Got the data, how to work with it

dougp23

Hi.

Developing a script that lets teachers put in students grades and conduct codes. On the first page, the teacher puts in their name, grade, and subject. I use this to query the DB (MySQL) for all kids in that grade. Easy enough.

What I want to do is then present a student on the next page, have the teacher enter in grades, conduct, effort, and comments. When the teacher clicks next, the page would refresh with the NEXT student in that array that I've grabbed (of course, after writing the data to the DB!!!!)

What's the best way to do this??

plex303

Originally posted by dougp23
Hi.

Developing a script that lets teachers put in students grades and conduct codes. On the first page, the teacher puts in their name, grade, and subject. I use this to query the DB (MySQL) for all kids in that grade. Easy enough.

What I want to do is then present a student on the next page, have the teacher enter in grades, conduct, effort, and comments. When the teacher clicks next, the page would refresh with the NEXT student in that array that I've grabbed (of course, after writing the data to the DB!!!!)

What's the best way to do this??

The easy way out would be in using a session.

Use an $array for storing the student names/IDs (or whatever you use for querying your students table... I'd hope it's something like a unique student ID 😃 ) then a second variable that contains the current $index of that array... when you hit next you increment that number and then get whatever you need out of the db based on the contents of $array[$index].

dougp23

Hmmm....

that sounds easy enough! I have a big PHP book I am waltzing thru, I come from the Access/VB world, where we have recordsets, and we can move through them (MoveFirst, MoveNext, MoveLast, etc.)

I will try to dig through the book some more and get what you are saying! I take it $index is a function in PHP or MySQL. I must say PHP and MySQL are very nice, and pretty easy to follow. Guess I mucked up my brain with those years of MSAccess/VBA.

Thanks.

Doug

plex303

Originally posted by dougp23
Hmmm....

that sounds easy enough! I have a big PHP book I am waltzing thru, I come from the Access/VB world, where we have recordsets, and we can move through them (MoveFirst, MoveNext, MoveLast, etc.)

I will try to dig through the book some more and get what you are saying! I take it $index is a function in PHP or MySQL. I must say PHP and MySQL are very nice, and pretty easy to follow. Guess I mucked up my brain with those years of MSAccess/VBA.

Thanks.

Doug

Yes you have mucked it up nicely LOL jk
Let me try this again.

I am assuming that you've created some sort relationship between students and teachers. So lets say I am a teacher and my ID (internally to the db) is the number 100.
Once I've logged in the script retrieves all student ID's that "belong" to teacher #100. So lets say it grabs a dozen student ID's and put's them in an integer based array... lets call it $array.
also
a value (let's call it $index) is set to 0 and represents our current position in the array.
now for loading info for each student...

Your query would look something like this.. mind you I have no idea how your tables are defined.
SELECT * FROM students WHERE student_id = '$array[$index]'
display that student's info... make the necessary updates (grades, conduct, etc that you mentioned above)
and clicking next saves the data, and increments $index so that the query looks to the next student ID in the array.

I mentioned using Sessions above... I'll probably get flamed for it but oh well... Sessions can save you a lot of work, especially if you are working in a controlled (private intranet, etc) kind of environment where security levels do not have to be set to "ultra paranoid".
In case you dont know... a session allows you to keep data nicely and neatly in one place as your apps jump from page to page. Think of it as a global that can be shared between scripts.

dougp23

Thanks for the info!

What I do, is a use a SQL that says (in effect) "Give me all kids that are in Grade [from teacher input screen]", since the teacher has ALL the kids in her grade.

I like the idea about the sessions, this is only an intranet. I'm reading as fast as my eyes can carry me in the PHP book!

THANKS!