Validating multiple selects?

[RetroDreams]

I'm writing a little script that will allow my members to rank the Top 25 college football teams each week during the season.

I'm not sure how to create the ranking page, so I came up with an idea to have 25 drop down selection menus but I'm wondering what the best way would be to make sure the end user does not select the same team twice? Has anyone done anything similar and what did they use to do this?

If there is a better way to have the end user make the selections, I'm all for it. However, keep in mind there are 120 teams to choose from.

[Adrian Schneider]

Compare array with unique array... $values = array(3, 5, ... );
$set_contains_dupes = $values === array_unique($values);This code I wrote last year might help you with some other automation, but here's what I used to validate a submitted team (quite complex rules) :

/**
* Checks a submitted team (create/edit) for validity.
*
* @return mixed true on success; string on failure (error msg)
*/
protected function verifySubmittedTeam()
{
$variablePositions = array('batsman', 'bowler');

$data = array();
$totalPlayers = array();

$wicketkeepers = $this->countWicketKeepers();

foreach ($this->Player->positions as $identifier => $bit)
{
################################################## ##################
// Main Team

$data[$identifier] = $this->vb->input->clean_gpc(
'p',
$identifier,
TYPE_ARRAY_UINT
);

// Removing Invalid/Empty Players
foreach ($data[$identifier] as $index => $playerid)
{
$name = $this->availablePlayers[$playerid]['name'];

if (!$playerid)
{
unset($data[$identifier][$index]);
}
else if (empty($this->availablePlayers[$playerid]))
{
return "$name is not an available player for this game.";
}
else if (!($this->availablePlayers[$playerid]['positions'] & $bit))
{
return "$name is not an available $identifier for this game.";
}

$totalPlayers[$playerid]++;
}

$count = count($data[$identifier]);
$required = $this->Team->slots[1][$identifier];

// Check player counts for static positions
if (
$count != $required and (
$this->game['type'] == 2 or (
in_array($this->game['type'], array(1, 3)) and
!in_array($identifier, $variablePositions)
)
)
)
{
$title = $this->Player->positionText[$identifier];

return "You have selected $count players for the $title position. A valid team
must contain exactly $required.";
}

$data['special'][$identifier] = $this->vb->input->clean_gpc(
'p',
"special_$identifier",
TYPE_ARRAY_UINT
);

################################################## ##################
// Reserves

$data["r_$identifier"] = $this->vb->input->clean_gpc(
'p',
"r_$identifier",
TYPE_ARRAY_UINT
);

// Removing Invalid/Empty Players
foreach ($data["r_$identifier"] as $index => $playerid)
{
$name = $this->availablePlayers[$playerid]['name'];

if (!$playerid and !($identifier == 'wicketkeeper' and $wicketkeepers == 2 and $index == 1))
{
unset($data["r_$identifier"][$index]);
return "Please select a player for reserve $identifier # " . ($index + 1) . ".";
}

if ($playerid and empty($this->availablePlayers[$playerid]))
{
return "$name is not an available player for this game.";
}

// Error on Unavailable Position
if ($playerid and !($this->availablePlayers[$playerid]['positions'] & $bit))
{
return "$name is not an available $identifier for this game.";
}

$totalPlayers[$playerid]++;
}


// Incorrect # of Players
if (($count = count($data["r_$identifier"])) != ($required = $this->Team->slots[1]["r_$identifier"]))
{
if (!(
$identifier == 'wicketkeeper' and
$wicketkeepers == 2 and
$required == 2 and
$count == 1
))
{
$title = 'Reserve ' . $this->Player->positionText[substr($identifier, 2)];

return "You have selected $count players for the $identifier position. A valid team
must contain exactly $required.";
}
}
}

// Check variable ODI positions
if ($this->game['type'] == 1 or $this->game['type'] == 3)
{
$numBatsmen = count($data['batsman']);
$numBowlers = count($data['bowler']);

if ($numBatsmen == 5)
{
if ($numBowlers != 3)
{
return 'With 5 batsmen, you must have <strong>3</strong> bowlers.';
}
}
else if ($numBatsmen == 4)
{
if ($numBowlers != 4)
{
return 'With 4 batsmen, you must have <strong>4</strong> bowlers.';
}
}
else
{
return 'You must have either 4 or 5 batsmen for your team to be valid.';
}
}

foreach ($totalPlayers as $playerid => $num)
{
if ($playerid and $num > 1)
{
$name = $this->availablePlayers[$playerid]['name'];

return "You can only use each player once; $name is in $num positions.";
}
}

$bonus = array();

foreach ($data['special'] as $identifier => $players)
{
foreach ($players as $num => $type)
{
if ($type)
{
if (strpos($identifier, 'r_') !== false)
{
return 'You may only select bonuses for main players.';
}

if (empty($data[$identifier][$num]))
{
continue;
}
$bonus[$data[$identifier][$num]] = $type;
}
}
}

$this->bonusPlayers = $bonus;
unset($data['special'], $bonus);

$expected = array(1, 1, 1, 1, 2);

$sorted = array_values($this->bonusPlayers);
sort($sorted);

if ($sorted !== $expected)
{
$assoc = array(1 => 'bonus players', 2 => 'captains');
$selected = array_count_values($sorted) + array(1 => 0, 2 => 0);

return "You must pick 4 bonus players and one captain; you have
$selected[1] $assoc[1] and $selected[2] $assoc[2].";
}



$this->submittedTeam = $data;
return true;

}

[RetroDreams]

I'm going to be honest and say I have no idea on how to implement something like this. There has got to be a simple solution out there, or maybe a different method of input that wouldn't allow for duplicate choices in the first place?

On another forum, someone pointed me to the site below. Have you ever messed around with anything like that before?

http://tool-man.org/examples/sorting.html

[Adrian Schneider]

The second part was to help give you some ideas... not really to use it.

Let's say the input name is user[], and then value is the user id. That'll pass it as an array, and then you could pretty simply use my first piece of code.

$users = $vbulletin->input->clean_gpc('p', 'user', TYPE_ARRAY_UINT);

if ($users !== array_unique($users))
{
// something was submitted twice.
}

[RetroDreams]

I know that wasn't the code, I was just stating that it was probably too involved. I just googled drag & drop team rankings and came across this. Do you know what it would entain to make something similar?

http://www.faniq.com/poll/2008-MLB-POWER-RANKINGS-188143

[Adrian Schneider]

The simplest way, IMO, is put a checkbox by each players name.

<div><input type="checkbox" name="player[]" value="$playerid" /> $playername</div>

Far easier to implement than custom javascript libraries like that.

[RetroDreams]

Here is another interesting one.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/rank?versionId=2&listId=22

--------------- Added 1206927768 at 1206927768 ---------------

The simplest way, IMO, is put a checkbox by each players name.

<div><input type="checkbox" name="player[]" value="$playerid" /> $playername</div>

Far easier to implement than custom javascript libraries like that.
How will that work? For each "pick" it needs to return teamid, rank and points.