TblCategories -------------------- CatID categoryTitle tbl_CategoryDetails -------------------- DetailID CatID DetailTitle FormType
tblCategories ================================ 1 Real Estate 2 Automotive ================================ tblCategoriesDetails ================================ 1 1 'Bedrooms' Number 2 1 'Bathrooms' Number 3 1 'Garage' Yes/No 4 1 'Square Feet' Number 5 2 'Make' Text 6 2 'Model' Number 7 2 'Mileage' Number Etc... ================================ In your form, the first thing to do would decide what category the item falls under. Once you have that, you can select all of the details for that category and build the form. Each details field type is defined by the 'FormType' column of TblCategoriesDetails. This is VERY much like a cart with unlimited SKUs and also much like a survey application as far as the dynamic field types go. (which I have around here somwhere if it will help) If you want to have multiple choice field types, youll need to have a nother table that holds the possible answers to choose from and relate them back to TblCategoriesDetails with 'DetailID' ..:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. Bobby Hartsfield http://acoderslife.com -----Original Message----- From: Doug Brown [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 7:18 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Design question (Database etc) I am in the process of re-designing a classifieds system and was just wondering a few things. Currently there is just one standard for to fill out for the ads. I am thinking of designing it to where it is more useful. I would like to make the form as dynamic as possible by having different inputs for different categories of items. The thing is, that I would imagine I would need to have a databse table for each category. Am I correct in this assumption? Building the forms would be the easy part, but having say 50 different tables of info for all categories would be a nightmare. Any suggestion would be appreciated. IE: [Real Estate Form] Price Bedrooms Bathrooms Garage Sq. Ft. Acreage Covenants etc. etc. [Auto Form] Make Model Year Miles etc. etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:261634 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
