Wordpress widget value not save?

Question

all

Now i create a widget plugin, here i have problem the checkbox problem, dont have save the value, then i search form Net, and found the answer, but now i dont have understand the means of (bool).

        <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'post_date' ); ?>">
    <input class="checkbox" type="checkbox" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'post_date' ); ?>" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'post_date' ); ?>"  <?php checked( (bool) $instance['post_date'], true ); ?> />
    <?php _e( 'Show post date' ); ?>
  </label>

Answer 1

I also got this problem before. I try to use the (bool) but the problem still occured.

(bool) $instance['post_date']

will always return true unless $instance['post_date'] is an empty array, NULL or empty string

you can check this from http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php

<?php
    var_dump((bool) "");        // bool(false)
    var_dump((bool) 1);         // bool(true)
    var_dump((bool) -2);        // bool(true)
    var_dump((bool) "foo");     // bool(true)
    var_dump((bool) 2.3e5);     // bool(true)
    var_dump((bool) array(12)); // bool(true)
    var_dump((bool) array());   // bool(false)
    var_dump((bool) "false");   // bool(true)
?>

so to handle this problem, I print the $instance['post_date'] and get the value 'on'. So now my code currently look something like this and working perfectly.

<?php checked( $instance['post_date'], 'on' ); ?>