NULL values jQuery Ajax from Seralize

Question

Hey All

I have a issue with Ajax From Submission and NULL values with php/mysql.

First I have a simple form.

<form mehod="post" action="">
  Name: <input type=text" name="person[name]" value="" /><br />
  Age: <input type="text" name="person[age]" value="" /><br />
  Salary: <input type="text" name="person[salary]" value="" />
  <a href="process.php" class="add-person">Submit</a>
</form>

Ok now ill post the data to php via ajax pretty simple

$(".add-person").live('click', function(eve){
    eve.preventDefault();
    var url = $(this).attr('href');
    var data = $(this).closest('form').serialize();
    $.ajax({
        global: false,
        type: "POST",
        url: url,
        data: data,
        dataType: 'json',
        success: function(msg){
            alert(msg);
        }
    }); 
})

Ok now here comes the problem. For this table the salary field is a float.

If I submit the form with a blank value for salary it is not null. So I am getting 0.00 being added to my data.

I can easy test for an empty string before adding the data but with lots of fields being like this it becomes bloated. i,e

if(empty($person['salary']):
  $person['salary'] = NULL;
endif;

Any idea why jQuery is making the values no null.

Hope you can help.

Answer 1

The value of an empty input field is an empty string, not null. That's just how it is.

If you have a lot of fields, stop writing each validation by hand and instead define a schema for them (an array is enough if you don't have a better way of defining constraints for your data), loop through it and validate each field according to it.

(And tbh anyone using endif has no business calling code "bloated"...)