need help in database input

kingdm

Good day..

I have my project in here which requires an automation of an application form. Part of it is it ask for the member if he/she has a dependent (son/daughter). If yes it ask for its name, gender, age and date of birth.

My problem is what will be my algorithm here in regards on the database of the dependent. I can't create one table for dependents since not all members have one dependent. What if he/she has 2 or more dependents.

Can someone help me in regards with this. Huge Thanks.

johanafm

table person

id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
name,
etc

table dependent

parent INT UNSIGNED,
kid INT UNSIGNED,
FOREIGN KEY(parent) REFERENCES person(id),
FOREIGN KEY(kid) REFERENCES person(id),

data in person

id  name
1   joe dad
2   chris kid
3   eve kid
4   leila mom

data in dependent

parent  kid
1       2
1       3
4       2

Which means that joe dad has two dependents, chris and eve, while leila has one dependent, chris.

kingdm

Thanks for your reply johanafm. Now I understand what will be my database. Now into my php code. I have the members area where they login. They have the capability of editing their application form (since my project is application form automation). How will I construct my dependents section. Example, Joe logged in -> click "Edit Application Form", then into an area where he can add dependents.

My problem is what will be my approach on asking how many dependents does he have. Will I have an add dependents button? how is it possible?

Thanks once again, sorry for being dumb, i'm only new in this PHP language.

johanafm

The easiest way for you would be to allow users to add one dependent at a time. You present him with the same form as for filling in his own user details, except for username and password.

When the form is posted, you insert data into the person table. Then you get the id generated for that insert using mysqli->insert_id, assuming you're using mysql and the mysqli extension. This id is then used to insert into dependent with the user's id and the id retrieved above.

If they have more dependents to add, you just show them the same form again.

Optionally, you may want to let the user's search for other users to choose from as well. So rather than inserting a new person, they'd choose from an existing one, and when they submit from this form, you use the existing target's id and insert the user's id along with this in the dependent table. In case someone's kids are also registered users.
Furthermor, you might want to add a new field to the dependent table, request INT SIGNED DEFAULT 1, so that you can check this value when a user logs on and inform them that someone added them as dependents and let them verify if that is correct or not. If it is, you set request to 0, if they deny the request, you could set it to -1.

kingdm

Thanks for your input johanafm. I'll now try to draft my form and database to see what will be the result. Huge thanks.