cakephp helper ajax,php - Serialize multiple CakePHP formhelper forms for ajax post - Stack Overflow

I have a situation where I have been handed an already built user interface that contains a tabbed view where each tab contains a form generated using the CakePHP formhelper. Each of these forms has it's own id and the former developer daisy chained ajax requests for each form on a single submit.

The client still wants all forms to post simultaneously so I was hoping I could serialize multiple forms like this:

var post_data = $("#form-1, #form-2").serialize();

$.ajax({

type: "POST",

url: "/places/save_form",

data: post_data,

success: function(result) {},

error: function(result) {}

});

However, in the end point where it posts to I seem to get an empty array from $this->request->data; whereas that returned all my form values when I was serializing a single form.

I also don't get anything in the $_POST once in the controller so it seems like it is being scrubbed before it gets there.

Is there any way to get multiple formhelper forms into a single ajax post and then deal with saving them on the other end?