Suzanne — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 08:27:21 +0000

Okay, boys and girls, don't pass out!

I didn't get the good code working, but I have three versions, lol. The one that was closest to my original thought is the one that's fully working. Now I have to go back and understand what ROB is doing (so close, I am, so close) and then, what Mark is doing. This is so good, to have different ways of doing the same thing to see how they work.

Anyway!

LOOK!

synapticimpulse.com/forsale.php

Heh. Not the same page, an entirely different page, with the checkboxes and submit buttons hidden and the update script password protected, but the main list totally displayed.

WHEE!

Suzanne — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 07:23:18 +0000

*rofl* oh dear, I knew I was forgetting something!

Here's the plan:

1. Figure out how to make this work (before I move, hopefully, I'll be working on it again tomorrow).
2. Once it's working, figure out how to add and delete whole items (not just checkboxes).
3. Something happens here.
4. I become a master programmer and rule the world...

in the meantime, thank you both for your example code, your time, and your patience with me figuring out how this works. I'm glad I had it half right on the counting, and I understand the list concept for getting the # of items (the MySQL book and site were misleading, darn their souls!).

Thanks for the very thorough explanation of the arrays, ROB. I'm familiar with multi-dimensional arrays (and referencing them in PHP thanks to Mark) but my foray in MySQL means I don't have the cognitive infrastructure to understand how this is all actually put together in the language (PHP? MySQL? Which one is doing what has been tripping me up).

You guys, quite simply, rock.

Mark Hensler — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 03:52:22 +0000

You know what I don't see on that list?
"Send Mark china to pack"

That must be why it hasn't arrived yet.

Mark Hensler — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 03:45:10 +0000

<?php
/* COUNT ROWS IN MOVING TABLE */

$query_count = \"SELECT MAX(task_id) FROM moving\";
$result = mysql_query($query_count);
list($items) = mysql_fetch_row($result);
?>

That should fix your previous question.

Rob, I think the ordering concern is when you add a new record and want to stick it between two other entries.

If this is the case, you simply add another field (lets say "`sort` int(11) unsigned NULL default '0'"). Then sort on the `sort` field. This, of course, adds a layer of complexity as you'll need to provide a method of updating the `sort` number for existing records.

With the latest changes Rob made, your script should start breathing soon.

ROB — Tue, 03 Sep 2002 04:11:22 +0000

in answer to your question "would i do this?"...

<?php
echo \"<li><input type=\\"checkbox\\" name=\\"$ch[$task_id]\\" value=\\"1\\" alt=\\"is it done\\" $ifchecked/>$itemname</li>\n\";

// the answer is no, you already have this line so use it:
$checkboxname = $details[\"task_id\"];

/* you want the checkbox to be named as arrayname[key]
an array is a list of values accessed by keys ... well actually it's called a hash, an array is an 
incremental list of values accessed by an index, but that's just the elitist in me so ignore it
... anyways, arrayname can be anything you want to name it, name it dogfood if you want, but ill simply 
name it 'checklist'.  key is the key the index will be accessed by, in this case we're using the task_id, 
so each checkbox will be named checklist[task_id]... */
$checkboxname = \"checklist[{$details['task_id']}]\";
// that's not as bad as it looks, {$details['task_id']} simply evaluates to an integer, ...
// ie: the task id of the current task

// now you can do exactly what you were doing
echo \"<li><input type=\\"checkbox\\" name=\\"$checkboxname\\" value=\\"1\\" alt=\\"is it done\\" $ifchecked/>$itemname</li>\n\";
?>

as far as your concern about ordering by id, i'm not sure i understand. if you mean, by deleting records and effectively removing an element from the id order, that's not a concern. 1,6,3,9 will sort the same as 1,2,3,6,7,8,4,5,9.

Suzanne — Tue, 03 Sep 2002 02:51:41 +0000

Am I right in hearing that you're saying this is a horribly awkward way to do it? (And thank you, I think it's beginning to dawn on me how this works).

