ExtJS Radio Buttons and Square Brackets

Aug 8, 2008

While creating an ExtJS form with several radio buttons today I ran into a bug which caused none of them to work as expected, even though there were no errors/exceptions. To cut a long story short, it was because I was setting the name to "schedule[include_type]" - like this:

{
  xtype: 'radio',
  name: 'schedule[include_type]',
  inputValue: 'page',
  boxLabel: 'Show page:'
}

{
  xtype: 'radio',
  name: 'schedule[include_type]',
  inputValue: 'page',
  boxLabel: 'Show page:'
}

This radio button is one of 4, which allows the user which type of file they want to include on a particular model (a Schedule in this case) - be it Page, Video, Category or one other. The thing is - none of them work with the square brackets in the name. If you remove the brackets, they all work correctly, but the server-side is relying on those brackets to be present to group the data correctly.

In the end I bit the bullet and updated my submit method to add a new parameter directly - here's a full example:

form = new Ext.form.FormPanel({
  items: [
    {
      xtype: 'radio',
      name: 'include_type',
      inputValue: 'page',
      boxLabel: 'Show page:'
    },
    {
      xtype: 'radio',
      name: 'include_type',
      inputValue: 'category',
      boxLabel: 'Show category:'
    },
    ... plus some extra items
  ],
  buttons: [
    {
      text: 'Save',
      handler: function() {
        
        //find the currently selected include_type from the form
        var include_type = this.form.getValues()['include_type'];
        
        //note the params option - this needs to be added manually otherwhise 
        //schedule[include_type] won't appear
        form.form.submit({
          waitMsg: 'Saving Data...',
          params: "schedule[include_type]=" + include_type,
          url: some url...
        });
      }
    }
  ]
})

form = new Ext.form.FormPanel({
  items: [
    {
      xtype: 'radio',
      name: 'include_type',
      inputValue: 'page',
      boxLabel: 'Show page:'
    },
    {
      xtype: 'radio',
      name: 'include_type',
      inputValue: 'category',
      boxLabel: 'Show category:'
    },
    ... plus some extra items
  ],
  buttons: [
    {
      text: 'Save',
      handler: function() {
        
        //find the currently selected include_type from the form
        var include_type = this.form.getValues()['include_type'];
        
        //note the params option - this needs to be added manually otherwhise 
        //schedule[include_type] won't appear
        form.form.submit({
          waitMsg: 'Saving Data...',
          params: "schedule[include_type]=" + include_type,
          url: some url...
        });
      }
    }
  ]
})

Note: I don't usually add buttons in the way above so I'm not sure if the form.form.submit will work correctly here - see http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/?class=Ext.form.FormPanel for information about overriding submit.

So what we're doing here is finding which radio button is currently checked, and appending this under "schedule[include_type]" when POSTing the form variables to the server. This really isn't pleasant but seems to be the best way around this limitation for now.

I regularly use square brackets in other Ext JS Fields - Radio Buttons seem to be the only ones that have this problem. http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=185296 has a bit of background behind this, but no real solution.

What to Read Next

For more on handling ExtJS form issues, consider reading about a weird bug preventing ExtJS checkboxes from submitting properly, which highlights challenges similar to those experienced with radio buttons. Additionally, learning how to force Ext.data.Store to use GET requests could provide valuable insights into better managing data retrieval within your ExtJS applications.