On 5/31/06, Russ McBride <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I know, I should probably give up on table fields, but call they're useful for building interfaces to databases that I can't give up on them yet.
Hmmm, I use Rev to build db front ends all the time and the thing I love about it is you 'don't' end up with a table, although you can if you want. There are some great advantages to moving away from simple table views (although I appreciate that there are times and certain data that is better suited to simple table views): 1) Can display 100+ columns of data on a single card - no scrolling 2) Certain data lends itself to other controls other than 'fields': a) Checkbox - anything that is Yes/No,True/False,On/Off,Day/Night etc b) Option Menu - anything that is going into a 'Set' or 'Enum' column ie student names, product names, countries, etc c) Radio buttons - similar to above but the set is much smaller. 3) Data checking made easy - You virtually eliminate the need to do data checking prior to inserting into you db. With a Checkbox you are guaranteed that the data is on or off, with a table you have to check that the user has correctly entered Y/N,T/F,1/0. With Option Menus you illimenate the posibillity of mispelllimgs causeing problens with set colunms. 4) Code simplification - related to the above topic, with individual fields to contain text, numbers, dates, times, and dates & time, you can place individual scripts in that control to ensure that the data is correctly formatted prior to entry and the check is carried out immediately after data entry. With tables, especially if you are dealing with a LOT of columns, writing a script to parse the data to then check each individual column is a little more complex, and certainly much harder to troubleshoot 6 months down the track. Carrying out data checking on leaving each column is also more difficult to implement. Whilst Table representation certainly has its advantages and place, I think if you look a little deeper into a 'customised' display you'll be quickly impressed with the power and flexibility it provides. Food for thought:-) _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
