Help on processing a dynamic set of checkboxes

MajikMerlin · MajikMerlin

Hello everyone!

I am having a doozy of a time trying to figure out how to process some
checkboxes that are dynamically created.
Here is my situation:

I have a database table that stores questions for a survey (tblQuestions) and
another table that stores the answers (tblAnswers) for the questions.
tblQuestions contains the following fields; (QuestionID, Question, Type,
Responses, isActive) and tblAnswers contains the following fields (AnswerID,
RespondentID, QuestionID, Answer).

tblQuestions and tblAnswers are related to each other through the QuestionID
field (QuestionID is a primary key in tblQuestions and a foreign key in
tblAnswers). There is a special field in tblQuestions that i am using to store
a list of responses that are supposed to display next to the checkboxes in my
checkbox set. This list is delimited by a semi-colon ( ; ) and I use a
<cfloop> to run through the list and display it in my form. Here is the code:

<tr>
<td class="subtitles" style="color : orange"
valign="top">Q#CurrentRow#</td>
<td class="subtitles" valign="top" colspan="3">#question#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td class="subtitles">
<cfloop index="counter" list="#responses#" delimiters=";">
<cfinput type="checkbox" name="answer#CurrentRow##counter#"
value="#counter#">#counter#<br>
</cfloop>
</td>
</tr>

I am having trouble trying to figure out how my action page is going to
process this dynamic checkbox set. I want the action page to figure out what
items where checked and create a semi-colon delimited list of the values of
checked checkboxes.

Does anyone have an idea of how to accomplish this? Or any other ideas?
Thank you in advance and have a wonderful day

In case youre interested, here is the code to both my form and action page so
far if it will help. The code is by no means complete and still has to be
ironed out but the issue im working on right now is detailed above.

----------------THE FORM -------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------

<cfquery name="CommonResidentQuestions" datasource="#application.ds#">
SELECT QuestionID, HasSubQuestion, question, type, responses, subQuestion
FROM BS_Questions
WHERE isGeneral = 1 AND
isRA = 0 AND
isActive = 1
</cfquery>

<cfquery name="MonthlyResidentQuestions" datasource="#application.ds#">
SELECT QuestionID, HasSubQuestion, question, type, responses, subQuestion
FROM BS_Questions
WHERE #URL.Month# = 1 AND
isActive = 1
</cfquery>

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<link href="../style_ash.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</head>

<body>

<cfform action="bs_RAResidentQuestions_insert.cfm"
name="RAResidentQuestionsForm" scriptSrc="../cfform.js">
<table align="center" width="500" border="0">
<cfoutput>
<tr class="tableh2">
<td colspan="4"><font size="+1">Questions for Resident :
<br>#URL.resFirstName# #URL.resLastName#</font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><b>Monthly Questions</b></td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="CommonResidentQuestions">
<cfif #type# is 'yesno'>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles" style="color:orange" valign="top">Q#CurrentRow#</td>
<td class="subtitles" valign="top">#question#</td>
<td class="subtitles" style="color:orange"><cfinput type="radio"
name="answer#CurrentRow#"
value="Yes"
required="yes">Yes</td>
<td class="subtitles"style="color:orange"><cfinput type="radio"
name="answer#CurrentRow#"
value="No"
required="yes">No</td>
<input type="hidden" name="questionID#CurrentRow#" value="#questionID#">
</tr>
<cfif #HasSubQuestion# is 1>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles"></td>
<td class="subtitles" colspan="3">#SubQuestion#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><textarea rows="5"
cols="50"
style="width: 500px"
name="subanswer#CurrentRow#"
class="inputBox"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<input type="hidden" name="subquestionID#CurrentRow#"
value="#questionID#">
</cfif>
<tr><td height="20px"></td></tr>

<cfelseif #type# is 'open'>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles" style="color:orange"
valign="top">Q#CurrentRow#</td>
<td colspan="3" class="subtitles" valign="top">#question#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><textarea rows="5"
cols="50"
style="width: 500px"
name="answer#CurrentRow#"
class="inputBox"></textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<input type="hidden" name="questionID#CurrentRow#" value="#questionID#">
<cfif #HasSubQuestion# is 1>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles"></td>
<td class="subtitles" colspan="3">#SubQuestion#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><textarea rows="5"
cols="50"
style="width: 500px"
name="subanswer#CurrentRow#"
class="inputBox"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<input type="hidden" name="subquestionID#CurrentRow#"
value="#questionID#">
</cfif>
<tr><td height="20px"></td></tr>

