NodeJS send to POST also unchecked input - node.js

Question

I have a form in which I iterate an input checkbox field n times, as follows:
<form class="" action="" method="post">
<% availableDirezione.forEach((direzione, index) => { %>
<p>
<input class="checkbox" type="checkbox" name="checkArray" id="check0" value="1">
<span><%= direzione.usr_udf_direzione %> (<%= direzione.usr_udf_dirid %>) </span>
</p>
<% }) %>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary float-right mb-5">Add Mapping</button><br>
</form>
I would like that in the post method, even the unchecked values are passed in the checkArray object.
Let's suppose the forEach iterates 5 times, and only the first and last checkbox are checked, I would like that the checkArray object is as following:
...
body : {
checkArray : [1,0,0,0,1]
}
...
I tried adding the hidden checkbox with a 0 value. It fills the checkArray object 5 times but in wrong error. Any tips?

Answer 1

Sorry but is not possible. This is not due to a Node.js limitation but rather a HTML standard. See second 'note' block in
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/checkbox (under value section)
Hence you may try to fight against it with some front-end js code, but I wont suggest it. What you need to do is have a mean to reconstruct the array at the end like this:
<form class="" action="" method="post">
<% availableDirezione.forEach((direzione, index) => { %>
<p>
<input class="checkbox" type="checkbox" name="checkArray" id="check0" value="<%= index %>">
<span><%= direzione.usr_udf_direzione %> (<%= direzione.usr_udf_dirid %>) </span>
</p>
<% }) %>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary float-right mb-5">Add Mapping</button><br>
</form>
Then when you receive your POST:
availableDirezione.map((direzione, index) => checkArray.indexOf(index) !== -1 0 : 1)
This will produce a [0, 1, 1, 0, 0 ... ] array
availableDirezione.map((direzione, index) => checkArray.indexOf(index) !== -1 direzione : none)
Were this will produce a [none, {direzione}, {direzione}, ... ] array
The trick is to use value as your value media and set there something adequate. In this case i used the index of the value inside availableDirezione array, but you may even put set it to something even more meaningful like a unique id present in your direzione objects.