Do they have to login first (so you know them and can track them through the process)? or are they anonymous until they complete the 12 steps?
can they stop part of the way thru and come back later? (related: what happens if they lose internet connection part the way through?) I hate forms like this: I'd rather use something other than web pages (Flash/Flex comes to mind) to keep all the data on the client (page, swf, whatever) and only send back to the server when they've finished. Supported by cookie values for lost connectivity (and deletion when transaction successful. This is similar to what ASP.NET does with panels where you have different views of the same page and the selected/entered data is stored on the page (in __VIEWSTATE) but ASP.NET has it's own issues. this sort of thing is very common in travel/accom apps: book flights, hotels, cars, etc. The Broadmore Hotel Flex app (from years ago) first got me thinking about what's possible https://reservations.ihotelier.com/onescreen.cfm?hotelid=2054&languageid=1&rezT=2054 taken another way, it could be like a many question testing app (each of the 12 stages a question that saves an answer). I've built a few of those with validation and saves on each step but using the memento pattern to synch the client data (so they can change the answers while still storing the individual values in the database) it's a can of worms, mate. I may help to pay careful attention to the state of the selected/entered data in relation to the workflow and completing the 12 step process (UML state diagrams may help there) and ask lots of what-if's (inc is it OK if they only partially complete and come back - or not). Look at what's already out there for ideas: lots of apps have already answered some of your questions in how they built their apps. it's not much of an answer, I know, but it sort of falls into the category of "it depends" On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Mark Ireland<[email protected]> wrote: > > Is it just one long form broken up into parts? > > Is validation the only 'business logic' involved? > > At what point should anything be saved? > > And how fancy (in terms of client-side behaviours) are the forms? > >> Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 07:30:42 -0700 >> Subject: [CFCDEV] thoughts on workflows >> From: [email protected] >> To: [email protected] >> >> >> How do you guys handle workflows. Like lets say a person taking a 12 >> step application. Through out it you have all sorts of objects and >> relations. a person, addresses, employees, preferences, populating >> drop downs with other objects data, etc.... >> >> I mean I know I should get my basic person data from a person object >> of course, but how would you guys go about handling all the sessions >> and validations. I cant imagine the best way is to do... validate_step1 >> ()..... validate_step2()......ETC. and embedding all my session values >> straight into my form fields (<input type="text" >> value="#session.workflow.somevalue#" ..... ) >> >> Its really been bothering me trying to figure out how I should make >> this work nicely, would really apreciate any thoughts. >> > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CFCDev" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cfcdev?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
