I'm trying to build a Drupal site in which users can input records containing data about "customers", "employees" and "sales".
I would like to be able to create a form(s) which takes data about a sale/customer/employee and can be associated with a record of a customer/employee(who made the sale)/sale.
I would also like to be able to display records showing a list of sales or customers or employees in which when clicking one record, it will open a page displaying all the relational data.
I'm new to development and am searching around like a headless chicken lol. I was thinking of using content types for sales/employees/customers and using individual nodes for each record then using something like views to displays filtered lists, but I am unsure if this is the best way to go about/structure it (maybe I should use separate custom tables or database and use a custom module to fetch the data?). It would also be nice if some of the fields can populate other fields based on it input and also if some fields can utilize a sort of auto-complete by garbing data from other records, or is that asking way too much?
Thank you for any suggestions you might be able to give me.
I, for one, would certainly prefer using a custom separate database and leave drupal databases to its own devices, if you would ever need to upgrade the site to a higher version of drupal it helps if you don't modify it, and also consider using webform (http://drupal.org/project/webform) as it makes development easier both in components and hooks.
Related
I am new to Google App maker and I don't have a lot of experience with coding either (sorry :/). Since App maker is marked as low-coding app builder tool, I assumed it was not that hard to make a very simple app with it. However, for me it is.
I need to make a simple app for demonstrations purposes only (so Cloud SQL and other complex database solutions are not in my interest here). I want to make it using calculated models (correct me if I am wrong, calculated models are just temporary solutions, since apps need to have like real databases to be fully functional?).
My app is basically made of 2 datas: 1) Employees and 2) Departments
-> Fields for "Employees" are: First name, Last name and Department.
-> Field for "Departments" is just Department name.
My app is supposed to look like this:
1st page: Table with current employees that has a button to add new employee,
2st page: Table with all department names (e.g. marketing, finance...) that has a button to add new department name,
3rd page: Form that opens when I click on add new employee button in which I can insert their first name, last name and from drop down menu choose department,
4th page: Form that opens when I click on add new department button in which I can insert new department name.
5th page: Form (or some other widget, not sure here) that has option to insert first and last name in order to find out what department that employee is assigned to.
I tried to make first 4 pages, but I end up with forms that I cannot insert anything into them. 5th page is still too much for me.
I hope you understand my struggles and if you know how to do it please share your knowledge. Thank you very much!
Calculated models are kind of like SQL views - they are not necessarily for temporary solutions. Every time you load a calculated model the script you write under that model's datasource is ran. That script usually loads data from an external source (I.e. grabbing stock prices from an API, loading data from an external SQL server, or generating random placeholder data).
You could use the cloud SQL models for this application that you are building - your table with all department names that is supposed to be displayed in the second page could just be a cloud SQL table with one single field for a department name.
I suggest you work through the example apps so you can get a better understanding of how the different components work. Here is a link to one for you to get started.
In short, you're going to create a few models to store information (I suggest using cloud SQL as the calculated models will require code whereas cloud SQL is more plug and play through app maker's bindings). Before you create any pages try to lay out how your databases will look as that will dictate how you set bindings or program your scripts.
Asking to completely make what is essentially a combination of the tutorials already provided by Google is pretty counter intuitive - you should ask more specific questions in regards to implementation.
As for App Maker being a low-code environment, that's only partially true. For very, very simple apps (think glorified forms) you will need only a couple lines of code and can probably do everything through drag-and-drop. However, anything more complicated than a simple form will almost certainly require a good chunk of actual code. There are plenty of resources online to learn Javascript.
You might want to try a google partner like AppSynergy for building stuff like this. It might be overkil for what you need (or maybe not if you intend to build a lot more stuff).
My Task: I have content type which have 100+ different mostly numeric fields (big questionnaire for NGO with yearly reports). For one field I can use Views module to let user select which reports include (for example one year) and display it as nice graph (using for example Views+Charts). I would have to define about 100+ nearly identical views, which differs only by what field data they use.
My Question: Is there any way how to reuse one view definition and just change data from which field id display?
Solutions so far: I found two not really good solutions:
Create one view, export it (using Features or similar way) and then clone this export, rewrite field it uses as source and than add. But this just speed up creating one view for each 100+ fields.
Use module Views Dynamic Fields - it allows user to select which fields to display. But I would still have separate definition how to display for each field, so not much better than add one view for each 100+ fields.
I suggest writing your own Views field display plugin! This is actually all documented within the Views module folder: views/docs/views.api.php. Depending on your fields I'm not sure how you would exactly connect the data to the view.
Another alternative would be to just use a PHP Code field, and figure out a way to programmatically display the data from the field you wanted. The downside to this is that you wont be able to use that field to sort/search on with any filters as far as I know.
I have about 20 different tables that each have a different parent / child relationship built into them. I've recently been asked to create a breadcrumb and Site Map for our website based off of all of these tables.
One idea I had, was to remove the parent / child relationship from each of these tables and create basically one table that holds the id and parentId and whenever I need to pull the parent child relationship I would just join the parent_child_relationships table to whatever table I was pulling from specifically.
Does this make sense?
Anyway, the problem with this idea is that i don't like it. haha.