So, in order to get the array as needed, what would the code look like? This is what I have:

<?php
/* GET THE INFORMATION OUT OF THE DATABASE AND DISPLAY CATEGORIES AND LISTS OF ITEMS */

$qResult = mysql_query(\"SELECT * FROM checklist_categories ORDER BY ID\");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($qResult)) { // while this category
    $category = $row[\"name\"];
    $cat_id = $row[\"ID\"];
    $description = $row[\"description\"];
    echo \"<h2>$category</h2>\n\n<p><strong>Category $cat_id:</strong> $description</p>\n\n<ul>\n\";

    $qResult2 = mysql_query(\"SELECT * FROM moving WHERE category_id LIKE $cat_id ORDER BY task_id\");

    while($details = mysql_fetch_array($qResult2)) {    // display items for this category
         $itemname = $details[\"name\"];
         $checkboxname = $details[\"task_id\"];

        if ($details[\"completed\"] == 1) {
            $ifchecked = \"checked=\\"checked\\" \"; // put in the code including the space
            }
        else {
            $ifchecked = \"\"; // nothing is printed 
            }    

        echo \"<li><input type=\\"checkbox\\" name=\\"$checkboxname\\" value=\\"1\\" alt=\\"is it done\\" $ifchecked/>$itemname</li>\n\";

    }  //end item loop

    echo \"</ul>\n\n\";

}  //end category loop
?>

Would I do this?

<?php
        echo \"<li><input type=\\"checkbox\\" name=\\"$ch[$task_id]\\" value=\\"1\\" alt=\\"is it done\\" $ifchecked/>$itemname</li>\n\";
?>

Now that I'm this far into it, I can see how ordering by task id would be a problem if you, say, wanted to put items in and take items out.

Perhaps I need to entirely rethink how to approach this. I'm still having trouble with Mark's script, mostly because I have to learn how it works in order to edit it to fit, and I'm trying to do this and pack and sell everything we're not moving, lol.

I'm thinking when I get to Ontario I'm going to sign up for a course at UW and see how if that helps...

ROB — Tue, 03 Sep 2002 00:33:08 +0000

ah, in that case you can do

<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="checklist[1]" VALUE="1">
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="checklist[2]" VALUE="1">
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="checklist[3]" VALUE="1">

// where x in checklist[x] is the task_id

then, you would get you're array of checked keys like:

<?php
$checkedkeys = array_keys($checklist);

// and the rest ...
// uncheck all records
mysql_query(\"UPDATE moving SET completed='0'\"); 

// now re-check the ones that are checked
foreach($checkedkeys as $id) {
    mysql_query(\"UPDATE moving SET completed='1' WHERE task_id='$id'\");

}
?>

Suzanne — Tue, 03 Sep 2002 00:07:52 +0000

would it be possible to only set the value to 1 since the checklist is printed in order and the task_id is the checklist name? In order to validate, the checklist has to have a unique name...

ROB — Mon, 02 Sep 2002 23:24:53 +0000

ok what you were doing makes more sense now. one thing i'd definately change:

//you define your checkboxes like this
<input type="checkbox" name="1" value="1">
<input type="checkbox" name="2" value="1">
<input type="checkbox" name="3" value="1">

//you should define them like this
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="checklist[]" VALUE="1">
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="checklist[]" VALUE="2">
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="checklist[]" VALUE="3">
// where value is the task_id

what this will do is cause your script to receive an array of checked id's rather than recieving seperate variables.

you can test this with something like:

<?php
foreach($checklist as $id) echo \"$id<BR>\";
// which will print out a list of the id's of all the checked boxes
?>

so now that you know all the id's which are checked, you know everything else is unchecked. unfortunately, anything that is not checked is undefined and you only know it's not defined because of it's lack of existence, which means you need to be aware of it's existence beforehand. i really hate this because it makes it difficult to deal with large arrays of dynamic checkbox items, but there are workarounds.

since we know what is checked, i'd mark everything unchecked(in the database) and then check the ones we know are checked like so:

<?php
// uncheck all records
mysql_query(\"UPDATE moving SET completed='0'\"); 
// now re-check the ones that are checked
foreach($checklist as $id) {
    mysql_query(\"UPDATE moving SET completed='1' WHERE task_id='$id'\");
}
?>

hope that helps

Suzanne — Mon, 02 Sep 2002 21:44:40 +0000

oh, sorry! I forgot about the password protection:

username: moving
password: ackackack

Sorry, it was late and my eyes were crossing. Maybe I do need to use implode after all.