getPost() on array element in plugin

Question

I'm trying to get data submitted from a form using craft()->request->getPost(), but I'm not sure what to do when the form name is an array element.

For example, I have a form with:

<label for="notes">Notes</label>
<textarea rows="6" id="notes" name="fields[notes]"></textarea>

and want to use:

craft()->request->getPost('fields[notes]');

but when I do this I don't get any data from the form, and I'm not sure what to put in getPost() to let it know its an array.

It will work fine if I change the name to "notes" and use getPost('notes'), but I'd like to be able to get it working with the array.

Answer 1

You can use dot notation:

craft()->request->getPost('fields.notes');

Answer 2

Note:

There might be cases where you want to check whether the post data is an actual array before using it, this isn't possible with the dot notation:

$data = craft()->request->getPost('fields');

if (is_array($data)) {
    //Do stuff...
}
else {
    //Do stuff...
}

For example the ContactForm plugin allows you to specify additional body fields that way:

One message field:    
<input id="msg" type="text" name="message" value="">

Multiple message fields:
<input id="phone" type="text" name="message[phone]" value="">
<input id="name" type="text" name="message[name]" value="">

.

Also like Selvin noted in the comments, you might want to check whether the field is actually set to prevent errors.