Preston, I had a similar problem to solve when working on a research project that collected a lot of data from companies, much of which was missing. As I understand it, your data set is effectively a sparse, two-dimensional matrix [1], and you want to be able to edit this in the browser. I'd suggest you make the idea of the matrix more concrete, and perhaps have a separate model/class that provides array- like access to this, perhaps even caching all the data. Then you've two separate problems to solve:
a) Be able to convert between the array-like representation and the database representation. b) Be able to edit the array-like representation in the browser, and get bit back. I'm a newbie at Django but as I understand it, for a), since you'll be working with more than just one record, you'd want a "manager" to be involved somewhere here. And for b) you'd have a model that's not stored in the database, and a custom form that works with your matrix class. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_matrix I'm a little rusty on this but a relevant design pattern is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Builder_pattern. I need a similar control for an upcoming project, so I'm interested to know what you and others come up with. Toby (Seattle, WA) On Nov 16, 6:12 am, derek <gamesb...@gmail.com> wrote: > Preston > > Having not done this before (but maybe needing to soon...) the grid > approach seems the best solution. > > Actually this is not really a Django issue per se; more a "mismatch" > between the "excel-type" view and the underlying database reality. > Django is just the middle-man, translating "filled-in holes" to clean > database records. > > I would think there must be a neat JQuery interface one could > construct for the view? > > Derek > > On Nov 16, 1:01 am, Preston Holmes <pres...@ptone.com> wrote: > > > This is a cart/horse pattern I run now and then, and while I can think > > of several sort of ugly ways to do it, I'm wondering if someone has a > > clean solution in Django. > > > I'm going to use a gradebook as an example. The goal is to present a > > user with a grid of lets say students and assignments to enter > > grades. The models would be > > > - Students > > > - Assignments > > > - Grades (a M2M between students and assignments) > > > Now on the grade entry form, with multiple students and assignments, > > the grades don't yet exist for all students, and may not all be > > entered. How does one generate the form for the possibilities, > > without pre-creating all the empty grades. > > > It would be nice to use modelform here, but it seems that that the > > only way to do it is just with a form and then create objects for > > grades that get filled out in the view. How do others solve this > > problem of representing a "possible future" object in a form that is > > then only optionally created if filled out. > > > -Preston -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django users" group. To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en.
