phpAddEdit Script Usage Notes

To use this script, just follow each step in order and things should be more or less obvious. Where appropriate, I have added popup notes on headings to offer more detailed information or instructions. However, a couple of powerful features need some more detailed explanation – especially the selectbox_multiple and the selectbox_multiple row options.

• selectbox (other) – a regular select box but with a textbox beside it to add an option if it doesn’t exist. If the select box is populated with values from a database table, the added option value will automatically be added to that table. Since a basic selectbox only allows one selection, the textbox value will replace anything that may be otherwise selected
• selectbox (multiple) vs. selectbox (multiple row) – these are essentially the same field types, the difference being that when the form is processed a selectbox (multiple) will produce a single string value that consists of all the selected items separated by a comma whereas a selectbox (multiple row) will actually add a new database entry for each selected item. Note that the ‘other’ versions of these fields act like the selectbox (other) field described above.

• selectbox (multiple row) – In some cases you may want to manipulate multiple tables at once with one of those tables having possibly multiple entries. For example, say you have a table called posts and a table called categories. It could be that each post may have multiple categories (e.g., leadership, management, marketing…). In that case you will likely have a connecting table, say posts2categories which relates the posts table entries with their categories table relationships. In other words, if a post had three categories, there will end up being three entries in the posts2categories table. So, and this may seem a bit counter-intuitive, when you create your form you will include only TWO tables, posts, and posts2categories. You will NOT include the categories table. Instead you will use it to popule the selectbox (multiple row) field which you will define for the table posts2categories.

  Now, assume your posts2categories table has three fields, relID which is just an index, posts_id which specifies the relevant posts table entry and categories_id which specifies the relevant categories entry that are to be connected. When you get to the Tables menu in the phpAddEdit software (Step 3) you will set the Edit Field as posts_id. Then at Step 4 (Fields) you will select the categories_id as the only field to include. Next, at Step 5 (Options (1)) you will assign the categories_id field to a selectbox (multiple row) or a selectbox (multiple row) other field. Finally, on Step 6 (Options (2)), you will specify the posts_id field as the Relative ID. Then you will use the Populate With… option to fill out the selectbox. Here is where the table categories actually comes into play. For example, you might fill that option with an SQL statement like “SELECT * FROM categories ORDER BY category”.

  At first, I am sure this process seems a bit strange, but if you think about it for a while, I hope it will make sense to you. Also note that if you choose the selectbox (multiple row) other option, the script is smart enough to use your SQL statement to figure out which table (categories) needs to have the “other” option added to.

  Final Note: if you use this option successfully and can do a better job of explaining it, please send me your explanation.