[PHP] User Defined Forms
Hi, I am creating a site where users record details of their clients and record their progress. The whole point of the system is to reduce the amount of paper work and store everything online. The problem here is that each user will have their own forms to fill in on their clients, some will record different data to others and some will have more forms than others. Therefore I believe I am correct in saying this would be impossible to store in a database as each user would require their own fields etc. One other solution I have thought of is to have each user create a set of PDF forms when they sign up and each time they fill one in they upload it to the server for storage. I would be most grateful for anyone's input on this before I dive in head first! -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
RE: [PHP] User Defined Forms
[snip] I am creating a site where users record details of their clients and record their progress. The whole point of the system is to reduce the amount of paper work and store everything online. [/snip] How much time have you spent with the users? How well do you understand their needs? Have you done a flowchart or any other modeling? -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] User Defined Forms
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 18:01:48 +0100, Shaun [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am creating a site where users record details of their clients and record their progress. The whole point of the system is to reduce the amount of paper work and store everything online. Like project management? Know about Dotproject and it's many plugins and add-ons? http://www.dotproject.net/ The problem here is that each user will have their own forms to fill in on their clients, some will record different data to others and some will have more forms than others. Therefore I believe I am correct in saying this would be impossible to store in a database as each user would require their Anything can be stored in a database. You can have tables like: forms, users, and fields. forms relate to users, and fields relate to forms. own fields etc. One other solution I have thought of is to have each user create a set of PDF forms when they sign up and each time they fill one in they upload it to the server for storage. I would be most grateful for anyone's input on this before I dive in head first! -- Greg Donald Zend Certified Engineer http://gdconsultants.com/ http://destiney.com/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] User Defined Forms
Create some format to store the info for the form contents... like off the top of my head... TEXT:Name:20:RADIO:Sex:Option1:Option2:CHECKBOX:State:Option1:Option2:...:PASSWORD:Password:20: Just an example, but doable to store in a database, then you create parsing functions to handle this string You can also search for form automation, or form abstraction, or creation on google/sourceforge/freshmeat/etc... to see what turns up... - Original Message - From: Shaun [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thursday, October 14, 2004 1:01 pm Subject: [PHP] User Defined Forms Hi, I am creating a site where users record details of their clients and record their progress. The whole point of the system is to reduce the amount of paper work and store everything online. The problem here is that each user will have their own forms to fill in on their clients, some will record different data to others and some will have more forms than others. Therefore I believe I am correct in saying thiswould be impossible to store in a database as each user would require their own fields etc. One other solution I have thought of is to have each user create a set of PDF forms when they sign up and each time they fill one in they upload it to the server for storage. I would be most grateful for anyone's input on this before I dive in head first! -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] User Defined Forms
Jay Blanchard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [snip] I am creating a site where users record details of their clients and record their progress. The whole point of the system is to reduce the amount of paper work and store everything online. [/snip] How much time have you spent with the users? How well do you understand their needs? Have you done a flowchart or any other modeling? Hi Jay, I have interviewed a few users and it has become instantly apparent that they all work differently and record slightly different information about their clients making it impossible to produce a general set of forms that would encompass all users. I haven't done any other forms of modelling as yet. Thanks for your help -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
RE: [PHP] User Defined Forms
I have interviewed a few users and it has become instantly apparent that they all work differently and record slightly different information about their clients making it impossible to produce a general set of forms that would encompass all users. I haven't done any other forms of modelling as yet. Create a global list of information that your users want to record about their clients. Review it and generalize information as much as possible. Divide the information into groups based on who uses it. Hopefully you'll end up with sets of information that are common to all with only a few sets that are user specific. Work with your customers a lot here, because it sounds like they are generally confused on how to organize their information. Ie. They are relying on your help for that. Also keep in mind that, in many cases, there is general information that everyone wants to record about their clients and that anything else is usually considered notes. So, for example, if you create a table for the client's name, address, phone, etc. and then create a notes section, you've captured a majority of the information that your users want to track for their clients. Ultimately, after all of that and if someone's willing to pay for the development time, you could theoretically setup a series of forms where the first form prompts for general detail and then, based on who's logged in, you could present additional forms. You could even design the logic behind forms to respond based on information that's entered. For example, if the first form asks for the client's city, follow-up forms may prompt for data specific to that city. Hope this helps, -Ed -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
RE: [PHP] User Defined Forms
I think the problem here will be in the database design. You certainly could store PDFs or the like, but then someone is going to want to run queries, produce reports, make updates etc etc. The problem (I think) is to come up with a db design that is not fixed to a given form structure. Using the relational model this is going to be tricky. I'm sure someone somewhere has done something along these lines but to what level of success I've no idea. I have (in the past) been involved with non-relational data models that could possibly overcome the db design issue, but you are then looking at having to use technologies that are maybe new to you and possibly costly. For example using Java/XSLT with a non-open source database server. However, having said all that the PHP-General mailing list is probably not the place to be discussing this. Graham -Original Message- From: Shaun [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 14 October 2004 18:23 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PHP] User Defined Forms Jay Blanchard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [snip] I am creating a site where users record details of their clients and record their progress. The whole point of the system is to reduce the amount of paper work and store everything online. [/snip] How much time have you spent with the users? How well do you understand their needs? Have you done a flowchart or any other modeling? Hi Jay, I have interviewed a few users and it has become instantly apparent that they all work differently and record slightly different information about their clients making it impossible to produce a general set of forms that would encompass all users. I haven't done any other forms of modelling as yet. Thanks for your help -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] User Defined Forms
Ed Lazor [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I have interviewed a few users and it has become instantly apparent that they all work differently and record slightly different information about their clients making it impossible to produce a general set of forms that would encompass all users. I haven't done any other forms of modelling as yet. Create a global list of information that your users want to record about their clients. Review it and generalize information as much as possible. Divide the information into groups based on who uses it. Hopefully you'll end up with sets of information that are common to all with only a few sets that are user specific. Work with your customers a lot here, because it sounds like they are generally confused on how to organize their information. Ie. They are relying on your help for that. Also keep in mind that, in many cases, there is general information that everyone wants to record about their clients and that anything else is usually considered notes. So, for example, if you create a table for the client's name, address, phone, etc. and then create a notes section, you've captured a majority of the information that your users want to track for their clients. Ultimately, after all of that and if someone's willing to pay for the development time, you could theoretically setup a series of forms where the first form prompts for general detail and then, based on who's logged in, you could present additional forms. You could even design the logic behind forms to respond based on information that's entered. For example, if the first form asks for the client's city, follow-up forms may prompt for data specific to that city. Hope this helps, -Ed Hi Ed, User data like name age address etc will probably apply to all cases but that is where it will end. The site is intended for use by Personal Trainers and each personal trainer has their own way of recording information, creating programs for gym users etc... -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] User Defined Forms
I have interviewed a few users and it has become instantly apparent that they all work differently and record slightly different information about their clients making it impossible to produce a general set of forms that would encompass all users. I haven't done any other forms of modelling as yet. User data like name age address etc will probably apply to all cases but that is where it will end. The site is intended for use by Personal Trainers and each personal trainer has their own way of recording information, creating programs for gym users etc... Kind of sounds like you need to develop a form builder for them to customize their forms. You'd want to make a table that holds the name and type for each field. Then you'd want to make a table that would house the fields each form wants to include. A final table that would hold the name of the form, and the user who has rights to use it. This doesn't sound real difficult, but time consuming. Does that make sense? -Dan Joseph -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
