Dan Shirah wrote:
> In my database I have two tables. One table stores all of the account
> information, the other table stores all of the user information.
>
> Table 1
> account_id - is the primary key and is unique to each account
>
> Table 2
> user_id - is the primary key and is unique to each user
> account_id - will be set to whatever the account id is in Table 1
>
> You are suggesting that when they click "Enter another user for this
> account" that I save the account/user information to the database and
> then when the form refreshes have something like:
>
> if (!isset($_POST['submit']))
>
> to determine if this is a continuance of a multiple user submission?
>
> And then I should select the account_id that was just created? Using
> something like:
>
> SELECT scope_identity() FROM accounts
>
> Or is there a better way to determine the recently created
account_id so
> I can use it for any other user data that is created for this account?
Hi Dan,
Yes, there is a better way. What you have described is probably more
complex than you need, and requires more clicking by the user than is
necessary.
First of all, do you allow multiple accounts for the same user? If so,
you're going to run into troubles with querying later on with the
current data schema. Generally, when I'm working with inter-linking
data like you describe, I construct it as:
Table 1 account_info:
account information
account_id
Table 2 user_info:
user information
user_id
Table 3 account_link:
user_id
account_id
This way, you never duplicate user information, and it is very easy to
link or unlink users from accounts.
In the web form, if you allow adding up to 3 users maximum, why not just
put all of the input on a single page?
[html]
Account information:
Form Field 1: ________
...
User #1 (required)
Name: _____
...
User #2 (optional)
Name: _____
...
User #3 (optional)
Name: _____
...
[/html]
In addition, you might consider either using an AJAX-based dropdown, or
populating a static dropdown with previous users (assuming the list of
users is short), so that if a previous user is entered into the account,
that name can be used.
In addition, if you have all 3 users on one page, you can validate them
all at once, check for accidental duplicates (i.e. if a name matches an
existing user, bring up the form and ask if they intend to create a new
user, or wish to use the existing one).
There are lots of options. If you do decide to do a multi-page form,
with database submit right at the last step, there is an example of how
I've done this in the code for pear.php.net's election creation
interface, at
http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pearweb/public_html/election/new.php?view=markup
.
This code makes use of simple php-based templates found in:
http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pearweb/templates/election-new-step1.tpl.php?view=markup
http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pearweb/templates/election-new-step2.tpl.php?view=markup
http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pearweb/templates/election-new-step3.tpl.php?view=markup
Hope this helps,
Greg
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