Yep we had an identical thing where students had to select a school that they attended in the UK from the complete list of schools (a lot!). We got around it asking the user to enter the first three letters of there school - we then present them with the form with a reduced list of schools begininning with those three letters. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Andrew Ewings Project Manager Thoughtbubble Ltd http://www.thoughtbubble.net ------------------------------------------------------------------ United Kingdom http://www.thoughtbubble.co.uk/ Tel: +44 (0) 20 7387 8890 ------------------------------------------------------------------ New Zealand http://www.thoughtbubble.co.nz/ Tel: +64 (0) 9 488 9131 ------------------------------------------------------------------ The information in this email and in any attachments is confidential and intended solely for the attention and use of the named addressee(s). Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Thoughtbubble. This information may be subject to legal, professional or other privilege and further distribution of it is strictly prohibited without our authority. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorised to disclose, copy, distribute, or retain this message. Please notify us on +44 (0)207 387 8890. -----Original Message----- From: Bob Silverberg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 10 May 2001 17:26 To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Data Integrity - Q of the Day We had a similar issue with the City field in a database. We maintain a City table, and each user record only contains the primary key (an integer id) to the corresponding record in the City table. For the user interface we created a combo-type box, so that a user could either select their City from the drop-down, or enter a new City in a text box. If they entered a new City in the text box, a record is added to the City table. The administrator then has a module in which they can approve or disapprove new cities added. Once they approve the city, it will appear in add drop-down boxes. If they don't want to add the city, then they'll change the pointer in the user table to point to the correct city, and they delete the new city from the City table. It's a bit of work, but it works well for the client. Hope that helps, Bob -----Original Message----- From: Erika L. Walker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: May 10, 2001 11:52 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: OT: Data Integrity - Q of the Day Here's a question that's been bothersome for some time. We have an interface where participants register for meeting. There is a form they fill out with basic information, including the pharmaceutical company they are associated with. We use drop downs where we can to keep data as constant as possible, but we cannot use dropdowns for the company they are with as there are far too many to compile and list. And therein lies our problem. Users from one company can have a half dozen different ways to spell their company name. There is an admin search page where an administrator can search for registered users by several different criteria, one of which is the user's company name. I dynamically build a drop down for this field on the search page by pulling all distinct company names from the db. Of course, there are several different variations of the company name in the dropdown, which makes it very cumbersome. Has anyone had to deal with this? If so, how did you deal with it? And/or does someone have an idea on how to go about dealing with it? Erika (with a *K*) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
