I have several values in a select box. Is it possible to get both the value and the text between the <option> tags when the form is submitted?
<option value="413">Highland </option>
<option value="414">Inverclyde </option>
Alternatively I suppose I have to store the names in a table or array for retrieval but would be much easier if I could just insert both in the table when the form is submitted.
As Stephen Moretti pointed out, there are at least two ways to derive the text from the value.
You could also use a list containing the value proper and the text for the value of the select. So, instead of:
<option value="23">Twenty Three</option>
use
<option value="23,TwentyThree">Twenty Three</option>
and use list*() functions on the back end.
Finally, you could use JavaScript to store the text of the selected option in a hidden field (or similar). This, in my opinion, is the least attractive option. First, it would be more work than the other options, and second because it will fail if JS is turned off on the client.
Depending on the size/type of data, I would probably either rewrite the option values, as I've described, or switch off a lookup table, as Stephen described.
If you've only got a few value/text pairs in your select, then just store the value. If you need to output the text somewhere else other than the select, just write a if/elseif/else or case block to display the text.
If you've got quite a few value/text pairs then it would be best to create a lookup table in your database with these in. You can use this to generate your select and output the text from a stored value at a later date.
How do you tell if you've got too many value/text pairs? If writing the case block to display them results in a silly amount of tedious code. ;)
Another option would be to store a struct of your value/text pairs in the session scope, then on your form action page you can use the value to easily look up your text.
The beauty of this is that it's entirely server-side and does not include an extra trip to the database.
Delete the struct from the session scope if you don't want to keep it around.
Related
I have a table in a word document that has three colums and all fields are mailmerge fields from an external IT system.
There are three columns displaying the fields:
Charge Description
Charge Value (£)
Eiligible? (yes/no)
I am trying to create a field that adds up all eligibale charges so that only charge values that show a "yes" in the eligigble field are included. Does anyone know if this is possible? I have tried creating a formula but can't get it to work. Also, I would assume at some point an if statment is required so that it only includes the eligible charge.
Has anyone done anything similar before and if so, would they mind sharing how it was achieved?
Many thanks
You can do some things with expression fields (created in Word with CTRL-F9). This will look like {} and you can insert the expression. eg {{MERGFIELD charge} + {MERGEFIELD charge2}}. Since however you want to check multiple values and then create an expression, its probably easier to use a macro. The macro would contain your logic, then set the fields in the document accordingly.
Here are two external links since I can't reproduce a useful amount the content here because it's a verbose answer to a potentially deep question:
Expression Fields
Merge fields
I hope that helps.
I'm interested in creating a fill-in-the-blank story generator for kids. I want to create a form where they can put in the names of characters and other things and have that data populate a pre made story. After they hit SUBMIT they would be taken to a follow up page with their input and the story in plain text. I'm pretty new to this but very eager to learn. What would be the best way to go about creating this form that generates stories?
It seems you would need two database tables - one for storing the original story templates and another one for storing the generated texts.
The challenging part with the template database is signifying the parts where there can be user input. One idea - place a special format code inside the text in the following manner:
Once upon a time, in a forest far away, lived ::00001::.
Assuming you are loading that template as it is in an element inside a form (I would avoid textfields for this purpose and just place the text).
After the text is loaded into the web page (javascript onload), replace your markers with input fields (I'd use jquery for that). You can use jquery to search an elements text/innerHtml and replace it with another html element. Here is an idea how to do that. The replacement of markers with inputs can be done in a javascript while loop, as long as there is "::" in the text of the element.
Then your ::00001:: could be replaced for example with:
< input type='text' id='input00001' name='input[00001]'/>
Then, when the user submits the form, you can get the values for each field and store them to a second database with the given ids. This way, you will be able to reload them later (same process, only instead of inputs, you would replace the codes with their corresponding values).
This way, in the second database table you only save the input values and not the whole text, to save up memory. Probably in the second table you would like to store the id of the field, the value, perhaps a template id (so that you know for which story template it corresponds) and a user id or at least a timestamp, in case you can have many generated stories for the same template.
Hope this helps!
What I really need is a Tabular form that allows me to update multiple rows at a time while being filterable like an Interactive report. Any chance this is even remotely possible?
I would also like to hijack the row checkboxes on a tabular form that appear when the 'delete' functionality is activated and use them to select which rows get assigned a to a group based on a common attribute. (i.e. My table contains parts in my inventory and I need to be able to assign parts with common attributes to a group for processing)
Perhaps a group-by function that creates a new row in a 'Group' table with the group as the PK and the parts assigned to that group as a list or something...?
Thoughts? I am kind of at a loss...
It's really not that hard :) You can easily transform an IR into a pseudo-tabular form. And even though there are always more stylish and elegant solutions, those usually involve lots of javascript and/or plugins. They're nice, but not always what you want or need of course.
