Thread: Stroring html form settings

Hello,

I have some html forms that I save the settings into the database,
things like which item was selected in the menu and if a checkbox was
checked. The table looks like this:

  user_id | report_id |                      info
---------+-----------+------------------------------------------------
      111 |         1 | A:::::CHECKED::::CHECKED::::CHECKED::
      111 |         2 | A:::CHECKED::
      111 |         3 | A::CHECKED:CHECKED::CHECKED::::CHECKED:::

The info column has the settings separated with a : and consecutive
colons mean the user didn't make a selection. Would this be the way
to store them?

I've done some searching and I could use XML (I will read some
tutorials after writing this email). But there may be other ways and
I'm just too much of a newbie to know. I'm using Postgresql 8.1.11
and PHP on CentOS 5.2.

Thanks in advance.

Dianne

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 5:38 PM, Dianne Yumul <dianne@wellsgaming.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have some html forms that I save the settings into the database, things
> like which item was selected in the menu and if a checkbox was checked. The
> table looks like this:
>
>  user_id | report_id |                      info
> ---------+-----------+------------------------------------------------
>     111 |         1 | A:::::CHECKED::::CHECKED::::CHECKED::
>     111 |         2 | A:::CHECKED::
>     111 |         3 | A::CHECKED:CHECKED::CHECKED::::CHECKED:::
>
> The info column has the settings separated with a : and consecutive colons
> mean the user didn't make a selection. Would this be the way to store them?
>
> I've done some searching and I could use XML (I will read some tutorials
> after writing this email). But there may be other ways and I'm just too much
> of a newbie to know. I'm using Postgresql 8.1.11 and PHP on CentOS 5.2.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Dianne

Hi Dianne,

My first thought is that if you use a combined "info" field, you'll
lose the ability to easily do any kind of meaningful data analysis
based on which boxes are checked.  If you just want to record what a
given user said at a certain time, but don't need it for any other,
more interesting evaluation of the data, then why bother with a
database?  Also, if the form structure & options etc. are at all
subject to change, you've eliminated the possibility of doing data
integrity checks and you may wind up with a code in the "info" field
that is out of date relative to what the form looks like now, i.e. the
"info" field was filled when the values corresponded to something
different from what they mean at read-time.
An XML format might be one way to record key-value pairs, and avoid
the possibility of new interpretations of the code invalidating your
old data, but from the database perspective, actually storing XML is
space-intensive, kinda clunky, and doesn't really leverage the things
you can do with a database.

If it were me, I would probably store the form values in the database
fields, so that the table's columns matched the various data inputs in
the form.  (That's if you don't expect the form structure to change a
whole lot).  Then again, I'm probably the least experienced person on
this list, so I'm sure I'll be corrected shortly : )

Best,
Jeff

Dianne Yumul wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have some html forms that I save the settings into the database,
> things like which item was selected in the menu and if a checkbox was
> checked. The table looks like this:
>
>  user_id | report_id |                      info
> ---------+-----------+------------------------------------------------
>      111 |         1 | A:::::CHECKED::::CHECKED::::CHECKED::
>      111 |         2 | A:::CHECKED::
>      111 |         3 | A::CHECKED:CHECKED::CHECKED::::CHECKED:::
>
> The info column has the settings separated with a : and consecutive
> colons mean the user didn't make a selection. Would this be the way to
> store them?
>
> I've done some searching and I could use XML (I will read some
> tutorials after writing this email). But there may be other ways and
> I'm just too much of a newbie to know. I'm using Postgresql 8.1.11 and
> PHP on CentOS 5.2.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Dianne
>
Hi,

I would serialize to JSON instead of XML.
http://www.aurore.net/projects/php-json/

A simple json_encode($_POST) might do the trick. You could either use
json_decode() to make a PHP struct of it or send it more or less as it
is to Javascript.

I usually find XML horrible to work with in a web context.

Best regards,
Marcus

First, I want to thank you for your help. You have made great points
and I just want to respond to some of your questions.

> My first thought is that if you use a combined "info" field, you'll
> lose the ability to easily do any kind of meaningful data analysis
> based on which boxes are checked.  If you just want to record what a
> given user said at a certain time, but don't need it for any other,
> more interesting evaluation of the data, then why bother with a
> database?

You are right that I don't really need to do any evaluation of the
data, I just need to be able to get the default values of a form
every time the user logs on. Each user may have their own default
value for a form, and each form will have different components. A
database was the first (may be not the best?) thing I thought of.
Would you have other suggestions of how I should store them?

> If it were me, I would probably store the form values in the database
> fields, so that the table's columns matched the various data inputs in
> the form.

If the structure of each report did not differ this would work great
but unfortunately it does.

Thank you again.

Dianne

If the structure of each report did not differ this would work great 
but unfortunately it does.

-- 
Reece Hart, http://harts.net/reece/, GPG:0x25EC91A0