I have added some check boxes in my drupal form. User can select either one option or two or all the three given there. Though am able to throw a validation error that at least one of the check boxes should be selected, am not able to validate if two or three are selected or not and the values are also not getting stored in the database provided.
How to do the validation so that whatever values are selected, its getting stored in the database?
Requesting help please.
Storing the values in the database isn't typically part of the validation handler, it's usually handled by a submit handler function. The specifics of how the data should be stored depends a lot on what the data is and how it's going to be used, so you'd need to provide some more details in order to get a more concrete answer there.
In general, I'd recommend checking out the Examples for Developers project, which provides lots of working code samples that demonstrate various aspects of Drupal development, including a form example.
Related
In CRM Online on a customer form is there anyway that you can check if the Associated View for Assets is blank? And if its blank change a field value based on it.
Using JavaScript, 2 ways:
The associated grid is showing records related to your primary record. You can perform the same query the grid is doing using REST which will tell you if there are any records. You can then count the records, and change the field value as required. This approach is better if there are records in the database but which aren't shown in the view for some reason, e.g. view filters.
Access the Grid objects data using getRows(). As above you can then count the records, and change the field value as required. The downside of this is I believe those methods only give you access to the records shown on the form (and not any hidden by filters but still in the database) - but I don't think that that will be a problem here.
Worth bearing in mind that this approach only works client side, e.g. someone has to be actually looking at the form.
If you need to cover the a non-client side approach, e.g. workflows creating records, then you should probably look at plugin development so the changes can be performed server side.
As a side if you just want a simple count shown on form you then you should probably look at Calculated Fields and in particular Rollup fields. You might also be able to run further client side JavaScript from the count.
I am currently using APEX 4.0. I would like to make a validation that would apply for multiple fields in a form. For example, I want specific fields to only accept a Y or N, and they must be uppercase letters. As of now, I have one validation for each field. Is there a way to make a single validation that would apply to all these fields?
Creating Re-Usable Form Validations in Oracle Application Express (APEX)
This solution was developed on a Apex instance hosted on Oracle OTN (apex.oracle.com). This instance is currently at version 4.2.5, but the design elements discussed within this solution should still be compatible across the versions from 4.0.0 and 4.2.5.
The way you can approach your form design is not necessarily to catch exceptions through a validation step once the form has been completed and submitted.
Instead, simply consider limiting the choices that the user can choose in their input, and control how that input is interpreted once it is submitted as changes to your data table.
Pre-Validate By Defining Restrictive Value Choices
Here is an example of the OP requirement defined as a "Shared Component" through the "Application Builder" menu. Create a named LOV (list of values) with a static definition. Here, you can define the value pairs of:
DISPLAY, which is anything user friendly you want the user to see. Even if Y or N is pretty self-explanatory, explore other options such as spelling it out (such as: YES) or combining the real value with the display (such as: Y (Yes)).
RETURN VALUE, which is where you enforce what goes into your database. In this case, the uppercase, single character values mentioned in the OP requirements would go here.
This is what that LOV definition looks like:
APEX LOV (list of values) Design Screen
Eliminate Free-form Data Form Item Display Types
Following with the initial concept of a limiting LOV, convert all your form items to use display-types which use a "List of Values" definition pointing to your "Shared Component" (or Named LOV).
Use the SAME LOV definition for questions requiring the same input rules. Now the user has no way of changing the data values outside of the OP definition, and there is some flexibility to use more instructive/descriptive display values so that they are more likely to make the right selection as well.
This is an example of how a input form with the same input data types can accomplish this task with no additional validation:
Sample APEX Form Design with Reusable Input Restriction Rules
In this example, I experimented with a few form item styles, including
The standard text-box entry field. (Problematic without coupling it with additional validation logic).
Select-list entry items worked the best. See the discussion at the end of this solution for more explanation on choosing specifics such as specifying "null field values".
Radio group selection buttons work well to as they provide a visual layout of the valid form choices without additional drilling-down or scrolling.
All three options used the same LOV definition.
Examples of Data Input Using LOV Enforced Restrictions
After experimenting with different kinds of inputs, here's a few things that may be helpful depending on the situation or the deeper requirements of this OP or other readers.
DISPLAY EXTRA VALUES should be left as set to NO. This is the reason for restricting the input possibilities in the first place.
DISPLAY NULL VALUE is best as NO if all answers require a response. If NULL is possible, there is a useful third (defaulted) value that can be used for additional user-friendliness.
