How to alter the information stored in the databse

As I looked into this, I found it is really tricky so I wrote this for you to try. To install follow the directions on this page.

function location_form_handler($formData)
{
    $formName = 'Location Select'; // change this to your form's name
    $fieldName = 'location'; // change this to your field's name
    if ($formData && $formName == $formData->title && $formData->scanned_form_tags) {
        $emailSelected = $formData->posted_data[$fieldName];
        $valueSelected = null;
        foreach ($formData->scanned_form_tags as $tag) {
            if ($tag['name'] == $fieldName) {
                foreach ($tag['raw_values'] as $rawValue) {
                    // <value>|<email>
                    $valuesArray = explode('|', $rawValue);
                    if (count($valuesArray) == 2 && $valuesArray[1] == $emailSelected) {
                        $valueSelected = $valuesArray[0];
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
            if ($valueSelected != null) {
                break;
            }
        }
        if ($valueSelected != null) {
            $formData->posted_data[$fieldName] = $valueSelected;
            $formData->posted_data[$fieldName . '_email'] = $emailSelected;
        }
    }
    return $formData;
}
add_filter('cfdb_form_data', 'location_form_handler');

What I did here was change the value of the location field to the actual location, and I created another field “location_email” that contains the email. So in the CF7 definition, you can set your Email To to be [location_email] (or change it to <you field name>_email if it is not named “location”)

Thank you Michael. I really appreciate the help!

Added to functions.php and php works, but causes CF7 to throw a Failed to submit error, even though data does show in the DB – without the email I might add. ??

A sample of the actual data would be “WOOD – Dayton|[email protected]” and everything from the pipe to the right is stripped as expected. Would a simpler solution be to just grab the leftmost 4 characters as they are the important ones?

I can sort of follow the code, but this is about all I understand.
Line3/4 is setting variables.
Line5 looks like it’s checking $formName against $fieldname.

My goal is to create a new page that will populate a table based on the first 4 characters in the above field, a date field, and a null value in a third field (i.e., display WOOD, for mm/dd/yyyy, where no one has entered their initials). Add a required field for initials and a submit button to add to that database field. If I understood the first thing about PHP I think I would be as simple as a few if-else statements and echo variables in the table cells (yes, I have dreams of grandeur and little knowledge to back them up).

Just a little update. I created a child theme (I’ll figure this out yet)and added the code above to a new functions.php in the child and it works, but with the same error!

Failed to send error: In the CF7 form definition, in the section where it is sending mail “To” field, what do you have there? I.e. did you follow my instructions in the last sentence of my last post? If not, CF7 is trying to send to “WOOD – Dayton” instead of “[email protected]”

Get that fixed first, then worry about chopping it down to just “WOOD”

Michael, I did not. In my excitement I completely forgot about changing the code in the mail section. Pretty sad, I know.

OK. Then in the line of code where I have
$valueSelected = $valuesArray[0];
you could change to this to get just the first 4 chars
$valueSelected = substr($valuesArray[0], 0, 4);
(not sure if that is what you meant)