fixing it with the [] will return it as an array when you use Input::get('sports').

The second parameter is an array of selectable options.

The third parameter is an array of options you want pre-selected.

The fourth parameter is actually setting this up as a multiple select dropdown by adding the multiple property to the actual select element..

Answer 4

@SamMonk your technique is great. But you can use laravel form helper to do so. I have a customer and dogs relationship.

On your controller

$dogs = Dog::lists('name', 'id');

On customer create view you can use.

{{ Form::label('dogs', 'Dogs') }}
{{ Form::select('dogs[]', $dogs, null, ['id' => 'dogs', 'multiple' => 'multiple']) }}

Third parameter accepts a list of array a well. If you define a relationship on your model you can do this:

{{ Form::label('dogs', 'Dogs') }}
{{ Form::select('dogs[]', $dogs, $customer->dogs->lists('id'), ['id' => 'dogs', 'multiple' => 'multiple']) }}

Update For Laravel 5.1

The lists method now returns a Collection. Upgrading To 5.1.0

{!! Form::label('dogs', 'Dogs') !!}
{!! Form::select('dogs[]', $dogs, $customer->dogs->lists('id')->all(), ['id' => 'dogs', 'multiple' => 'multiple']) !!}

Answer 5

My solution, it´s make with jquery-chosen and bootstrap, the id is for jquery chosen, tested and working, I had problems concatenating @foreach but now work with a double @foreach and double @if:

  <div class="form-group">
    <label for="tagLabel">Tags: </label>
    <select multiple class="chosen-tag" id="tagLabel" name="tag_id[]" required>
      @foreach($tags as $id => $name)
        @if (is_array(Request::old('tag_id')))
                <option value="{{ $id }}" 
                @foreach (Request::old('tag_id') as $idold)
                  @if($idold==$id)
                    selected
                  @endif 
                @endforeach
                style="padding:5px;">{{ $name }}</option>
        @else
          <option value="{{ $id }}" style="padding:5px;">{{ $name }}</option>
        @endif
      @endforeach
    </select>
  </div>

this is the code por jquery chosen (the blade.php code doesn´t need this code to work)

    $(".chosen-tag").chosen({
  placeholder_text_multiple: "Selecciona alguna etiqueta",
  no_results_text: "No hay resultados para la busqueda",
  search_contains: true,
  width: '500px'
});

Answer 6

Laravel 4.2

@SamMonk gave the best alternative, I followed his example and build the final piece of code

<select class="chosen-select" multiple="multiple" name="places[]" id="places">
    @foreach($places as $place)
        <option value="{{$place->id}}" @foreach($job->places as $p) @if($place->id == $p->id)selected="selected"@endif @endforeach>{{$place->name}}</option>
    @endforeach
</select>

In my project I'm going to have many table relationships like this so I wrote an extension to keep it clean. To load it, put it in some configuration file like "app/start/global.php". I've created a file "macros.php" under "app/" directory and included it in the EOF of global.php

// app/start/global.php
require app_path().'/macros.php';

// macros.php
Form::macro("chosen", function($name, $defaults = array(), $selected = array(), $options = array()){

    // For empty Input::old($name) session, $selected is an empty string
    if(!$selected) $selected = array();

    $opts = array(
        'class' => 'chosen-select',
        'id' => $name,
        'name' => $name . '[]',
        'multiple' => true
    );
    $options = array_merge($opts, $options);
    $attributes = HTML::attributes($options);

    // need an empty array to send if all values are unselected
    $ret = '<input type="hidden" name="' . HTML::entities($name) . '[]">';
    $ret .= '<select ' . $attributes . '>';
    foreach($defaults as $def) {
        $ret .= '<option value="' . $def->id . '"';
        foreach($selected as $p) {
            // session array or passed stdClass obj
            $current = @$p->id ? $p->id: $p;
            if($def->id == $current) {
                $ret .= ' selected="selected"';
            }
        }
        $ret .= '>' . HTML::entities($def->name) . '</option>';
    }
    $ret .= '</select>';
    return $ret;
});

Usage

List without pre-selected items (create view)

{{ Form::chosen('places', $places, Input::old('places')) }}

Preselections (edit view)

{{ Form::chosen('places', $places, $job->places) }}

Complete usage

{{ Form::chosen('places', $places, $job->places, ['multiple': false, 'title': 'I\'m a selectbox', 'class': 'bootstrap_is_mainstream']) }}