Re: [cgiapp] Master-detail forms

[Steve Comrie <suppressed>]

I think your question partially depends on the competency of your user.

For most of my stuff, I'm content to just place 5 - 10 record sets on a 
page regardless of whether or not they get used. I find that most of my 
users understand that they have the space available to them should they 
need it, but if they don't need it they can simply ignore it. It's kind 
of like lined paper, everyone knows that they don't have to use every 
line on a piece of paper, but it's nice to have them there right away 
in-case we need them.

Here's an example:
http://unobserved.org/img/misc/cgiapp/example1.gif

The "Product Options" section lets a user associate different options 
with a product. Some products have 0 options, some have 5 or 6. 
Generally I leave twice as many fields as I feel might be necessary. 
Some times I'll hide the extra fields with a javascript Hide/Show button 
if I feel the available fields have become too long.

I name my fields pretty much with the same nomenclature as Jeff does. If 
I know I'm going to have an array of fields like the above example, I'll 
usually set a template variable in my Cgi::App to that number and then 
just create a loop in the template to generate the fields.

Over-all I find that simply adding more fields then regularly necessary 
doesn't really hamper the user experience and makes the programming a 
little simpler. Your mileage may vary.

I suppose if I had to come up with a system to implement incrementally 
growing record sets, I would probably choose a page reload method over a 
dynamic javascript method.



Wojciech Pietron wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I would like to ask about your experience with master-detail forms. 
>
> For example there is a form for describing a book. There is a title,
> publisher, edition and version. There can be a few authors as well.
> Each of them has its own first name, surname and sex. We never know how
> many authors wrote the book. All we have to do is to generate author
> fields dynamically.
>
> My questions are:
> - how do you implement there dynamic fields? With JavaScript or with
>  reloading and regenerating the page?
> - what are you best practices in naming these fields?
> - how do you present your master-detail forms? Are pop-up windows
>  reasonable or it is better to put them on one flat page?
>
> I would appreciate your opinions. Working examples are kindly welcome.
>
> Regards,
> Wojciech Pietron
>
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Steve Comrie
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