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Implement database driven form on web

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by donalda-m 1 view

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I offered to do a favor for a friend and would like some advice. He has a primitive order form on his web site. It is a table with 50 items, prices, etc. Each line has an entry field for the quantity ordered. When the form is submitted he gets a series of numbers, which then have to be matched to the items by pasting onto a spreadsheet. It is a very labor intensive, and awkward for the customers as well.

The desired product would be an form that is either on a fixed length table or similar to a datasheet, where a line is added when an item is ordered, and a dropdown is used to select the next item. The datasheet style would be very similar to the ?Order Details subform? on the MS Northwind database sample. The form would save a username, date, order number and quantity ordered into a table.

I have done some database work (Access, some SQL) and some web work, but combining them is getting over my head.

What I know:
How to construct a form/subform in Access that draws from tables, queries, etc. with calculated fields.
How to add a database connection to a web site.
How to direct form results to a database using Front Page.
How to use the Database Interface wizard to set up a form/database relationships.
How to duplicate the form/subform effect by sending the results of one form to another.

What I don?t know
How to set up a form with a dropdown item that updates more than one column (description, price, etc.) when one choice is selected.
How to draw product info from one table into a form and then post the order results to a different table.
Probably a lot more that I need to know but don?t.

What would you recommend for achieving the following results?
1. Posting of orders directly into a database table (or preferably two tables - orders and order details)
2. Easy updating of full product information on the form.

I know this is asking for a lot, so I am allotting a lot of points to distribute for good answers

12 replies

by donalda-m

1st link went to default ms help page, 2nd technique I know - need more complex input form, 3rd was dead link, although I have found experts exchange to be helpful (as well as tek-tips). Thank you anyway.

by cptomlly

I think that you are going to find this to be a very involved project (and a little outside the scope of a "favor to a friend" IMHO!!). First of all, I would recommend picking up a book on both FrontPage and Access. I recommend MS Press "Access Inside Out" and "How to do Everything with MS Frontpage" for the software versions you are using. I used these books to create a website that writes to an access database with great success. I too had little experience getting the two to "work together".

Make sure you use proper relational database design. I think that this would solve both of your "Things I don't know" issues. Also, Frontpage will also let you write from hidden controls to specific fields using Form Properties>Advanced. (Example: Write the current date, username, etc) Here's a MS link to some good tutorials on relational database design: http://tinyurl.com/wp81 Again, I still recommend the books for a more thorough treatment of the subjects.

Feel free to email me through peer directory, or post back here for more specific questions. I apologize that I couldn't give more specific solutions, but the subject is rather broad.

Lots of luck!

by donalda-m

I am realizing that I wasn't explicit enough about the "things I don't know." Those items referred to doing those task on a web page - I know how to do them in Access. My problem is that there seems to be no easy way to translate what I built to a web page, and I foolishly assumed otherwise.

by donalda-m

Using Front Page and Access 2003, cannot use Data Access page, do have FP extensions and ASP capability on host server.

by jjonas

How about using something like PHP ? There books with examples to use PHP in an environment such as yours. Its cheap and understands ODBC, and its easy to set-up with IIS ...

Hope this helps

Jerry

by calson

Comparing Access and web pages is like apples and oranges. You need to approach it differently.
Some questions though:
How does the user get their data currently (i.e. From another web page, or an email, or some other method)?
Are you going to modify the existing forms, or do you have to create completely new ones?

Answers:
Dropdowns/modifying columns: That would all have to be done using a scripting language (jscript or vbscript). Though it sounds easy, it can get VERY complicated. However, a search for examples should get you plenty of results.
forms/Post into table: If you want to do this kind of thing, you have to use 2 web pages.

NOTE: There are MS active x controls which will do these things, but I would advise staying away from them. I have always found them to be painful to use, plus it will only work with IE.

As for what I would do. Well, if it is for a friend, then I would just avoid a db alltogether, and create an email from the form data. You can format it easily for readability or make it comma delimited to put into excel. This saves you time and your friend money.
As for updating, with the email option, editing will not be 'easy' but it certainly won't be hard.

If you really want to go the whole db route, you got to create some extra web pages. You need to have options to add,update,delete products and prices. also you need a page that will display orders, and a way to delete or mark those orders when they have been filled. for this I would recommend making seperate pages for each of these options if you are not familiar with web programming. This will make it easier to debug if you have errors. Then you have to create some sort of security, so that not just anyone can access these pages.

As you can see the db option is full of headaches, especially if it just a favor, but if you want to learn about web programming, you will certainly learn a lot.

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