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Posted by Jerry Stuckle on 07/16/07 19:51
Nooze Goy wrote:
> Hi, I'm totally noob with php, so please forgive any apparent stupidity.
>
> I'm writing order entry for our local Food Co-op, using php and mysql.
>
> The people who will be using this could be poster children for the
> school of computer illiteracy. The main reason this is being written is
> that the lady (94 years old) who has been running the order entry
> computer for 25 years is getting orders emailed with the orders as
> attachments. Despite the fact that we've repeatedly told members to put
> their orders in .txt files, some of them just flat don't understand the
> difference between a file saved by notepad and a file saved by the
> latest and greatest version of M$ Word, or Word Perfect, or OOo Writer,
> or whatever... so, every order cycle (four weeks) our dowager Queen gets
> at least four or five orders in files she can't open on the Co-op's
> computer that we keep at her house. Mind you, if it was me running that
> part of it, it would be solved quickly with a response telling the
> offenders that their orders were improperly formatted, please call for
> help and we'll talk you through saving the order in .txt format...
> actually, I already have an order entry program (written in xHarbour)
> that they can download and run, that ftp's a formatted order to our
> server... but it's "too hard to use"...
>
> Anyway, it seems that they can point and click on a browser page, so
> that's where we're headed.
>
> I've got a conversion program to transfer the existing (xBASE) database
> including 160 members, 16,000+ items to MySQL database and I've got the
> member log-in screen working.
>
> My next step is a simple order-entry screen where they can type in the
> item numbers and quantities to order, and we look up the item number and
> show the description and price, with subtotal and total, then allow them
> to approve their order. (Later we can get into letting them review their
> total order, as they might wish [I would, anyway] to be able to just hop
> on the web site and add an item or two anytime up until we close the
> cycle).
>
> So, right now, I've got a brute-force html form with 24 line items,
> where they can enter item & quantity up to 24 lines - no lookup or
> anything just yet... for processing purposes of even this brute-force
> form, it would by easier to deal with if the entry fields were arrays
> instead of individually-named... for example item[1], item[2], ...
> instead if item1, item2 - but I haven't found a way to do that just yet
> - maybe it's not possible?
>
> Anyway, when FINISHED is clicked (to submit the form data), it will ask
> PROCESS or ABORT.
>
> PROCESS will process the order, by finding the items and prices and
> displaying a pseudo-invoice (item, description, quantity, price,
> amount), so they can confirm or abort at that point. Items not found
> would go to a lookup (described below) and either find the true item or
> remove it from the order.
>
> What I really want, though, is a screen that's at least got a way to
> look up an item, although most users are already looking at a 100-page
> catalog with the item numbers... and it would be great to have it do a
> running total as you enter, i.e., you enter an item "1068" and quantity
> "6" and it fills in the description "CLIF Bar, Peanut Butter Crunch" and
> price "0.95" and amount "5.70" and you can either go to the next item or
> change that item or quantity or click the "FINISHED" button. Oh, and
> instead of entering the item NUMBER, you might want to enter TEXT such
> as "PEANUT BUTTER" which takes you to a drop-down list of all the items
> with "PEANUT BUTTER" in their descriptions. (I've already written a test
> screen which lets you type in pretty much anything and shows you a list
> of items whose description contains whatever you type, so that's
> presumably implementable as a function).
>
> Any suggestions?
I wouldn't have put it quite the way Michael did, but I agree. If
you're not sure at this point, you're in way over your head.
You will also have security concerns - for instance, google for "SQL
Injection". In fact, you could have that exposure already.
What you're wanting to do isn't necessarily hard - but it does take a
good working knowledge of both PHP and SQL. And even then it will take
an experienced programmer several days (at least - depending on what you
want) to get it going for you.
--
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Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
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