Sample Data Inputs and Values from the LOV Restricted Form
Notice that the free-text entry field presents additional problems with data quality without some other form of validation or checking. The other form fields provided accurate data input reflected through the target database table.
Some Closing Comments and Points for Further Study
This solution is only a partial one with respect to protecting information stored in a database table. It is not uncommon for lots of other systems, applications, programs, api's, etc. to also have access to change or add data to this back-end data source.
What if another group of developers independently created an api for managing data in the same table? Unless they read the documentation of the OP or examined existing data sets already present, their project team may not have designed an accurate interpretation of the rules which sit at this point, only on this particular APEX application.
Depending on how vulnerable your system is, it is also good practice to apply relevant safeguards, such as schema level table constraints (such as check constraints), Not Null constraints (where applicable) and even DEFAULT values settings (established by triggers or table default values).
From the Author...
Again, it isn't all necessary to go to this detail... if the input form of the Apex application offers only two choices: "SOUP" or "SALAD", it is unlikely that "BACON-ORANGE-CHICKEN" will pop up in the table after deploying the application into users' hands.
This kind of design approach skips a server round trip worth of I/O because the user already know what is on the menu at the initial page loading event.
Although the OP request is very simple and generic (Y for YES or N for NO), it presents a useful pattern for more complex input screening procedures that can happen even before the data is submitted.
Good Luck, All!
Onward.
I'm creating a web app for my client as a part of my schools final project.
It's a web app where users fill forms (surveys) and after forms are submitted,
values are saved in the database.
There are three types of users: admins, moderators and viewers. Admin's can see the
overview of filled forms, moderators will fill these forms and they also can make edits
to them and get the overview of the forms they've filled. We haven't discussed about the rights of viewers
at this point.
I'm using CodeIgniter as a framework of my project since it comes pretty handy when it comes to database
manipulation and forms. What would be the best way to implement this kind of situation? There are apprx.
4-5 forms (surveys) each moderator will fill. After they've filled them, they only can make edits to that particular form.
So one user can fill each form only once.
I've designed that each of the forms needs one table. So if there is a form (survey) about IT equipment, I will create
a table for IT equipment. User's id number will be saved in to the last column in the table, usually called "user_ID" where I can
make queries based on users and check if user is already filled the particular form.
What about controllers and models? I've thought I could only make one model for inserting and editing the form.
However, is it pretty much the only way to create a controller or method foreach form since there are different types
of form fields to validate based on the form user is actually filling. I've already created a controller for inserting and updating
the IT equipment form and both of these methods are pretty big when it comes to the amount of code, over 200 lines per method.
So that would be a total amount of 2000 lines of code just for inserting and editing all the forms.
What'd you do and how you'd implement this if dealing with similiar kind of project?
Thanks in advance for all the ideas and point of views!
You should take a look into this:
http://cibonfire.com/
It's a really good addon for codeigniter, that allows you to data oriented development.
I am using mvc3 for my web app.
When an user edit an existing form, make a few changes and save it.
what is the best practice to check which field in the form has been modified.
Regards,
Bubblegum.
Since we're not talking data access - upon postback, compare it to your object in your database. This is somewhat of an open question because it depends what data access you are using and what models you are using. Entity framework Entities can track their modified state so you may be able to use
TryUpdateModel(yourInstanceLoadedFromYourDatabase)
and check the status of each field. That 'may' work, otherwise you are comparing each field. However why do you need to know specifically which field changed? Save the entire object back to the database (or simply merge with the values from the page using the same TryUpdateModel above)
I am now to the stage of adding validation to a simple app for editing a few SQL tables via data-bound controls. I can see that the BindingSource knows the limits of the table's structure: if I enter, for example, letters in a field that should contain only decimals, up pops a DataError exception with the message that you can only enter decimals there.
It seems to me that ADO.NET should be able to use reflection to generate basic validation for all the data-bound fields. But after a lot of Googling, I see only people creating their own validation by column by column.
Can I use ADO.NET's knowledge of the database structure to have it make some of the basic validation for me (e.g. data type, text field length limits)? Do you have some examples?
I'm sad that I've never gotten a good response on this question... but I think I have my answer:
Yes, it should be possible, but no, it hasn't been done yet.
(Maybe someday I'll start a project myself to make a tool which would auto-generate basic validation values for data-bound form fields.)