I'm hoping this isn't harder than it seems.
I want to create an HTML form with a few text boxes that will allow people to enter in some data and I want these changes to be saved to the form.
For example, if my html page says:
Name: [ ]
...I want someone to be able to click on the [] and enter their name, etc. and click SAVE
and then have the form say:
Name: "Name of Person"
If someone wants to update that, they can click on the person's name and change it and click SAVE and have the HTML form update itself.
How can I do this? I've looked everywhere and people are talking about HTML5 AND PHP. Is it really that complicated to make a simple page like this?
(In case I wasn't clear in my html I'm using the contenteditable="true" option. How can I save those changes?)
I think your question indicates that you don't already know that web pages (including forms) are "stateless", meaning that they do not "automatically" hold or store anything that you do with them. Sorry to disappoint, but as a beginner you will struggle to find "an easy" solution to this.
That is not to say it can't be done - you no doubt see it everywhere - but your level of knowledge misses the fact that you need to actually program the logic to determine how your form will "appear" to store the information and reproduce it on a later visit.
Here's a (really) brief summary:
When your form is used by your user, a couple of things have already taken place before they get to see the form:
the user has requested the page (typing a URL or clicking a link)
the web server has sent the requested page (that is; your website has sent the form)
The next thing that takes place is that your user enters some data on the form. This data is not stored anywhere - if you refresh the page the data is gone, because steps 1 and 2 happen again.
So to avoid this you can use a number of tools:
Javascript: this operates on the user's computer. You can use it to find out if something has been entred on a form, and store it in, for example, a cookie.
Then you will have to build some logic into your page that says, "if my user refreshes the page or comes back to this site at a later date, then look for the cookie. If it exists, then take it's values and pre-fill the form, before the user gets to see it."
Server Side Script: This logic can be built into your web server (using a server side script like PHP) so it actually runs in step 2.
Alternatively you can build it into a javascript function which fires when the page is actually received by your user. This would be a step 3.
A second alternative combines these two ideas (processing on the user side and processing on the webserver side) called AJAX, which basically means that the "discussion" between your javascript and PHP takes place "on the fly" when the data is entered or changed.
And lastly you might want to consider PHP Sessions to store data, and/or a mySQL database. Recently with the advent of modern browsers you now have the possibility to store the information in a local database available to your user's browser...
In all of these cases you will need to learn how these pieces talk to each other, how you retreive the information, and how you update your stateless and static form.
It isn't has straightforward as you might think...
You don't need HTML5. HTML4 is good enough :)
But you need some server side script that saves the changes (on the server side in e.g. a DB or XML file). To make it a better experience (if multiple users use the form at the same time) I suggest you use AJAX to save the changes and poll the server for updates.
This is not complicated (at least I don't think it is), but it seems to be a generation ahead of what you already know. And it could take quite a long time to get the structure in place before you can do this sort of thing without needing help.
There are some basic questions
Does the information need to stay saved when the user hits reload?
Does the information need to stay saved when the user clears cookies?
If the information can be blanked out next time they come back to your page, then it is simple.
Otherwise, we need a way to keep track of which user sees what information, so the guy in Texas does not see the information the guy in Chinatown typed in. Cookies are a common way to do this. You could save the information to the cookies if there is not too much information.
Otherwise, you need sever-side language. This is usually in PHP, but deciding what language has to do with why you want to learn in the first place? Are you wanting to work for a company later on? Do you have your own website?
Please comment to let me know more what is going on, and what the answers are to the two basic questions, and I will better be able to answer.
Usually, for most cases, there is a login name and password (or OpenID), and if cookies are cleared, the user logs in again, but this requires some work to set up a working login before you re-visit this question of how to store what they type.
Related
I would appreciate if someone would help me with this.
I am new to Access and my boss has given me a project to create a tool for our team (I work in insurance). I'm done with most part of the project, but my boss wants editing and updating of database restricted to a few members of our team (yes more than one person can modify) but since the tool is to be used for a wide range of purposes, she would like that the rest of the department (50+ people) can only access certain forms which have buttons etc. that do the job.
So far in this database I have, 3 linked tables (which hold all the data), queries, reports, union queries and make tables and 3 forms. What I would like is for most people to only view forms and use it in form view only, but 4 members of my team to do whatever they want since they need to constantly edit the data.
Does anyone have a hint about where I should begin? Programming is not my cup of tea so I would really appreciate some reference etc. or any help!