So how to manipulate your output? Use the APEX_ITEM api!
Quick example. I have an ir built on emp. I added a checkbox and textbox.
select empno, ename, deptno,
apex_item.checkbox(1, empno) empno_selected,
apex_item.text(2, ename, 10, 10) ename_edit
from emp
Don't forget: in the column attributes, set Display text as to Standard Report Column. If you don't, the output will be in plain text. Since apex_item generates html code, you don't want the plain text of course :)
Now, to be able to perform DML based on the actions you do in those generated fields, you will need a process. Let me start off by pointing out though that the generated items are stored in application variables, namely in arrays in APEX_APPLICATION.
Take note of the behaviour of checkboxes: only ticked boxes will have their value stored in the array!
As an example, i've made this small On Submit process (also adding a SUBMIT button on the form to actually perform the submit...)
for i in 1..apex_application.g_f01.count
loop
insert into empselected(empno, selectiondate, ename_changed)
values(apex_application.g_f01(i), sysdate, apex_application.g_f02(i));
end loop;
This will loop over the records with the checkboxes ticked, and insert them into some table. For example, i ticked the box with KING and edited the textfield. See record nr 2 (1 is from a previous action ;))
It's not all the way there yet though. You still miss out on the functionality of a tabular form and it's processes, and things like optimistic locking. If you want to stay with tabular forms, you can also, for example, check out this link. There have also been some questions here about writing your own mru processes etc, like this one ;)
It is possisble, using the same tabular form.
Create an item (text item) in the tabular form region.
Create a submit button (Create a button displayed among this region's items)
Modify the where clause in the tabular form region source
For Example, you need search by customer name:
WHERE lower(CUSTOMER_NAME) LIKE '%'||lower(nvl(:PXX_SEARCH,CUSOTOMER_NAME))||'%'
If you need to search for other field only add other condition to the where clause
WHERE (
lower(CUSTOMER_NAME) LIKE '%'||lower(nvl(:PXX_SEARCH,CUSOTOMER_NAME))||'%'
or lower(CUSTOMER_address) LIKE '%'||lower(nvl(:PXX_SEARCH,CUSOTOMER_NAME))||'%'
)
Simple and use the same tabular form.
I have a large table which inserts data into the database. The problem is when the user edits the table I have to:
run the query
use lots of lines like value="<cfoutput>getData.firstname#</cfoutput> in the input boxes.
Is there a way to bind the form input boxes to the database via a cfc or cfm file?
Many Thanks,
R
Query objects include the columnList, which is a comma-delimited list of returned columns.
If security and readability aren't an issue, you can always loop over this. However, it basically removes your opportunity to do things like locking certain columns, reduces your ability to do any validation, and means you either just label the form boxes with the column names or you find a way to store labels for each column.
You can then do an insert/update/whatever with them.
I don't recommend this, as it would be nearly impossible to secure, but it might get you where you are going.
If you are using CF 9 you can use the ORM (Object Relation Management) functionality (via CFCs)
as described in this online chapter
https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/0249-chapter-4-ORM-Database-Interaction.pdf
(starting on page 6 of the pdf)
Take a look at <cfgrid>, it will be the easiest if you're editing table and it can fire 1 update per row.
For security against XSS, you should use <input value="#xmlFormat(getData.firstname)#">, minimize # of <cfoutput> tags. XmlFormat() not needed if you use <cfinput>.
If you are looking for an easy way to not have to specify all the column names in the insert query cfinsert will try to map all the form names you submit to the database column names.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec22c24-7c78.html
This is indeed a very good question. I have no doubt that the answers given so far are helpful. I was faced with the same problem, only my table does not have that many fields though.
Per the docs EntityNew() the syntax shows that you can include the data when instantiating the object:
artistObj = entityNew("Artists",{FirstName="Tom",LastName="Ron"});
instead of having to instantiate and then add the data field by field. In my case all I had to do is:
artistObj = entityNew( "Artists", FORM );
EntitySave( artistObj );
ORMFlush();
NOTE
It does appear from your question that you may be running insert or update queries. When using ORM you do not need to do that. But I may be mistaken.
I have a form with two subforms, both of which are continuous. Each form has a field to accept the name of the person who created the record. Almost every time, the same person will be creating all of the records, so it would be really convenient if the fields would autofill once the main record has been set.
I've tried several approaches to this, but none seem to work quite right (e.g., the first of the continuous forms won't autofill because it came into existence alongside the main record). This is Access 2003.
OnCurrent, OnClick, etc...
If IsNull(Me.MyField) or Me.MyField = "" Then
Me.MyField = Me.Parent.MyRelatedField
End If
It may be best to set the default value of the control in the after update event for the control. This means that it will fill with whatever the previous value was.
Me.SomeText.DefaultValue= """" & Me.SomeText & """" ''Text