Themeing custom form as table and getting updated field values on submit

Question

In my attempt to create a table that shows all of the locales for a node and contains two editable fields, I've come up with the following functions:

function language_dashboard_overview_form($form, &$form_state, $entity) {
  $form = [];
  $options = [];

  $header = [
    'language_locale' => t('Language Locale'),
    'status' => t('Status'),
    'staging_url' => t('Staging URL'),
    'start_date' => t('Start Date'),
    'end_date' => t('End Date'),
    'display_title' => t('Display Title'),
  ];

  $translations = $entity->translations->data;

  foreach($translations as $locale => $locale_data) {
    // Add the CSS for the icons.
    drupal_add_css(drupal_get_path('module','language_dashboard') . '/css/language_dashboard.css');
    // Link to edit page for locale.
    $locale_link = "<a href='/$locale/node/$entity->nid/edit?destination=node/$entity->nid/languagepublishing'>". $locale ."</a>";
    // Locale status
    $status = $locale_data['status'] == 1 ? '<div class="check-wrapper"><span class="fluke-icon fluke-icon-checkmark"></span></div>'
      : '<div class="close-wrapper"><span class="fluke-icon fluke-icon-close"></span></div>';
    // Link to item on staging site
    $uri = entity_uri('node', $entity);
    $path_locale =  drupal_get_path_alias($uri['path'], $locale);
    $full_path = 'http://staging-igcommerce.flukedev.com/' . $locale . '/' . $path_locale;
    l('<div class="search-wrapper"><span class="fluke-icon fluke-icon-search"></span></div>', $full_path, array('html' => TRUE, 'attributes'=>array('target'=>'blank')));
    $stage_url = l('<div class="search-wrapper"><span class="fluke-icon fluke-icon-search"></span></div>', $full_path, array('html' => TRUE, 'attributes'=>array('target'=>'blank')));
    // Display title
    $title = fluke_solr_fallback($locale, $entity, 'field_content_title', "value", FALSE);
    // Define start and end date text fields.
    $start_date = isset($entity->field_locale_publishing_dates[$locale][0]['value']) ? $entity->field_locale_publishing_dates[$locale][0]['value'] : '2049-01-01T00:00:00';
    //$start_date_object = new DateTime($entity->field_locale_publishing_dates[$locale][0]['value']);
    $start_date_object = new DateTime($start_date);
    $new_start_date = $start_date_object->format('n-j-Y');

    $end_date = isset($entity->field_locale_publishing_dates[$locale][0]['value2']) ? $entity->field_locale_publishing_dates[$locale][0]['value2'] : '2050-01-01T00:00:00';
    //$end_date_object = new DateTime($entity->field_locale_publishing_dates[$locale][0]['value2']);
    $end_date_object = new DateTime($end_date);
    $new_end_date = $end_date_object->format('m-d-Y');

    $form['locales'][$locale]['checkbox_' . $locale] = [
      '#type' => 'checkbox'
    ];

    $form['locales'][$locale]['language_locale'] = [
      '#markup' => $locale_link
    ];

    $form['locales'][$locale]['status'] = [
      '#markup' => $status
    ];

    $form['locales'][$locale]['staging_url'] = [
      '#markup' => $stage_url
    ];

    $form['locales'][$locale]['start_date'] = [
      '#type' => 'textfield',
      '#size' => 10,
      '#maxlength' => 10,
      '#value' => $new_start_date
    ];

    $form['locales'][$locale]['end_date'] = [
      '#type' => 'textfield',
      '#size' => 10,
      '#maxlength' => 10,
      '#value' => $new_end_date
    ];

    $form['locales'][$locale]['display_title'] = [
      '#markup' => $title
    ];

  }

  $form['submit'] = [
    '#type' => 'submit',
    '#value' => t('Submit')
  ];

  return $form;
}

/**
 * Theme function for language_dashboard_overview_form
 */
function theme_language_dashboard_overview_form($vars) {
  $output = '';
  $rows = [];
  $form = $vars['form'];
  $locale_items = $form['locales'];

  $header = [
    t('Select'),
    t('Language Locale'),
    t('Status'),
    t('Staging URL'),
    t('Start Date'),
    t('End Date'),
    t('Display Title')
  ];

  $locales = array_filter(array_keys($locale_items), function($value) {
    return substr($value, 0, 1) != '#';
  });

  foreach($locales as $locale) {
    $test = 'a';
    $row = [
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['checkbox_' . $locale]),
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['language_locale']),
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['status']),
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['staging_url']),
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['start_date']),
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['end_date']),
      drupal_render($form['locales'][$locale]['display_title'])
    ];

    $rows[] = $row;
  }

  $table_vars = [
    'header' => $header,
    'rows' => $rows
  ];

  $output = theme('table', $table_vars);

  $output .= drupal_render($form['submit']);
  $output .= drupal_render_children($form);

  return $output;
}

/**
 * Implements hook_entity_update().
 */
function fluke_staging_entity_update($entity, $type) {
  // Index the entity to the staging environment.
  if (in_array($type, array('node', 'taxonomy_term'))) {
    fluke_staging_index_solr($entity, $type, 'staging');
  }
}

This builds the form ok, but I have two big problems when the form is submitted: 1) $form_state['values'] doesn't contain multiple records; instead it just contains values for all of the checkboxes, the two text fields, and the form values (token, id , etc) 2) The date values don't contain the updated values input into the form.

What do I need to change to achieve my desired results of 1) getting all of the rows from the table and 2) getting the updated values from the text fields?

Answer 1

1) By default $form_state['values'] holds a flattened array, it does not maintain the original form array structure and each locales keys will override the previous one. However, this should not affect 'checkbox_' . $localeUse precisely because you build up this key from $localeUse variable.

You can change this default behavior by using the #tree property that defaults to FALSE : $form['locales']['#tree'] = TRUE;

---

2) Use $form_state['values'] when available in your form builder. Values should be available when the form is rebuilt after it is submitted. You will have to override defaults explicitly, e.g. :

if (!empty($form_state['values'][$locale]['start_date'])) {
  $start_date = $form_state['values'][$locale]['start_date'];
}
else {
  // initial assignment
}