One of things you can do within SQL server 2000 is build the HTML for the checkbox, radio buttons and select options directly in the database without CF having to parse the information. ( I think this is possible within Oracle 9i as well-- the commands and techniques are different)
To see why this could be an easier process let's take a look at the alternatives.
Requirements:
1) You need to answser 20 questions, they of any form type
2) Users need to save the information for later... i.e they can take the quiz and go back an hour later
3) Your administrative section needs to provide a interface allowing quiz questions to be added, modified and deleted. You also need to weigh the questions as well for scoring purposes.
4) You need to provide quiz administrators with reporting on the users results
Quiz creation
a) Non XML way: Based upon a selection you will need to querry the database for questions and answers. Pulling the answers from a single query (and mulitple joins) you'll check if there are more than one record in the database query. If there its a checkbox, radio list or select box, then you will need to supress the question and provide the user with the answer.
b) Using XML, on the database side, configure the XML query so you are pulling direct HTML (there is no processing on the CF side, it just pulls whatever provided by the database). If there is no answers then in the stored proceedure write out the Textbox or input tags directly. For radio buttons, check boxes and select lists, created a nested XML structure containing the questions and the answers outputting the information as straight HTML (so the XML would be your option or input tags).
Quiz display
For displaying answers for each question the NON-XML method would involve running two querries-- one against a reporting database and the other against the question list. CF would then compare the results to see if we need to merge the two items. Even if we were doing one question at a time and saving the question number, as in a pool of question, this would still involve querrying the entire database every time (or be a drain on resources of a lot of people were using Q of Q functionality to do the same).
Using the XML way (in SQL server 2000), create a table object containing the questions and the correct answer. This way the output can contain the answer or checked box as needed. By using database functions to randomize and pool the functions, one can reduce the laod on the database server while also easing the parsing by using XML.
Inserting answers into the reporting database
Inserts work in the same way-- by placing the data into a table datatype one can quickly move information into the database (obv.. you'll place the the document into the proper format by turing the results into XML), into the right fields 20 questions at a time-- this way the database does not have to process 20 insert questions at a time -- less chance of a deadlock if you have quite a number of customers on the site.
You'll note that I could of saved the user's information as a session variable and choose not to do it this way. Even using a structure to determine the question answer pair -- a customer taking the quiz could not take the quiz later on without taking the whole quiz again!
Take a look at the presentation link (the example presented was your employee skills application at Hopkins)-- by moving much of the processing to the database and not parcing the XML (instead one created the XML using direct HTML)one can create quizes with question pools and a random display-- instead of CF functions, this is now handled by database functions.
Using XML this way is not for every application -- but when you have an application with a lot of similar inserts and selects this is a viable option in the toolkit.
Jeremy
>I don't see how XML would really help. You're still having to run
>complicated queries to generate the XML, then asking CF to parse. In
>most quiz applications a random display and question pool is common so
>caching the xml wouldn't be beneficial either.
>
>What am I missing here?
>
>Adam Wayne Lehman
>Web Systems Developer
>Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
>Distance Education Division
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeremy Brodie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 12:56 PM
>To: CF-Talk
>Subject: Re:Quiz builder?
>
>Joe,
>
>If you're looking to build one from sratch you might want to take a look
>at using XML to send and retieve information from the database.
>Christopher Lomvardias has a good presentation on this subject at
>http://www.cfug-md.org/talks/mdcfug_2003December.ppt. Its a bit heavy on
>the database site, however, doing it this way will save a lot of time
>building the application.
>
>He does a great job explaining how this would work for a situation such
>as yours. (and doing it this way will save a tremendous amount of code--
>doing it without XML would involve complicated querries and quite a bit
>of CF logic to display the page properly!)
>
>Bascially, the hard part of creating any quiz is generating the
>checkboxes, radio button and the select lists -- and generating XML is a
>clean fast way of moving this information in and out of the database,
>espcally if you have 20-30 questions in your quiz. On the creation side,
>you might want to look at using a bit of _javascript_ to add the elements
>you'll need to add checkboxes, select lists and radio buttons.
>
>Jeremy Brodie
>Intelix
>an Edgewater Technology Solutions Company
>
>web: http://www.edgewater.com
>phone:(703) 815-2500
>nasdaq symbol: EDGE
>
>
>>I've been looking for a nice quiz/test builder for an online course
>system
>>i'm working on and can't seem to find one, at least not one for
>ColdFusion.
>>Anyone come across anything like this? I'd rather buy some open code
>than
>>write it myself, too many other things to work on right now. Most of
>what i
>>see out there are poll generators though, nothing for quizzes or tests.
>>
>>If you know where i can find it, or would like to sell what you've
>made,
>>please contact me. Thanks!!! ... .joe
> _____
>
>
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