<cfelseif #type# is 'smalltext'>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles" style="color:orange"
valign="top">Q#CurrentRow#</td>
<td class="subtitles" valign="top">#question#</td>
<td colspan="2" class="inputbox"><cfinput type="text"
name="answer#CurrentRow#"
required="yes">
</td>
<input type="hidden" name="questionID#CurrentRow#" value="#questionID#">
</tr>
<cfif #HasSubQuestion# is 1>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles"></td>
<td class="subtitles" colspan="3">#SubQuestion#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><textarea rows="5"
cols="50"
style="width: 500px"
name="subanswer#CurrentRow#"
class="inputBox"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<input type="hidden" name="subquestionID#CurrentRow#"
value="#questionID#">
</cfif>
<tr><td height="20px"></td></tr>

<cfelseif #type# is 'check'>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles" style="color:orange"
valign="top">Q#CurrentRow#</td>
<td class="subtitles" valign="top" colspan="3">#question#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td class="subtitles">
<cfloop index="counter" list="#responses#" delimiters=";">
<cfinput type="checkbox" name="answer#CurrentRow##counter#"
value="#counter#">#counter#<br>
</cfloop>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<cfif #HasSubQuestion# is 1>
<tr>
<td class="subtitles"></td>
<td class="subtitles" colspan="3">#SubQuestion#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><textarea rows="5"
cols="50"
style="width: 500px"
name="answer#CurrentRow#"
class="inputBox"></textarea>
<textarea rows="5"
cols="50"
style="width: 500px"
name="subanswer#CurrentRow#"
class="inputBox"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<input type="hidden" name="subquestionID#CurrentRow#"
value="#questionID#">
</cfif>
<tr><td height="20px"></td></tr>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>
<tr>
<td colspan="4" align="center"><input type="submit" value="Submit Answers"
class="SubButtons" onMouseOver="this.className='subButtons2'"
onMouseOut="this.className='subButtons'"></td>
</tr>

<cfoutput>
<input type="hidden" name="MonthNoID" value="#URL.MonthNoID#">
<input type="hidden" name="Month" value="#URL.Month#">
<input type="hidden" name="residentID" value="#URL.residentID#">
<input type="hidden" name="NumberOfQuestions_Commom"
value="#CommonResidentQuestions.RecordCount#">
<input type="hidden" name="NumberOfQuestions_Monthly"
value="#MonthlyResidentQuestions.RecordCount#">
</cfoutput>
</table>
</cfform>

</body>
</html>

----------------- THE ACTION PAGE ---------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<cfquery name="CommonQuestions" datasource="#application.ds#">
SELECT questionID
FROM BS_Questions
WHERE isGeneral=1 AND
isActive=1
</cfquery>

<cfquery name="MonthlyQuestions" datasource="#application.ds#">
SELECT questionID
FROM BS_Questions
WHERE #FORM.Month# = 1 AND
isActive=1
</cfquery>

<cfloop from="1" to="#FORM.NUMBEROFQUESTIONS_COMMOM#" index="row">
<cfset currentQuestionID=FORM["questionID" & row]>
<cfset currentAnswer=FORM["answer" & row]>

<cfquery name="CommonQuestions" datasource="#application.ds#">
INSERT INTO
BS_Answers(MonthNoID, residentID, questionID, answer)
VALUES
('#FORM.MonthNoID#',
'#FORM.residentID#',
#currentQuestionID#,
'#currentAnswer#')
</cfquery>
</cfloop>

mxstu · mxstu

Originally posted by: MajikMerlin
tblQuestions and tblAnswers are related to each other through the QuestionID
field (QuestionID is a primary key in tblQuestions and a foreign key in
tblAnswers). There is a special field in tblQuestions that i am using to store
a list of responses that are supposed to display next to the checkboxes in my
checkbox set. This list is delimited by a semi-colon ( ; ) and I use a
<cfloop> to run through the list and display it in my form.

I haven't read all of the code, but before you go any further, you may want to
re-examine your table structure. As you can see from your struggles so far,
storing information as delimited lists is usually not the right way to go ;-)
Aside from being difficult to work with, using that structure prevents you from
truly harnessing the power of your database.

Take a look at the OP's table structure in this post. The question itself is
not related, but the overall purpose (survey questions) is similar to what you
are trying to do:

[url]http://groups-beta.google.com/group/macromedia.coldfusion.getting_started/tree/b[/url]
rowse_frm/thread/8d1213dbefbf113a/ef8e72a9545ec69e?#doc_ef8e72a9545ec69e

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