I built a similar application to this and even added some additional functionality. Basically since my users only use Internet Explorer I used the fact that IE will ignore any elements outside of the form tag. So I contructed my form outside a the form tags and by using on change I would insert a hidden field into the form with it's name value pair, that way only user updated fields would be inserted into the form. I have also built systems that load your data entry grid into a frameset that contains a hidden frame where an emptr form exists and each time the user changes a form value the onchage event passes the info to the page which calls a PHP page to immediately update the database...the main frame doesn't need to refresh because the hidden frame does all the work. The one thing I did was to highlight the field by changing the table cells background color to red while the data was being uploaded so any subsequent changes wouldn't cancel the original call. Once it had updated it turned to green indicating that the database updated. I eventually built a multiple level update manager that allowed the user to update as many fields as they wanted as quickly as they wanted and my page would handle all of them. This was very important because a spin off application allowed the user to read barcodes as fast as they wanted and it entered and returned data as quickly as they entered it back to a page, and using the multiple frame approach I was able to populate the page with a dynamic form which could in return be submitted after the user had built it by entering barcodes. Using multiple frames and passing information between pages using Javascript is so powerful for advanced user interfaces. Hope this gives you some ideas! Ron >From: Gryffyn, Trevor >To: php-windows@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Sent: 05/07/2004 10:04 AM >> I think this is not possible, but hopefully, someone will >> prove me wrong. > >One thing that's certain, almost EVERYTHING is possible, it just depends >on how much time and effort you're willing to put into it :) > >> Imagine a webform with about 50 fields (I actually have >> several of these forms). Theuser will see a record from >> a recordset and be able to navigate through the recordset. >> I've sorted that part out using PEAR, Smarty and my >> own temp tables routine. >> >> This website is to replace a Filemaker database application >> and will only have up to 5-6 users as an absolute maximum. >> >> Filemaker has a nice trick - click in a field, set the data >> and then make every record in the found set hold that data. >> This works in any field set for data storage (Filemaker also >> has dynamic fields that hold the results of calculations, so >> the user cannot change these). >> >> I would like to have a similar function on my web page. > >Ok, let me see if I understand this properly: > >1. You load in a recordset with roughly 50 items per record that are >displayed in an HTML form >2. You want to simulate the functionality you had with Filemaker, but it >only needs to work for about 5-6 users so doesn't necessarily have to be >as robust as Filemaker >3. Here's where I get hazy.. Do you want to: > A. Type in some value and have the data be filtered by that >value (ie. "Show all records with January, 5, 2004 as the created date) > or.. B. You want to enter a value into a form and have that >value be copied to all records (ie. For "expense type" where it says >"Auto" change it to "Automobile" and have all records reflect this >change)??? >4. Dynamic fields that hold the values of calculations.. Not sure if >this is part of your requirements or if it was just a little side note. > > >Here are some thoughts: > >3a. Typing a value into a field and clicking "submit" or using a >Javascript "On Change" type event could result in your form submitting a >new SQL query with a WHERE clause that filters the data > >3b. Entering a new and using the "submit" or "On Change" mentioned >above, you could just do a SQL "update" on a range of records. If you >want to do both filtering AND doing a global change on the filtered >data, just combine the two WHERE criteria. > > >If, however, you want to load a bunch of data and manipulate it >client-side without hitting the DB every time, you could conceivably do >that in Javascript but it'd be a bear to build. But not impossible I >think. > > >I think I'm missing your intended use though. Can you be more >descriptive in what you'd like to do? Walk us through it. > > >Good luck either way! > >-TG > >-- >PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) >To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > >
