I'm building a system that shows "events for this month", listed by day and hour.
When I create the event, I set a start date, an end date and a hour.
Let's say that one event starts at 07-10-2011 and ends 07-12-2011. The problem is that some days in this date range will not feature the event. As an example, this event may happen all days and at the same hour, except some few days where it will not happen or has a different hour (think about a show with an opening date different than the rest of the days).
I'm using PHP, MySQL and Codeigniter and my doubt is about the right way to save those dates in the database. Another table with all the dates and the event ID, or save them all in a field inside the event row? Or something else?
Thanks
I'd create two tables. The first table is an events table, and the other is an events_dates table. This way you can create a single event and have as many dates linked to it as you want.
The events_dates table can be as detailed or simple as you want. If it were me, I'd probably have a start_time and end_time column, as well as an event_id and any other data you want.
I would store the range date in a table and then create an "exception" table where you can store your exceptions.
Related
I'm working on a calendar application where you can set events which can last multiple days. On a given date there can be multiple events, already started or starting that day. The user will view everything as a calendar.
Now, my question is: which of the following is the right approach? Is there an even better approach?
1) use 2 tables, events and events_days and store the days of every event in the event_days table
2) use just one table with the events stored with a date_from field and a date_to field and generate every time with mysql and php a list of days for the desired range with the events
Obviously the first option will require much more db storage, while the second one will require a bigger work from the server to generate the list (every single time the user asks for it).
The db storage shouldn't be a problem for now, but i don't know if will be the same in the future. And i fear the second option will need too many resources.
I have used both approaches. Here is a list of pros and cons that I have noticed:
Two tables: events(id) and events_dates(eventid, date)
Pros:
Query to check if there are events on a given date or between given dates is trivial:
SELECT eventid FROM events_dates WHERE date BETWEEN '2015-01-01' AND '2015-01-10'
Query to select the list of dates for an event is trivial
SELECT date FROM events_dates WHERE eventid = 1
Cons:
While selecting the list of dates is trivial, inserting the list of dates for an event requires scripting (or a table-of-dates)
Additional measures required to make sure data remains consistent, for example, when inserting an event spanning three days you need four insert queries
This structure not suitable in situations where time is involved, for example, meetings schedule
One table: events(id, start, end)
Cons:
Query to check if there is are events on a given date or between given dates is tricky.
Query to select the list of dates for an event is tricky.
Pros:
Inserting an event is trivial
This structure suitable in situations where time is involved
In my application I'm developing a functionality for creating "reminders".
A reminder has a date and a time. In my application, I have a form to create / edit reminders - this has two separate fields to input this information:
<input type="text" name="date"></input> <!-- datepicker plugin -->
<input type="text" name="time"></input> <!-- timepicker plugin -->
Now as a rule I have always used a DATETIME column whenever I have needed to store date/time, however this is the first time I'm having to store a user inputted date/time.
I figured it would be best to have seperate DATE and TIME columns, because it would be easier to insert / retrieve the data to / from my application. For example I won't have to combine the values from the two input fields to create a single value to insert in to the database. And likewise I won't have to split a single value in to two values to populate the form fields in edit mode.
But on the other hand won't it be easier to query the table if I used one column? What do you think?
You should build bottom-up (database at the bottom). Don't think about the application, just the database. Now, what makes sense at the database level. DateTime.
So you need to write extra code at the application level.
Please see it
Adding a Timepicker to jQuery UI Datepicker
http://trentrichardson.com/examples/timepicker/
convert your date time according to your mysql format and store it
$mydate = strtotime($_POST['date']);
$myfinaldate = date("d-m-y", $mydate);
$mytime = strtotime($_POST['time']);
$myfinaltime = date("H:i:s", $mytime);
Seperating columns is unlogical. You can use timestamp as datatype and you can use mktime function to parse date and time easily.
Doesn't it depends on the system you're creating.
If you want to store dates beyond 2038 I would store the datetime and time separate.
what if you are developing a reservation application and at one end you need to know on what date and at what time to schedule an appointment for a user, and at the other end, you need to match the user to a doctors schedule. You save the doctors schedule in a database and you need to know (amoung other things) when the doctor is available (on what days), and at what times. Let us forget about the on what days for a moment, and focus on the time shedule first...
You need to develop a programmable schedule so that if you know that the doctor works 6 months in a particular calendar year. (Jan - Jun), He or she may work (9-5 M,W,Fr), and (10-3 T,Th). Sat and Sunday the doctor is off. So you develop a table to hold the Daily time schedule with 2 columns to hold the daily starttime and daily end time for each day of the week. 14 columns in total and a primary and possibly secondary key. So now its time for some date arithmetic (This is where it gets hairy:-|...
You can say i your query: (mySQL)
Select such and such...
where form.theapptdatetime between doctorschedule_startime_tuesday and doctorschedule_endime_tuesday
and this will do a match to see if your datetime is within the date range of your doctorschedulestartime and endtime... but what if all you need is the time??
will the date arithmetic still work if the time value is stored as a datetime???
In other words if I have 01:00:00 as my doctorschedule_startime, is this a legitimate date value for my arithmetic to work, or will a date portion be forced upon me.
Perhaps I should store the time as a varchar, and convert it to a suitable datetime value and perform the arithmetic in the code instead of the query????
An example comes to my mind as to when have date and time split:
You could want to have DATE a part of the unique index, so that a user is only allowed to add 1 record to some table per date, but still you want to know the TIME he added it, so you keep DATE and TIME separate.
I have a database of events that are used to fill a PHP calender. I want to also have a page that lists three upcoming events in date order when ever the page loads. The records have a separate field for day, month and year. The issue i run in to is getting records that accrue after the current date.
Table structure will be good to have but I will guess the query that you need. Use that as a point to start from.
SELECT * FROM events WHERE CONCAT(year,'-',month,'-',date) > DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),'%Y-%m-%d')
ORDER BY year DESC, month DESC, date DESC LIMIT 3;
You are going to have to build a date from your three fields to test against current date, or split current date into year, month, day and test all three against data in your table.
Got to say, not a brill decision on someones part to split date like that.
Need table structure before we can properly help query wise.
TLDR: Need to understand the best way for a user to be able to add a date(s) & time(s) for an event, and how to structure database
Explanation:
When a user adds an event, they need to be able to choose the date of the event, whether or not it will repeat daily/weekly/monthly, start and end time of the event or "all-day", if it's weekdays only or weekend...etc. Basically everything you can do w/ Google calendar when you create an event and they need to be able to edit it too (if that matters). But ALSO, they need to be able to add another date/time - for instance:
Add an event where on Monday and Wednesday of this week and three weeks from now, it goes from 8-10pm. On Tuesday and Thursday this week only, it goes from 6-9pm.
My thoughts so far:
Create a "dates" table with a HABTM relationship w/ my "events" table. When a user adds a date (with all the options of repeat..etc etc., it runs a function to process those repeats/limits...etc and adds all the dates into the dates table w/ their start/end times.
But - then how do I manage it if they want to edit that - since it just created multiple fields.
Question / Help?:
Am I even on the right track with this? I'm new to CakePHP, and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the best ways to do things... I'm not yet looking for technical help (would not turn it down though) - for now, I just need to get the idea for the best way to structure everything to be able to manage this. Maybe I need a "dates" table AND a "times" table? Maybe a "dates" table with an id that references many individual rows in a "dates_data" table?
Thank you very much ahead of time for any help / direction!
You're doing great. Let me just share my thoughts.
If I would design this, I'd have 3 models:
Event
id
user_id
description
created (datetime)
updated (datetime)
Schedule
id
event_id
description
start (datetime)
end (datetime)
duration (time, if empty(NULL) it means this is a whole day event)
repeat_time (e.g. 3:00pm means 3pm daily)
repeat_day (for weekly/monthly, e.g. Monday, Monday & Tuesday, Monday to Friday)
repeat_date (for monthly, e.g. 1 means every 1st day of month, 31 means every 31st or end of the month)
repeat_anniversary (for specific date every year, e.g. every December 25th)
Date
id
schedule_id
start (datetime)
end (datetime)
Now let's have an example of an event. Let's say we want an event that will repeat every Saturday and Sunday of May & June 2011 at 1:00pm until 3:00pm (two hours):
The events table contains the basic detail of an event. One record will be saved here.
The schedules table is separated so that you could add multiple schedules. One record will also be saved in schedule with the following fields:
duration: 02:00
start: 2011-05-01
end: 2011-06-30
repeat_time: 13:00:00
repeat_day: 01,07 (Sunday & Saturday)
Now on dates table, there will be 17 records, one for each occurrence of the schedule. The reason why I separated this is that it will be easier for me know when will the event fall. This will be useful, for example, when creating the calendar. One of the records for the dates table will look like this:
start: 2011-05-01 13:00:00
end: 2011-05-01 15:00:00
Now what if the user edits the schedule? The schedule record would be edited. All dates record would also be edited. You don't wanna delete and recreate the dates, since you might use each record for another model (e.g. user might want to tag other users as attendees for each date of the event).
I hope this helps. Goodluck on your project!
Current MySQL table schema: "Date" column with yyyy-mm-dd values
Assuming you are building a web app to rent out XBox's. Would you:
Create a a few checkboxes with "Every Monday," "Every Tuesday," "etc..." (Implication: If it's every Monday, how would you insert dates of only Monday's into the DB? Perhaps only insert the Monday's for the next three months initially and auto-increment and keep the tables light?"
Use a multi-datepicker for users to select multiple dates (Implication: User experience drops since the user will need to select more dates as time progresses?)
Other options?
How would add "hours" in addition to dates?
Store the data separately:
Start date - the start of the range
End date - the end of the range
Days of the week - the days of the week during the range (store this as a JSON array)
Hours per day - the hours per day (store this as a JSON object, with either start/end time per day of the week)
Try taking a look at Google Calendar add event page. They organize the times very smartly. It should give you some ideas for it.