On 5/31/05, Richard Lynch <ceo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Sat, May 28, 2005 10:08 am, ...helmut said: > > I have a form that contains 100 questions. To make it easier on the user, > > I > > will divide it into 5 sections (20 questions per section), then all the > > information will be written to a db. What is the best way to carry along > > through the pages the information that has already been submitted? > > Cookies? > > Writing to a DB after each section? Session Variables? > > I would recommend using the DB first. > > If you can't/won't do that, use sessions. > > I would NOT recommend carrying all the variables along as INPUT > TYPE="HIDDEN" -- While that would "work" it makes it much harder to allow, > say, a user who got disconnected to complete the form later, or a user > whose session timed out because their boss walked in, or... When I suggested hidden input fields, I was working on the assumption, that the person wouldn't be filling out half of the form, and then coming back later to fill in the rest of the form. Assuming it would be nice to cross-reference answers with other answers from the same answerer, putting them in the DB initially will not solve your problem. Unless you use sessions, then you know that somebody answered questions 1 - 20, and you know that someone answered 21 - 40. You don't know that the answerers to the two sections are from the same person, unless you use sessions as well, which negates your next point. > > If you've stored their info in sessions, you will still lose it if their > session times out. > > If it's in the DB, then they can complete the form whenever they have time. > > 100 questions is a lot of questions... > > You might even allow them to answer different sections in different > orders, if there is a nice way to present them with some kind of grouping > that's less arbitrary than 1-20, 21-40, ... > > 'Course, if this is a timed test/exam or something, some of the above is > moot... But a student trying to take an exam that gets disconnected? > Better to log their session start/end in the DB and only "count" time > against them if it is contiguous, if you can. > > > I read that writing to a database as i go along could be too much of a > > hazzle for the db, specially if I have multiple people filling out the > > form > > at the same time. > > You're not gonna slam the database unless you have *LOTS* of people > filling out the form at the same time. > > How many is *LOTS* depends on hardware, and you should test this with YOUR > hardware/network, but I suspect you are worrying over a non-issue on this. > > -- > Like Music? > http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
