form registration design...

Hi,

I am making a small registration form about cars in three steps. The
first step is to fill in member data. After filled out the member data
hit "next" and enter car information. Hit "next" and upload pictures
of the cars which is step 3.

I have 2 database tables in mysql "member" and "cars". "member" is
used in step 1 and "cars" is used in step 2 and step 3.
What is proper design of making this work.

1. Is it to store the data in the database after finnishing each step?
If it is how do I handle cases when the user hit "back" and want to
change something on a prior step of the registration. How do I handle
if the user finnish step 1 och step 2 but exit and never do step 3?
etc..

2. or is it to validate the data and write it all down after
finnishing step 3. If this is the way to do it, how do I store
data(all variables used in step 1 and step 2) so I can fetch it in the
end of step 3 for write down in my database.

is there another way to do it? please help me to do this right...

I am writing this in PHP. Is there any praxis how to do registration
forms?
Is there any tutorial on this subject that I can read?

thanks

karolina

re: form registration design...

karolina a écrit le 19/01/2004 :[color=blue]
> Hi,[/color]
Hello,
[color=blue]
> I am making a small registration form about cars in three steps. The
> first step is to fill in member data. After filled out the member data
> hit "next" and enter car information. Hit "next" and upload pictures
> of the cars which is step 3.[/color]
You can also combine Steps 2 and 3 in the same form.
[color=blue]
> I have 2 database tables in mysql "member" and "cars". "member" is
> used in step 1 and "cars" is used in step 2 and step 3.
> What is proper design of making this work.[/color]
This seems OK to me. I guess one member can manage multiples cars.
[color=blue]
> 1. Is it to store the data in the database after finnishing each step?
> If it is how do I handle cases when the user hit "back" and want to
> change something on a prior step of the registration. How do I handle
> if the user finnish step 1 och step 2 but exit and never do step 3?
> etc..[/color]
For me, I would say "Registration" is just the step concerning
Membership. The car things are the "normal use" of your service.
Therefore, registration is OK because in only one step. It is done or
not no half measure. For the car part, you can add a flag in your db to
tell if data input is completed or not. Then depending on the value of
this flag you can choose to resume where the user was.
[color=blue]
> 2. or is it to validate the data and write it all down after
> finnishing step 3. If this is the way to do it, how do I store
> data(all variables used in step 1 and step 2) so I can fetch it in the
> end of step 3 for write down in my database.
>
> is there another way to do it? please help me to do this right...[/color]
There are surely many ways to do the same thing. Yours is not bad IMHO.
[color=blue]
> I am writing this in PHP. Is there any praxis how to do registration
> forms?
> Is there any tutorial on this subject that I can read?[/color]
Google and some PHP scripts related sites.
[color=blue]
> thanks[/color]
You're welcome ;)
[color=blue]
> karolina[/color]
Ben.

re: form registration design...

Jedi121 <jedi121news@free.fr.Removethis> wrote in message news:<mesnews.9d0c7d41.bfb0e185.461.2689@free.fr.R emovethis>...[color=blue]
> karolina a écrit le 19/01/2004 :[color=green]
> > Hi,[/color]
> Hello,[/color]
Hi again!
[color=blue][color=green]
> > I am making a small registration form about cars in three steps. The
> > first step is to fill in member data. After filled out the member data
> > hit "next" and enter car information. Hit "next" and upload pictures
> > of the cars which is step 3.[/color]
> You can also combine Steps 2 and 3 in the same form.[/color]

Interesting. How can I do that since the pictures must be posted with
enctype="multipart/form-data" and that makes my other values in my
form to NOT be posted.
[color=blue][color=green]
> > I have 2 database tables in mysql "member" and "cars". "member" is
> > used in step 1 and "cars" is used in step 2 and step 3.
> > What is proper design of making this work.[/color]
> This seems OK to me. I guess one member can manage multiples cars.[/color]