Does anyone else have any other ideas of how this could be done? Or what the correct way of building a breadcrumb and sitemap based off of a site comprised of 20 tables or so?
If it helps, my site is comprised of asp.net, ColdFusion and uses a MSSQL database.
Thanks!
Do not let the implementation of the UI effect the design of your model and especially not your DB. Prototype the front end, involve your customer(s), give them a voice. Build your breadcrumbs and site map without it initially tied into your actual DB. Once your customer says "thats what we want, just like that", then freeze the prototype, then work on the actual implementation - how will your app request the data, what type of dataobject will you use AND THEN build your db,
"One idea I had, was to remove the parent / child relationship from each of these tables and create basically one table that holds the id and parentId"
This is not a very scalable solution, do not *reverse normalize your db. Follow standard relation database modeling/normalization techniques. Lots of small cohensive tables with lots of association tables.
I'm currently in the process of creating a website/system and was wondering how I can create multiple versions of a table to then be used by many users. The reason for this is primarily due to the amount of information that is needed my each user. Another reason for doing so is a result of each information have been laid out to display the product code and other key information.
This is due to a main table setting a list of data for example prices of a product. To which the user then can set and store data in their own table to be used at a later date and referenced accordingly. Rather than creating multiple columns in the thousands I feel it would be better to simply create different versions of the table.
Instead of creating multiple table, why don't you not create seperate Views in Database based on your User and display that information in table.
Altought, its recommended to use the single same table, and add fields that allow to restrict some data for a particular user, there is some few cases that may be required to have several versions of the table, like the ones you mention.
I have work with a web app. that served several companies, with the same tables, fields, schemas, same web server & databased server, and yet the customers want it separated from other users.
Usually, you create several tables with the same schema, but different id. Your web app. must have a way to select which table or database you are going to use.
Be very careful with this approach, is very difficult to maintain, its better to use some programming techniques to control this scenario, like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitier_architecture
That allows to have a lot of control over a database app. and allows to change a table or database with thesame schema.
I am in the process of migrating an Access application to Sharepoint 2010 (Enterprise). I would like to use as much Sharepoint "out of the box" funcationality as possible, but I am not opposed to creating some Web Parts.
I am struggling with the design of the "master" table in this application. The application is used to track employee productivity. Daily, about 50 users access the application and basically enter how many "Widgets" they completed that day. There are about 30 types of these "Widgets" and they don't change very often.
The table is designed with individual columns for each of these Widgets. This makes creating the Reports very easy, since all you have to do is select all the fields from the table and dump the result set.
The downside to this approach is obvikously the fact that the schema is "hard coded" (static). I have been asked (in the sake of time) to just normalize the table as much as possible (with CustomerIDs, EmployeeIDs, etc), but keep all the "Widget" fields in there.
I had proposed that we create a Master Detail type relationship where the users would Add a Row (perhaps in a GridView), select the "Widgets" they created that day (from a drop down) and enter their quantity. They generally only make 1 - 3 types of Widgets per day.
The users hate this design and want me to give them a data entry form with ALL the widgets displayed so they can just click in the box (beside the Widget they created that day) and enter their qty and then click save.
I know I could still create this type of Data Entry Form with a Master-Detail type of relationship, but I am pretty sure I couldn't using the SP Out of The Box forms. I would probably have to create a Web Part with a GridView and just populate the GridView with all the possible Wisdgets, then let the user enter the proper Qty(s) beside each widget they are made that day. Once the form is submitted back, I would then have to go through it and find any Qtys that are valid Numbers and add a (child) detail record for that Master record. (The Master Record would contain date, employee, customer, etc. etc.) The "edit" form would also have to work in a similar way.
This is a pretty "ugly" solution and I was looking for an alternative.
If I can't come up with a good alternative (and convice my manager that the code won't be too difficult to maintain or add too much development time to the project to complete it on time) then I will have to bring over this ugly, existing schema with all its wasted space and have "hard coded" stuff thoughout the application. (For instance, if I provide them with a SharePoint View to see how many Widgets of a certain Type were created, I will have to "hard code" all those values in the Drop Down and "Sum" the correct/matching database column. YUK.
Another consideration is the reporting. Right now all the reports just contain a column on the report for every widget. To preserve the look of these reports (if I use a Master/Detail relationship) will require "fancier" queries (Stored Procedures) to buld the proper result set in a "columuar" format. (And I am not sure how I would tackle laying out the SharePoint Views of the data in a similar fashion.)
It certainly would be "easier" to just leave the schema as is (and have all that wasted space in the table). I just hate developing an application that anytime we need to add a new "Widget" to the application, we have to change the application in several places and rebuild. (Although, my manager isn't concerned about that, he just wants to push it out, ASAP...sigh...)
Any help/recommendations on how to do this type of application (specifically how to create the data entry forms and views) in SharePoint would be greatly appreciated!
Shayne
Have you looked at these ideas:
http://paulgalvinsoldblog.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/implementing-master-detail-relationships-using-custom-lists/
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alexma/archive/2006/04/10/610934.aspx
In my opinion you should be storing the data in list rather than SQL server. If you decide to use SQL server, look at BCS to build Master child view.