FAPI Incorrectly Sets Defaults For Checkboxes on Multistep Forms

Hi,

I had a similar problem (the 'checkboxes' field is even worse. Is seems totally useless). Mine multipage monstrosity used drupal cache to store each step's values. The only way to set the checkboxes 'on' is to pass them:

'#attributes' => array('checked' => 'checked');

I made a function that retrieved the checkbox value from drupal cache and returned the proper array if value was non 0:

function prev_step_chkbox($step, $var1) {
	$cache_name = 'myModule-'.session_id().'-'.$step;
	$cache_get = cache_get($cache_name, 'cache');
	$r_values = unserialize($cache_get->data);
	//Example: $form = $r_values['name'];
	if ($r_values[$var1]) {
		return array('checked' => 'checked');
	}
	else {
		return;
	}
}

// Later on in the form:

$form['bunch_of_boxes'][some_checkbox'] = array(
			'#type' => 'checkbox',
			'#title' => t('Pokazy mody'),
			'#default_value' => FALSE,
			'#attributes' => prev_step_chkbox($step, 'moda'),
		);

Hope I helped :)

Would you be so kind to paste code for this function? I've tried that and it did't seem to work (I don't quite remember if I used it with single checkbox fields or with much more problematic checkboxes field).

Actually the whole multipage form is one big hack ;) hopefully the new fapi will fix those issues :)

I think I got lucky in that my checkboxes were on the last page of the form, so at least the data gets saved. I'd still like to get the default values to show up at the right time, though....

I think the intent of active(needs more info) is to get the issue submitter to bring more info, not as a request for more info.

Setting to active to get it to show up on the issue queue.

In my opinion, this is a critical bug with the FAPI's handling of multi-step forms.

I believe I have this problem also: if I directly call the form through drupal_get_form with a $form_values variable that sets the form to the step with checkboxes, the defaults are set correctly. If I get to that step (with the checkboxes) by walking through the form, the defaults are not set.

Checkboxes defaults are set fine on the first page of the form, not following pages.

Ouch, hours of banging head against desk on this ... I am not sure where to begin looking in core Drupal code to figure this out and think about a patch.

subscribing

This is annoying me too... everything other than checkbox/checkboxes honours the #default value, but these two types don't.

Seem to have a useable workaround, setting $_POST['formelement'] to the required default value if $_POST['formelement'] isn't set. Thus if the element is being submitted, $_POST['formelement'] is processed as normal, but if we're building the form having come from another step, $_POST['formelement'] is set to the saved value.

For example, using an input checkboxes widget called "options", and getting the default from the session variable with the same name:

        //----- hack to work around defaults bug in Drupal 5.1 -----
        if (!isset($_POST['options'])) {
            $_POST['options'] = $_SESSION['options'];
        }
        //----- to here -----
         $form['options'] = array(
        '#type' => 'checkboxes',
        '#title' => 'Options',
        '#options' => array('Option 1','Option 2','Option 3'),
        '#default_value' => $_SESSION['options'],
        );

Hope this helps someone else.

Actually, the code above doesn't quite work for multi-step forms, as you can't de-select all the checkboxes at once (in that case $_POST['options'] should be empty).

An improved hack is this:

...
// code here to increment/decrement $step for our multi-part form
...
// Only copy saved values into $_POST if we're coming from the previous or next page
if ($_POST['step'] != $step) $_POST['options'] = $_SESSION['options'];

Please re-open if this is confirmed on the current version of Drupal 5, currently 5.16.