If you hit file, then hit options, and then select current database, you can force a specific form to pop up whenever you open the access database. In addition, you can take away the user's ability to go through the entire database's content. you can also take away the navigation bar and menus and such. I have been doing this for a while, so here's some advice. Have a main menu form that has a button for every form in the access file. When the user opens the database, he or she should see that main menu form. From there, they can click on the button that will lead them to the form that will solve the needs they have.
Stackoverflow won't let me post a comment, so here is what I was going to say. For those who you want to have access to it, you can have them hold shift while opening the database. If they do that, they will open the database like they were an "admin" to the database. They would be able to edit it however they would like if they hold down shift.
I have done this via a table, assigning users a specific "Security Level" and checking their security level via a login screen. I then hide the login screen (not close it) so that anytime a form is open it can do a DLookup of the user's security level and then determine if the user has read, write or read/write access to the form. I can also hide buttons on the form based on the same logic.
Starting in 2007, Access removed their native security, which was pretty inefficient anyway.
So I am a bit new to MYSQL and I've been learning allot more about relational databases but I am a bit stumped with one subject in mind. I notice allot of sites have things like domain.tld/variable. I understand how this works by using /?variable=name but most users would never use that. So how does one go about letting users pull content based on the principal listed?
Actually, that has nothing to do with databases.
When the url is accessed, url rewriting is used to change the url behind the scenes. While the user enters domain.com/data, the php script (or anything else) at domain.com?variable=data is opened.
I have a editable html5 page and I store new elements in localStorage.
I want to synchronize my page with the server.
I want to know if I can do it without a server side script or if there is some tips to do something like this in a good way.
Thank you :)
You can pull information from the server quite easily using jQuery and then just put it on Local Storage but, if you want to upload local information to the server there is no way around, you have to use some kind of script, tough it's not that difficult, there are many languages (PHP, C#, Python...) and tools you can use.
Keep in mind that when you upload information to the server you have to sanitize it very important security measure.
Basically, the way to go is:
Post the information to the server (using AJAX or a HTML form, either way will do)
Use some server-side script to capture the variables posted.
Sanitize your data (check format, discard non-valid characters, etc)
Store it on database (Do not, ever, concatenate your data with a SQL query ok? that can make you vulnerable to a SQL injection attack), compute something or do stuff.
Return some status to the client (some confirmation maybe?)
You may want to take that confirmation and show a message to the user ("Your info was saved properly" or something like that)
is a javascript timer not sufficient for this manner? or jQuery?
The question really should be more of a problem than a question. If you're updating based on a server's variables then you could use AJAX i believe but if its like increment said variable every X seconds I would focus on using a javascript timer.
I have taken Web Design, but I never learned how to take a variable on a website and each time someone clicks on it to increase by one and save it so the next user will see var+1.
For example how facebook liking works
This is not a simple task done by HTML only.
You'll need a database to store the number of likes. Other technologies like PHP and Ajax should also be used. This post gives you a little explanation on how to implement such a system.
You need a database in the server, and use JavaScript to POST an Ajax query to server, and on page request you'd need a server side scripting language (e.g. PHP) to query the database for the value of the variable and generate a HTML page with that value. It's not possible to do it with pure HTML.
Hey guys... I'm working on creating one of my first websites and currently have it only in HTML/CSS which is great for displaying some basic material on my site. However, I'd like to add in the option to submit something basic like a quote to the page. I'd like to start with just a simple form to submit a name and a quote and have it appear in the quotes section. I've looked up basic HTML forms and such but I'm not sure how to go between a basic HTML form and having that material appear on the page. Could anyone help me step through this or perhaps point me to a guide to accomplish this?
Thanks.
You need a script which receives the posted information and some place to store the quotes. The script can be written in ASP.NET, PHP, python or whatever else your webserver supports and you want to learn. The database can be as simple as a directory with textfiles or a full-blown SQL database like postgresql or mssql.
When processing user-input you have to take care about security issues. The most common ones are:
Cross-site scripting: When you present user-input to the user, it must not be interpreted as HTML and/or Javascript, to prevent malicious users from sending information from your trust-domain to them.
SQL Injection: Always use the underlying database's parameter support to properly quote incoming data, to prevent malicious users from sending arbitrary commands to your database. See also this example.
as a java developer the way I would do this is:
get the information from the html
using JQuery
than I would just a post to send to
the servlet
process what i need in servlet
send back to JQuery the answer
change my html with JQuery
Although I am sure there are much easier ways to do it with just PHP
if you want to do this way, first thing i would master is making sure you can send things to the servlet and get an answer back.
look at this and see if you can get something to get sent back
http://www.roseindia.net/servlets/HelloWorld.shtml
It might be a good idea to also look at JSPs
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/html/jspbasics.fm1.html