Having just fixed a similar system, let me suggest you control the entry a little more closely.
If you truly want free form data entry, use line feeds as the delimiter instead of commas. Just give them a tall text area and let them go to town. The visible break for each line leaves no wiggle room on the user's part about whether they have or have not separate each item. If you really want to store a comma delimited list, replace all line feeds with commas before stashing in db, and replace all commas with line feeds before displaying in the text area. But... If you really want to "help" the user, and if keywords are used over and over again, you might instead go with a two select box with a move button between each (unused, used keywords), as well as a text area in the unused side to add new keywords. This will help with data integrity, by not forcing them to reenter previously used keywords (which will up your hit rate on searching for keywords) As for storing the data, if you are storing it in a db, remember that "like" searches are usually considerably slower than a good relation structure. Instead of a single comma separate field, might a related table with a record for each keyword be a better db design? Just a thought Jerry Johnson >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/12/02 03:12PM >>> You could assume that every space in the text equals a comma, and just do a replace -----Original Message----- From: Kris Pilles [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 12:37 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Comma seperaed help I have to give our users a screen where they can enter multiple keywords. Initially I was thinking of 1 gib memo field and the user could speerate the words with a comma but im not so sure they actually remember to put the comma in. Soooo I figured I would ask you guys what my other options are? Also, I want to avoid giving them 20 text boxes to put in keywords with... Any suggestions would help Thanks KP Kris Pilles Website Manager Western Suffolk BOCES 507 Deer Park Rd., Building C Phone: 631-549-4900 x 267 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
