Forum OpenACS Q&A: handling an ad_form values generated dynamically

I got this confusing problem, maybe someone can help me here:

first is construted a form based on the data that the DB should have:

db_foreach my_query { *SQL* } {
    ad_form -extend -name my_form -form {
        {fte${grade_level_id}:naturalnum
            {label $description}
            {html {size 5}}
            {value $fte}
        }
    }
}

you see that the name of each  var is: fte${grade_level_id}

then on the -on_submit:
I need to use each one of those variables in this way:

-on_submit {
    db_foreach my_query { *SQL* } {
        my_proc $grade_level_id fte${grade_level_id}
    }
}

but at:  fte${grade_level_id}
that gives me the name of the variable,  not its content! and what is needed is the content.

TIA.

Yes!
Thanks Jade! ;o)
I remember that I had some task like that before in handling variable names, and solved it at that time, but now I didn't remember how until your post.

Thanks again!!

The variables are not substituted at that level in ad_form You can build up the form definition as a list like this:

set form [list]
db_foreach my_query { *SQL* } {
    lappend form [list fte${grade_level_id}:naturalnum [list label $description] [list html [list size 5]] [list value $fte]]
}

Another trick you can use it to put the values into an array by using a . in the element name.

set form [list]
db_foreach my_query { *SQL* } {
    lappend form [list fte.${grade_level_id}:naturalnum [list label $description] [list html [list size 5]] [list value $fte]]
}

Then you can add fte:array,optional in ad_page_contract and an array named fte will be created with one element for each grade_level_id with the grade_level_id as the key.