[RESOLVED] Making changes to a looped table

[robkir]

I am really lost on this one.

I want to create an online contact page for a sports organization that allows the director or his assistant to update the page without my intervention.
It would look like this

Slot Position Person Email Phone
1 RC Jim Jones [e-mail] 310-999-0001
2 Treasurer Bill Yee [e-mail] 310-999-9999
3 Coach Admin Mike Flee [e-mail] 310-999-9999

There are usually 25 or so names on these list. The slots control the position of the person in the table. Sometimes they move up, sometimes down. The slot seemed like a good idea, if I can get this to work, the user can renumber it to whatever order they want.

Here’s the problem. I want to show the entire table at one time (i.e., all 25 records). The user fills in all their changes on which lines he wants to and submits the whole form at one time.

Originally I thought I could use the submit button to go to another php page and UPDATE the database using an array—but I can’t seem to get the arrays to work on the second page. I am using session_start() and $_SESSION[]. I'm not even sure if I am on the right track on how best to do this.

Usually I just cruise the Internet until I find somebody that has a solution…but I can’t even figure out how to ask the question.

I hope somebody can steer me to a solution.

Thanks Bob

[sandthipe]

1. ideally, you want to have a unique number for each entry that does not change
2. an "ordering" number is a fine idea, but it should be separate (and not at all related) to the unique ID (which should never change)
3. no sessions needed for arrays or form submission (so don't worry about that)
4. when you display the form, use the unique ID of each entry in the form field name. example:

   <input type='text' name='person3' />
   <input type='text' name='person4' />, etc.

5. then in the form processing script, iterate through your table, and re create the form fields with the appropriate unique ID.
6. check for the value in $_POST['person4'] and if the iteration is on unique ID 4, update that row

[Weedpacket]

I'd change a couple of steps.
4. Name the fields person[3], person[4], etc.
Then for step 6. $_POST['person'] will be an array using the IDs as keys.

There are other naming conventions that would organise the submitted data in other ways.

[robkir]

Thanks for the quick reply and the info. I actually solved my problem thanks to another web site" http://www.theblog.ca/update-multiple-rows-mysql . He had a neat solution that I adapted to my particular needs.

Thanks again.

Bob