I hope that this is the right group for this basic question.

Is there any existing software that can take data from my web forms and
automatically put them into a document on my PC, such that, for each
submission, the data from one of the fields determines where in the document
the data from the other fields will appear?

For instance, suppose that a visitor to my web site submits this data:
"breed" field: "welsh terrier"
"comment" field: "My favorite breed."
"name" field: "Mike from Springfield"

Is there an application that will retrieve this data, and will put the
comment and the name into my document under the already-existing heading,
"Welsh Terriers"? (Is this the kind of thing that most database software
will allow you to do?)

Thanks for your help.

Richard Crist

Richard Crist wrote:
Are you just designing your web site or is it already running? If
running, what approach do you use? ASP? HTML? other?

Answers to your question depend on answers to mine.

Ed

I'm just designing the web site. This is not my field, but I managed to
put together a couple web sites in the past. None of these featured forms,
though.
I'm using a book, but can't seem to get from it an overview of the
process: from form data to server to my PC to manipulation of
data/integration into documents.
I'd appreciate even a very cursory description (block-diagram like) of
how I should proceed.
Thanks.

Richard

----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Prochak <edprochak (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 4:21 PM
Subject: Re: basic question

Richard Crist wrote:
Well, I'm not a front end web expert. Try posting in the web groups.
This one is likely the most appropriate:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....ng.site-design

There are so many options, but to give a basic HTML perpsective
there are HTML codes to send data from the web page back to the web
server. The web server sends these to a CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
application. Many of these are written in PERL and other scripting
languages. The CGI app then does what's programmed: update the
database, search a database and return a page with results, whatever.
So

Browser <---> WEB Server <---CGI--->application<---->database server


The situation is different with things like JAVA applets running on the
browser. So check with the gurus.

hth,
Ed

On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:32:15 -0400, "Richard Crist"
<ptero (AT) bestweb (DOT) net> wrote:

There isn't enough information to know whether this answer is helpful,
but if you are using PHP, then have a look at phorm:

http://www.phorm.com

You can configure it to put data into a file, a database (not sure,
but I think it's MySQL only) send the submitted for data via email, or
.... well, have a look.

Lemming
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.

Thanks for the information. I now realize I'm looking for a "form
processor"--and phorm may meet my requirements.

R.C.


Lemming <thiswillbounce (AT) bumblbee (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:03:25 -0400, "Richard Crist"
<ptero (AT) bestweb (DOT) net> wrote:

Hope it helps. If not, drop me a line:

comp.databases (at) goldcrossdata (dot) com

Lemming
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.

You don't need a package like Phorm to create and process simple forms
in PHP. It's very easy to build your own custom application with PHP,
if you just know a little bit of how to build forms in plain HTML. And
that really isn't hard to find out, using your favorite search engine,
and studying the code of other Web sites that do anything remotely like
what you want. It isn't rocket science.

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 01:59:27 +0200, "Leif B. Kristensen"
<junkmail2 (AT) solumslekt (DOT) org> wrote:

Forgive me, maybe I missed something. Studying the code of websites
that do what you want will give you the HTML, but not the PHP - which
is the part which is missing here I believe. Although it's not at all
clear what is really wanted, which is why I sugested Phorm, which does
practically everything you'd want.

I'd agree that a bespoke solution would be leaner.

Lemming
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.

Thanks for helping to clarify this for me. There's still one basic thing
that I don't understand: re my website (in the planning stages only), which
will feature a web form:
I want to have data from the form integrated into a private document on my
PC. (Then, after editing the document, I'll post it as a web page.) I
understand that a PHP, CGI (or other) script can be used to process the
data, but what I don't quite understand is how a script that exists, and
functions, on the server can insert form data into a document that exists on
my own PC. Must I first upload my document to the server so that the form
data can be integrated into it on the server, and then download the modified
document (as a private web page via my browser?) back to my PC so that I can
edit it?

Richard

Lemming <thiswillbounce (AT) bumblbee (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote