I have read other answers on this (or at least near to this) subject but I couldn't get a clear view of it so I'm asking for help again.
I have a complex dynamic HTML form that I would like to submit to database using PHP. The form is split into multiple tabs and in each tab I got checkboxes that trigger other parts of the form. Example: at a point in my form I got a checkbox group that has options of: "hotel" and "restaurant". If I check hotels, I get another part of the form displayed, specific for "hotels". Same thing for "restaurant". So it's very dynamic here and I don't know which would be the best approach for storing every form field in database. Because it could contain 15 fields or 20, depending on the selection. Any example would be appreciated as I'm not that advanced with database design.
Thank you!
So it's very dynamic here and I don't
know which would be the best approach
for storing every form field in
database.
I apologise if I have misunderstood you here but I believe that you should design the database according to the data and not the form. It is difficult to comment without knowing the exact details of your situation so here is an example:
If you usually dump all the data from a form into a single table, but because sometimes this will involve submitting 5 values and other times this will involve submitting 10 and so you are unsure how many columns your table should have, then I think the problem is in the database design.
Work out what pieces of data are dependent on other pieces of data. For example, you mention checking "hotel" might open up more fields specific to that choice. Let's assume this involves things like "en-suite", "bed type" etc. Then you should have 3 tables, a registration table (assuming the user is using the form to buy these services), a hotel table and a registration_hotel table. The registration table will record a number of details specific to the registration only such as the customer's name and a unique id number. The hotel table will hold information specific to the hotel only, such as how many rooms have en-suite. The registration_hotel table will hold details specific to that registration at that hotel. You might want a column of type bool to record whether the user requested "en-suite".
When submitting the form, check which pieces the user entered with if(isset($_POST['hotel']) && !empty($_POST['hotel'])). Then only send stuff to the registration_hotel table if that condition is true.
If this design results in making too many separate calls to the database, you might want to look into transactions which will help you to manage the speed and security of these calls.
If you can post in a specific example of something you don't know how to do, that would be useful.
You didn't specify how you can manage this dynamic form. Can you edit it's PHP/HTML source? One great thing would be if you can label your different variables like hotel[], restaurant[], etc.
If your submitted form is clear enough (i mean semantically correctly structured) you can store the whole submitted form serialized.
Note: this method only working when you don't need to search for specific items in your database.
Edit: maybe i'm misunderstood your problem.
You can create a 'metadata' table like this:
form_id | option_name | option_value
---------------------------------------
1 | hotel | true
1 | restaurant | false
Related
Firstly, I'm quite new to PHP having only dived in some three weeks ago but loving it as a new thing to learn! I have a specific problem that I cannot seem to find a solution for via Google. I'm running a test page that will form the basis of a final product for a local recreational club that runs competitions and wants to display the results online on their website.
I've created a MySQL database and called it 'results' and imported as a CSV a sample of competition results. My code to connect to the database works as the page displays the "Database Connection Established" message.
The database contains a table called 'z_any_year_results' and the table structure looks like this:-
Record_Number Field Value
1 Field_1 Value_1
2 Field_2 Value_2
3 Field_3 Value_3
4 Field_4 Value_4
5 Field_5 Value_5
I understand how to select the specific table using
mysql_select_db("results") or die(mysql_error());
$data = mysql_query("SELECT z_any_year_results FROM results")
but I need to echo a specific field from the table in a specific section of the web page. So for example, in one section of the page I need to output the field containing the value Field_1 and nearby on the page the field containing the value Value_1. But in another section of the page I need to output the field with the value Field_4 and nearby on the page, the field containing the value Value_4. So I guess my problem is how to extract a specific piece of data from a table to the exclusion of all other records in the table and outout it as an echo on the web page. I cannot find anything on the web that is written in a simple step-by-stepway to help novices like myself understand.
Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to achieve this?
Many thanks in advance.
You are using a type of data design known as key/value design. In other words, each row has the name of a data item and its value. That's not an ideal sort of design for a beginner to use, because it makes for fairly intricate queries.
To answer your question, if you want a certain named field's value you use this query.
SELECT Value FROM z_any_year_results WHERE Name = 'Field4'
But, maybe you want a design that resembles your application's entities a little more closely.
You might have an entity, a table, called, contestant, another called contest, and another called prize.
contestant is a table with columns like contestant_id, surname, givenname, email etc
e.g. 1 , Ellison, Larry, larry#oracle.com
Then you can use queries like SELECT * FROM contest WHERE YEAR(datestart) = 2016 which will make your queries more closely reflect the logic of your application.
I didn't know how to give title to this but I have the following database:
accidentDetain(id, location, weather_conditions desc (and few more columns));
weatherConditions(id, title)
acc_weat_cond(id, wc_id, ad_id)
wc_id = weatherConditions ID, ad_id = accidentDetain ID
Now the situation is the user can store multiple weather conditions such as (rain, wet, snow Ice Fog etc)
Let's say user chooses 3 out of those 6 options and those will be stored in acc_weat_cond table, with accident Detail id and weather conditions id.
After saving, the user decided to change and to unchecked one of the option and then presses the save button. The issue is, there are 3 records already stored into acc_weat_cond table how would I would change and make them to two records.
Will I have to delete the first records from the database and then store again newly checked options? Or is there any easier way doing the above mentioned situation.
One last option is that I violate the role of database normalization and stored directly in the accidentDetails table and separate the values with a comma.
Feel free to ask if any more information is required...
I would have an <input type='hidden'name='checkedflds' value='1,2,3' />-field which contained the values that were checked before the user updated. Then after postback, you can compare the new list against this and will easily see what additions he made and which elements he removed...
I would call all of the options and compare to what is checked, and delete what you need. If you store it on the form, then there is a potential for out of date data.
I have a semi-complex database with multiple tables (3) that I'd like to post data to.
Rules of database
Each experiment (experiment table) can have multiple varibles associated with it (1 to many)
Each variable (variable table) can have multiple values (value table) (1 to many).
Sample DB Structure
experiment table
exprid (pk - auto_increment)
pagetype
pagename
expresult
variable table
varid (pk - auto_increment)
image
varresult
exprid (fk)
value table
valueid (pk - auto_increment)
image
valueresult
varid (fk)
I'm setting up a form that accepts inputs that will post to the appropriate tables, however I am having a hard time understanding how I can get this to work properly.
Here's essentially what I'd like to do:
User enters experiment details
User enters details for variable 1 (that info is associated with the experiment)
User enters details for value 1 (that info is associated with variable 1)
user submits value 1 to value table
User enters details for value 2 (that info is associated with variable 1)
user submits value 2 to value table
user is finished entering values for variable 1
User creates new variable in order to enter new values
Repeat steps 2-6
Ultimately, I am unsure how to:
a) post to the appropriate tables
b) ensure the visitor does not have to enter the experiment details once a value or variable is submitted
The ask:
It would be great if someone can help me understand the logic that goes into something like this. I really don't even know where to start because all of the forms I've built so far require me to only post to 1 table. So written logic would be helpful.
Any links to posts about this topic or articles online, any instructions on how to tackle or even sample code would be helpful. At this point, I think anything would be helpful if I can just get an idea of where to start.
So after each submit (via ajax request) you have to extend your list of fields.
If you're using jQuery I would suggest to have a look at it's ajax methods: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/
When the data is submitted dynamically add your fields, there are dozens of tutorials, like: http://www.infotuts.com/dynamically-add-input-fields-to-form-jquery/
That's all, so in the end you'll have multiple requests which always store your new added data and skip the reload of the pages, as ajax is done in the background.
I'm working on an app that lets a user create projects custom to the users needs, the project is basically a form that can be submitted by another user.
I want to allow the user to dynamically create new fields (with Javascript) to the project (a basic form) and choose custom values for each field.
And when the project (the form) is ready it can be submitted and the user specified values goes to a database. Then another user can submit the form and the values the original user has chosen are as options for that form.
The values (that are dynamically created by the user) are most likely going to be basic data, like name, phone, email etc. But there is also options for specific data like food, address, etc. I want the user to be able to ask for any data he/she sees necessary.
So how should I structure my database? I cannot be sure what or how many fields the user is going to choose for his project, i was thinking of doing this app in a traditional relational database, most likely Postgres or Mysql.
So should a create columns for all the data I can think of (or allow user to create) or could this be done in some other way?
You may want to take a look at the EAV model. It has some pros as you will have some flexibility to create whatever structure you want, but it has also some limitations on retrieving and querying afterwards.
Your database should contain the following columns in the table for the form specs:
name (name of the field, used as "name" attrubute of the form's input field)
label (Description to print in the form)
format (if you want to distinguish selects/inputs/checkboxes)
validation (if you want a set of validation rules)
value_type (int/string/date/etc.. - type of value to accept from user. helpful for validation)
I ran into a similar situation with an assessment application. Each assessment asked a number of questions, but periodically, the question set would change. Rather than creating a separate table with key/value pairs for the questions and answers, I took advantage of serializing in PHP.
Determine what data must be a part of every form (Id, submitter, submission datetime, name of project, phone) Make those data elements columns in your table.
Create an additional column for the serialized data. This is where you store the additional attributes.
(Only 1 table needed)
When it comes to displaying the form, use the serialized data to build the additional form elements that are needed.
With this model, it is difficult to search the additional data that gets stored in the serialized data, but it simplifies the development; with thousands of records, and over 100 'questions' per assessment, we haven't run into an issue yet.
One possible option:
table: inputs
Description: Stores different types of inputs (select, select multiple, input, checkbox, radio)
Fields: inputtypeid (primary), input_type, status
table: fields
Description: Stores individual fields that the project owner has created.
Fields: fieldid (primary), inputtypeid (ref inputs), label
table: values
Description: Stores values (default and user submitted) for fields.
Fields: valueid (primary), fieldid (ref fields), value, default (bool yes/no)
table: project_forms
Description: Stores a list of fields that apply to the project.
Fields: pfid (primary), projid (ref project), fieldid (ref inputs)
One side note here. Make sure you take care not to let users store personally identifiable information into something like this. Or if you do, make sure you take the necessary precautions to safeguard that data, which is a bit different in this setup than in most cases.
In a web form i will ask the user for their job experiences, this data will have no fixed lenght. I need to let the user insert all the items he needs, every item will content 3 fields; job title, description and year.
My firts problem is, how can i ask in the html form for the items? i mean, whats the best way to ask items with no fixed lenght using html/php (and maybe ajax)? I saw some sites that have a button (add one) when you hit it a new item slot is showed, but i have no idea of how to implement this, an example will be sufficient.
The second part is, how can i managed the data flow in post or get?, until now, i only use fixed fields, so i always know in my php script how many post or get vars i will get. How can i use multiple POST vars without knowing the amount of them?
And the last one (and the more important), how will be the best structure for my table in MySQL? If i get multiple items for a fixed table where i will have all my users, how can i resolve the multiple items issue? For example, if my table is:
User | password | job_experiences
admin | root | (this is just a cell, how can i save multiple items here?)
jonh | 1234 | (this is just a cell, how can i save multiple items here?)
Thanks for any help!!!!
Those are 3 questions, and it's best to post 3 questions, instead of discussing all of them. I will post the basics, and if you have specific questions, ask.
First, use button to add, and a JavaScript to clone an existing row (which can have more then one input field). For fieldnames use something like company_name[] - the [] is the important part, at this will send the field as an array. If you are editting profile, you can use company_name[$id] to preserve the mapping.
Second, in PHP you will receive this as $_POST['company_name'] which will be numeric array with all the company names. Or if you specify $id - with the corresponding keys. So, you have to loop trough all company_names, if there are other fields - you retrieve them the same way, using the current key. Example:
for (i =0; i<$_POST['comany_name'].length;i++) {
$company = $_POST['comany_name'][$i];
$start_year = $_POST['from'][$i];
...
}
Next, you need 1 table for the users (username, password), and another for job experiences (userid, company, description, from, to). This is called 1:M relation