Re: Invoice editing in QF/DataObject or FB?

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 13:05:48 -0800, Ken Restivo <ken@restivo.org> wrote: > I need to implement the following common pattern, and I don't want to reinvent the wheel. > In fact, I don't want to invent it at *all*, if I can avoid it. > > The most familiar example of the problem is an "invoice screen", that lets you start > up a new invoice, enter the information that goes into the "invoice" table, then also > shows a summary (HTML_Table or frozen QF) of each of the "line items", whose data goes > into the line_items table. I need to show all the line items, and let people add/remove/edit line > items, coming BACK to the invoice screen when they are done (or ideally expanding/hiding the line > items-- but probably not possible due to prohibition against nested forms in HTML). > > This pattern is needed in a half-dozen other places in my application. In fact, I'd > imagine it's incredibly common in relational database applications: a million interlinked > tables, that the users have to edit and deal with. > > A corrolary to this is the case where the user is choosing from a pop-up the linked fields (in > this case using ->fb_linkDisplayFields), but more often than not needs a "NEW" or > "OTHER" button to add one that *isn't* in the database: so the pop-up needs a > "New" or "Other" link next to it, which will bump them to a screen to enter a > new record for the linked table, then after validating and processing, go back to where the user was > (with all their other data intact!) with the new record's ID pre-selected in the pop-up. > > Again, I cannot imagine how anyone can build a usable interface to a relational database > without this, so I can't possibly be the first to bump up against this. There must be example > PEAR code galore. Unfortunately, I haven't had luck finding it. > > Are there any examples of this kind of "invoice screen" in QF/DataObjects or FB? > It's similar to a "shopping cart", so I'd assume this has been done a million > times. > That's a pretty tall order. FormBuilder is supposed to fill a lot of that gap, however. I assume you've already started using it as you know what it does. Did you know about the linkNewValue option in the newest release? It allows you to enter a new value for a linked field. In the current release it's on by default but in the next it will be off by default. Anyway if you set $fb->linkNewValue or $do->fb_linkNewValue to true it will put a form for a new record for that link in a hidden div and display it if the user selects "--New Value--" in the drop-down. As for multi-page forms there's HTML_QuickForm_Controller, but I've never used that myself. For listing records I like to use Structures_DataGrid and I actually wrote a package called DB_DataObject_FormBuilder_Frontend which gives you a list of tables and lets you browser, edit, delete, and insert records in any table (using FormBuilder and Structures_DataGrid). it is probably not quite what you need, but it has lots of code you can re-use in it. The individual classes are supposed to be directly re-usable, but I haven't quite gotten that far. http://www.reversefold.com/PEAR/DB_DataObject_FormBuilder_Frontend/ -- Justin Patrin