How to insert entries into different tables from one page? - php

Question

I have 4 tables named wheels, tires, oil_change, other_servicing.
Now, I have an order form for the person that comes for a car checkup. I want to have all of these 4 options in a form. So say someone comes for new wheels but not for tires, oil change, and other servicing and they will leave the other fields blank. And then you might have a scenario where all four fields are filled up. So how do i submit each to their respective tables from that one form?

Answer 1

The form will submit to a single php script. In the php you must do 4 separate queries to put the data into the correct tables. For example if you have this in php:
$wheels = $_REQUEST['wheels'];
$tires = $_REQUEST['tires'];
$oil_ch = $_REQUEST['oil_change'];
$other = $_REQUEST['other_servicing'];
mysql_query("INSERT INTO wheels (wheels) VALUES $wheels");
mysql_query("INSERT INTO tires (tires) VALUES $tires");
mysql_query("INSERT INTO oil_change (oil_change) VALUES $oil_ch");
mysql_query("INSERT INTO other_servicing (other_servicing) VALUES $other");
Of course I don't know the schemas of your tables but this is just an example of how you have to split it into 4 queries.
However, I would suggest to you that rather than have 4 tables for this, just have one table and make each of these a column instead. There may be other details I don't know about which would necessitate separate tables but with the info you have given seems like it would be simpler.

Answer 2

This shouldn't present any problem. The PHP page that receives the form data can run as many queries as you want. The skeleton for the code would be something like:
if($_POST['wheels']) { //if they filled in the field for wheels...
mysql_query("insert into wheels...");
}
if($_POST['tires']) { //if they filled in the field for tires...
mysql_query("insert into tires...");
}
if($_POST['oil_change']) { //if they filled in the field for oil_change...
mysql_query("insert into oil_change...");
}
... etc

Answer 3

for each form you would have something like this:
if($_POST['wheels']){mysql_query("INSERT INTO wheel_table (column1) VALUES (" . 'mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['wheels']) . "')")
this checks if the form element has been set, or has a value, and if it does, it creates a new row in the corresponding table.
if the form element's name is not 'wheels', you'll have the change $_POST['wheels'] to $_POST['form_element_name'] and if the table's name is not wheel_table, you'll have to change that and same with the column name.
this all has to be wrapped in a

Answer 4

In the form action you will specify the php file that will process the form.
In the php script file you will make tests of what parts of the forms are used and inserted in the respective table.
Try to separate the tests and the inserts of each table, to be easier for you.

Answer 5

This could be useful
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) // assuming you have submit button with name 'submit'
{
$fields['wheels'] = isset($_POST['wheels']) ? $_POST['wheels'] : null;
$fields['tires'] = isset($_POST['tires']) ? $_POST['tires'] : null;
$fields['oil_change'] = isset($_POST['oil_change']) ? $_POST['oil_change'] : null;
$fields['other_servicing'] = isset($_POST['other_servicing']) ? $_POST['other_servicing'] : null;
$q="";
foreach($fieldsas $key=>$val)
{
if($val!==null)
{
$q="insert into ".$key." values('".mysql_real_escape_string($val)."')";
mysql_query($q);
}
}
if($q==="") echo " Please fill up at least one field !";
}
This is just the core idea, using this you can execute multiple queries if user submits more than one fields at once and you may have to add other values (i.e. user_id).