Title: Saving user selection from HTML shortcode to database
Last modified: November 5, 2022

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# Saving user selection from HTML shortcode to database

 *  Resolved [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/)
 * (@atebol)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/)
 * I’m using the following code to save the contents of my HTML element into my 
   hidden field. However, clicking Submit on the form only submits the shortcode
   itself (`{filter_cm_tooltip_parse}`) to the database and not the selected value
   of the select field generated in the shortcode?
 *     ```
       // Render shortcode on HTML fields
       add_filter( 'forminator_replace_variables', 'do_shortcode' );
       // Include shortcode output to hidden field
       add_filter( 'forminator_custom_form_submit_field_data', function( $field_data_array ){
   
           $form = array(
               'field' => 'hidden-1', // Form hidden field
               'shortcode' => '{filter_cm_tooltip_parse}' // Shortcode to be rendered
           );
   
           foreach( $field_data_array as &$field_single ){
               if( $field_single['name'] === $form['field'] ){
                   $field_single['value'] = strip_tags( do_shortcode( $form['shortcode'] ) );
               }
           }
   
           return $field_data_array;
       });
       ```
   

Viewing 11 replies - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)

[←](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/?output_format=md)
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2

 *  Plugin Support [Nithin – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport11)
 * [3 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16334405)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/),
 * Since we haven’t heard from you for a while. I’ll mark this thread as resolved
   for now. Please feel free to re-open the thread if you need further assistance.
 * Best Regards
   Nithin
 *  Thread Starter [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/)
 * (@atebol)
 * [3 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16574880)
 * Apologies [@wpmudev-support8](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudev-support8/)
   for my slow response. I’m afraid I tried your code but I get ‘No results found’
   showing on the select field? I’ve included [here ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NVI2GpHEX-G234JBdyqem2OaPGWHhadr/view?usp=share_link)
   my latest PHP file. I’ve only included 1 select field to make troubleshooting
   easier. If we can get that 1 field working as expected, I will then replicate
   it for the other select fields.
 * Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you
    -  This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/).
    -  This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/).
 *  Plugin Support [Laura – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudev-support8/)
 * (@wpmudev-support8)
 * [3 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16577051)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/)
 * Thanks for response!
 * Please try slightly different version of the code:
 * [https://pastebin.com/WKA2nR2T](https://pastebin.com/WKA2nR2T)
 * I think this should work though I wasn’t able to test directly due to it having
   to connect to external DB. Note: I hope I didn’t leave any syntax error there
   but you may need to double-check (or just watch error log in case there were 
   slight errors). Don’t hesitate to let us know in case you weren’t able to handle
   them – we’ll assist of course.
 * Best regards,
    Adam
 *  Thread Starter [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/)
 * (@atebol)
 * [3 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16579849)
 * Thank you for your response [@wpmudev-support8](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudev-support8/)
   but I still get ‘No results found’ on the select box 🙁 I seem to get this error
   on the console: [https://pasteboard.co/iREQXzr0Q2nu.png](https://pasteboard.co/iREQXzr0Q2nu.png)
 *  Plugin Support [Nithin – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport11)
 * [3 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16588160)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/),
 * The screenshot that you have shared in general shouldn’t be causing an issue 
   with the given PHP snippet.
 * I’m afraid, we’ll need to troubleshoot the given code part by part in order to
   rule out what might be causing.
 * However, I tried to test the last snippet we shared but I’m having difficulty
   with making it work on my side.
 * So I would like to take a step back and try the snippet which you previously 
   tested ie here:
   [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NVI2GpHEX-G234JBdyqem2OaPGWHhadr/view?usp=share_link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NVI2GpHEX-G234JBdyqem2OaPGWHhadr/view?usp=share_link)
 * The above snippet when tested does work in my test site.
 * There could be a number of use cases for the code to not work, to start with 
   we would like to rule out whether the issue isn’t due to the incorrect DB queries
   in your code.
 * Could you please confirm whether it works fine if you try passing an array instead
   of the DB query in the code snippet?
 * That’s please check and see whether the following snippet works or not out of
   the box.
 * [https://pastebin.com/BNkeJ1N9](https://pastebin.com/BNkeJ1N9)
 * The above code is tweaked from the code you have shared from your Google Drive.
 * Where the following lines for the DB queries:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       $conn = new mysqli('SERVERIP', 'USERNAME', 'PASSWORD', 'DBNAME') or die ('Cannot connect to db');
   
       $result = $conn->query("SELECT wdt_ID, clientname FROM wp_wpdatatable_2 ORDER BY clientname ASC");
       ```
   
 * Are replaced with an array, so that the data from the array would get populated.
 * The above should help in ruling out whether the snippet works out of the box 