Yes, but step 2 is a "INSERT INTO CARS" and step 3 is a "UPDATE CARS"
SQL statement.
[color=blue][color=green]
> > 1. Is it to store the data in the database after finnishing each step?
> > If it is how do I handle cases when the user hit "back" and want to
> > change something on a prior step of the registration. How do I handle
> > if the user finnish step 1 och step 2 but exit and never do step 3?
> > etc..[/color]
> For me, I would say "Registration" is just the step concerning
> Membership. The car things are the "normal use" of your service.
> Therefore, registration is OK because in only one step. It is done or
> not no half measure. For the car part, you can add a flag in your db to
> tell if data input is completed or not. Then depending on the value of
> this flag you can choose to resume where the user was.[/color]

So, what you say is to first complete step 1 and write the user to the
database. Complete step 2 and write and last update cars with step 3.
What should happen if the user hit "back" from step 3 or step 2 to
correct some input he/she did wrong?
Is the fallback to reload the data from db and "UPDATE" it with the
changed values?[color=blue]
>[color=green]
> > 2. or is it to validate the data and write it all down after
> > finnishing step 3. If this is the way to do it, how do I store
> > data(all variables used in step 1 and step 2) so I can fetch it in the
> > end of step 3 for write down in my database.
> >
> > is there another way to do it? please help me to do this right...[/color]
> There are surely many ways to do the same thing. Yours is not bad IMHO.
>[color=green]
> > I am writing this in PHP. Is there any praxis how to do registration
> > forms?
> > Is there any tutorial on this subject that I can read?[/color]
> Google and some PHP scripts related sites.[color=green]
> > thanks[/color]
> You're welcome ;)[color=green]
> > karolina[/color]
> Ben.[/color]
karolina

re: form registration design...

karolina a écrit le 20/01/2004 :[color=blue]
> Hi again![/color]
Hi,[color=blue]
>
> Interesting. How can I do that since the pictures must be posted with
> enctype="multipart/form-data" and that makes my other values in my
> form to NOT be posted.[/color]
No it doesn't, I designed such a script and other values are well
passed. Try you'll see!
I have a form containing input types 'file', 'hidden', 'text' and
'textarea' without problems.[color=blue]
>
> Yes, but step 2 is a "INSERT INTO CARS" and step 3 is a "UPDATE CARS"
> SQL statement.[/color]
I assume you identify cars by an Id. Look for this ID in the DB then
choose if it is an update (ID exists) or an insert (ID not found).[color=blue]
>
>
> So, what you say is to first complete step 1 and write the user to the
> database. Complete step 2 and write and last update cars with step 3.
> What should happen if the user hit "back" from step 3 or step 2 to
> correct some input he/she did wrong?
> Is the fallback to reload the data from db and "UPDATE" it with the
> changed values?[/color]
No it was a possible choise if your prefer to stay with 2 steps. I
would prefer one step or maybe separate the photo upload.

Hope you'll manage to sort out ;)

re: form registration design...

Hello

If you are willing to take the overhead then pass on some of the
information from the first form to the next in HTML hidden fields.. i
use this to keep track of users without using sessions when filling
out a multi-part form.

You can also create a temporary database to use for registration, keep
inputting the user information except for any one unique field that
you can pass from one form to the next and in the final Submit click
you can then transfer the complete data to the permanent database.

hope this helps

bye
Arvind

rallykarro@hotmail.com (karolina) wrote in message news:<c8a98246.0401191027.6361d6ef@posting.google. com>...[color=blue]
> Hi,
>
> I am making a small registration form about cars in three steps. The
> first step is to fill in member data. After filled out the member data
> hit "next" and enter car information. Hit "next" and upload pictures
> of the cars which is step 3.
>
> I have 2 database tables in mysql "member" and "cars". "member" is
> used in step 1 and "cars" is used in step 2 and step 3.
> What is proper design of making this work.
>
> 1. Is it to store the data in the database after finnishing each step?
> If it is how do I handle cases when the user hit "back" and want to
> change something on a prior step of the registration. How do I handle
> if the user finnish step 1 och step 2 but exit and never do step 3?
> etc..
>
> 2. or is it to validate the data and write it all down after
> finnishing step 3. If this is the way to do it, how do I store
> data(all variables used in step 1 and step 2) so I can fetch it in the
> end of step 3 for write down in my database.
>
> is there another way to do it? please help me to do this right...
>
> I am writing this in PHP. Is there any praxis how to do registration
> forms?
> Is there any tutorial on this subject that I can read?
>
> thanks
>
> karolina[/color]