Question Regarding Attendance Application

[Sunfire4jc]

Hello World,

This is my first time using PHP so please forgive me if i sound Noob.

I have a MySql database set up with a few tables

Student
Student_class (correlative)
Class
Attendance

I want to replicate an Excel type spreadsheet that takes attendance for each class. The names on the rosterwill be generated through a select statement based on Class ID and Student ID.

for a form, i want teachers to be able to mark off the status of the student (present, absent, tardy) and execute an "insert into" sql statement for each student that is on the list after they hit submit.

How do you execute a multiple "insert"? How would you go about making sure that the appropriate student gets the appropriate attendance rule?

I appreciate any sort of input or direction someone can give me. Thanks

[khendar]

How were you picturing these tables would be constructed ? Have you got an idea for a schema ?

You can pass an array through a form without any problems. So you could have all of the students attendences recorded in an array using their student id as a key, pass the class id and week id as hidden fields and perform the multiple insert in a loop. Observe:

Assuming you have already have the students table full of students you want to put in your form:

<form action="roll_store.php" method="post">
<table border=1 cellspacing=0>
<?php
$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "roll","roll");
mysql_select_db("roll", $link);

$query  = 'SELECT * FROM students';
$result = mysql_query ($query, $link) or die (mysql_error());
$num_students = mysql_num_rows($result);

for ($i=0;$i<$num_students;$i++)
{
    $student = mysql_fetch_array($result);
    $student_name=$student['student_name'];
    $student_id = $student['student_id'];

echo '<tr><td>'.$student_name.'</td>';
echo '<td style="background-color:#ffffff"><input type="radio" name="s['. $student_id .']" value="present">';
echo '<td style="background-color:#dddddd"><input type="radio" name="s['. $student_id .']" value="absent" checked="checked">';
echo '<td style="background-color:#bbbbbb"><input type="radio" name="s['. $student_id .']" value="tardy" >';

echo '</tr>'."\n";
}
$class_id=1;
$week = 2;
echo '<input type="hidden" name="class" value="'.$class_id .'">';
echo '<input type="hidden" name="week" value="'. $week .'">';
?>
<tr><td><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit"></td></tr>
</table>
</form> 

This will pass the data in as:

Array
(
    [s] => Array
        (
            [1] => absent
            [2] => absent
            [3] => absent
            [4] => absent
            [5] => absent
            [6] => absent
        )

[class] => 1
[week] => 2
[submit] => Submit
)

Then you just run through the array s - performing the insert as you please.

Hope this helps

[Sunfire4jc]

Hello Khendar,

Thanks for the idea of using an array, I didn't think of that one. It definitely gives me an idea to go after. Let me play with that for a bit tonight and tommorow after i get off work.

I appreciate the help. Thanks!

[Sunfire4jc]

Hey Khendar,

The logic on your code was very helpful!
I was wondering...for the array, is there any way to pass an array through to another form? If you can point me in a direction I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks

Sunfire4jc