   or not.
 * If the abve works fine then I’m afraid the issue might have to do with how you
   are calling the queries from the database.
 * Could you please check and see how that goes? Please do make sure the following
   line in the given snippet in updated to your form ID:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       private $form_id    = 14539;
       ```
   
 * You can add the code as a [mu-plugins](https://wpmudev.com/docs/using-wordpress/installing-wordpress-plugins/#installing-mu-plugins).
   Please do let us know how that goes.
 * Kind Regards,
 * Nithin
 *  Thread Starter [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/)
 * (@atebol)
 * [3 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16637216)
 * [@wpmudevsupport11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * Apologies for my slow reply Nithin! I’m making progress! I’ve been able to get
   this code working ([https://pastebin.com/aX8dV0eQ](https://pastebin.com/aX8dV0eQ)).
   The SQL results display correctly in the select box. However, when I click submit
   on the form itself, I get the error `Selected value does not exist.`appear under
   the Client select field?
 *  Plugin Support [Nithin – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport11)
 * [3 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16650653)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/),
 * Sorry for the delay regarding this. I gave a quick test with the previous code
   and could notice it does work out of the box and wasn’t able to replicate such
   an error.
 * Seems like the error is more specific to how you are currently called the DB 
   queries.
 * I’m afraid, it’ll require a bit more time to go through your code to see what
   could be suggested. We’ll keep you posted once investigated asap.
 * Kind Regards,
 * Nithin
 *  Plugin Support [Nithin – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport11)
 * [3 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16665051)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/),
 * We tested this out and the following should work fine:
   [https://pastebin.com/DbKP6Ws8](https://pastebin.com/DbKP6Ws8)
 * Could you please check and see how the above snippet behaves? The above should
   populate all the 4 select fields. So please do make sure the DB queries are correct
   for the rest of the 3 select fields.
 * You can also test the following which populates from the wp_posts table as example:
   
   [https://pastebin.com/d6GDErMH](https://pastebin.com/d6GDErMH)
 * So that you could compare and see whats being missed.
 * I tested in my test server and I’m not able to find any issues with submissions.
 * Please do check and see how it goes.
 * 
   Kind Regards,
 * Nithin
 *  Thread Starter [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/)
 * (@atebol)
 * [3 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16665816)
 * Hi Nithin (@wpmudevsupport11)
 * Thank you so much for your time and persistence with this! The code displays 
   and submits the data correctly for select boxes 4, 5 and 6 but not 3 (clientname)
   for some reason? Also, instead of submitting the selected data to the Forminator
   table, can the data be saved to my own custom table?
 * Thank you again
    -  This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/).
    -  This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by [gareth94](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/).
 *  Plugin Support [Jair – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport15/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport15)
 * [3 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16672397)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/),
 * I hope you are doing well today!
 * This issue has been flagged to our SLS (Second Line Support) Team so that they
   can dig into this further. We will post an update here as soon as more information
   is available.
 * Please keep in mind that our SLS Team deals with more complicated issues, so 
   it may take a little longer for them to reply here.
 * Thank you for your patience while we look into this further.
 * Kind regards,
   Zafer
 *  Plugin Support [Nithin – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport11)
 * [3 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16677472)
 * Hi [@atebol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/atebol/),
 * > The code displays and submits the data correctly for select boxes 4, 5 and 
   > 6 but not 3 (clientname) for some reason? 
 * Did you just copy paste the given code in the pastebine exactly as shared before?
   Seems like there is a minor correction in the given code here:
   [https://pastebin.com/DbKP6Ws8](https://pastebin.com/DbKP6Ws8)
 * There are references to two $results variables in the given code:
 *     ```wp-block-code
        $result = $conn->query("SELECT ID, post_title FROM wp_posts ORDER BY ID ASC");
   
        $result = $conn->query("SELECT wdt_ID, clientname FROM wp_wpdatatable_2 ORDER BY clientname ASC");
       ```
   
 * The 1st line in the above is incorrect and is calling from wp_posts and should
   be removed. Maybe that was the case? It was more of a mistake on my side in the
   pastebin code, sorry about that.
 * If you still have issues even after making the above changes, then would highly
   recommend whether the query used is correct or not.
 * Please do let us know how that goes.
 * Kind Regards,
 * Nithin

Viewing 11 replies - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)

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## Tags

 * [html](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/html/)
 * [php](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php/)

 * 26 replies
 * 6 participants
 * Last reply from: [Nithin – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport11/)
 * Last activity: [3 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/saving-user-selection-from-html-shortcode-to-database/page/2/#post-16677472)
 * Status: resolved