saving issue

[NorthStarDA]

hello,

im in the midst of rebuilding a call center application in CF where the original app is FileMaker Pro. There is only 1 thing i can see that is a big problem in the conversion.

FileMaker Pro automatically saves the current record whenever there is a change- i've tried a project like this once before and it was a failure due to the users constantly forgetting they need to SAVE the record for their changes to take effect. Is there a way to have a save button highlighted or some other text on the page to inform the user that the form has changed since the last save?

it sounds like a javascript issue, but i figure some CFers have had this problem before and may have some ideas.

thanks

 

[webmigit]

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[NorthStarDA]

thanks for the response webmigit, i see how that works but it doesn't really fit my dilemma. what i'm more looking to do is set some variables equal to the original form values, then once the form values are changed, something would happen to change some text or enable a buttom to provide an opportunity to save the values from the form. kinda like when you change a word doc, it has an asterisk in the title bar until you save again. im thinking of setting js variables, or maybe a hidden frame- no matter how i think of this, it sounds like a nightmare to author and maintain, just hoping someone else has thought of this issue in web application development and has come up with a good solution.

 

[TruthInSatire]

forum216

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
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[NorthStarDA]

it sounds like a javascript issue, but i figure some CFers have had this problem before and may have some ideas.

im trying to take an internal call center system and make a web application out of it- and hitting this fundamental problem, which is why I posted here instead of javascript forum- to see if anyone else has built a solution that needed to address the saving problem. maybe solution is javascript- maybe not.

 

[TruthInSatire]

no offense was ment to be taken by the post. sorry if it was.

anything to manipulate the window in the browser in "real time" i.e. not making a round trip to the server has to be either JS, VBScript, or flash, which i'm sure you know. even if a cf tag was available it would only create the js needed to do what you needed.

I offered the same question a while back in the js area. I was converting an access db to a web front. I was certian they would not save the data prior to closing the window.

It's a slight paradigm shift for the users but learning to click the "save" button was a quick transition. I would just train the users to the new methods and you should do just fine. or learn flash.

you want to see fun, ask a group of 300 computer illerate people what programs they have installed on the machine and give the version number. Don't include the MS office software. tell us the hardware (printers, scanners, external drives and so on) you have on your computer only list monitors,keyboards, and mice if they are off the wall items like flat screen, eurgonomic, or a trackball. We got people only listing the MS office software, and their regular crt monitor, mouse, and keyboard. but in each case... they all clicked the save button. what you're going to need to protect yourself from is that blasted double clicking the submit button. onclick = "this.disabled = true"

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
-Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

 

[NorthStarDA]

no, of course no offense- i did ask a javascript related question.

i knew i wouldn't get a code snippet or tag, just some ideas maybe. i actually was very much looking forward to the release of FLEX (i dont believe flash is a good authoring environment for applications, i started to learn about RIA's with flash and felt that 60% of the development time was working around making an application originally designed for animation do jobs it wasn't meant for, my opinion only of course)- hoping it was the answer to all my problems, only to find the $12000 price tag upon release. Needless to say thats not going to happen.

i'll have to do what i know for now and hope the price tag for flex comes down so i can get this application where it needs to be (i know i can train them, and i will- but like i say, they come from an app where this is not an issue, many believe we are taking a step backwards and do not have an appreciation for the new paradigm and its benefits/limitations.)

 

[TruthInSatire]

I've noticed if you make it easier to use even with the save button I didn't have a problem. they still liked using it more than the old version. add some cool stuff to dazel them. I used JS data masking onkeyup it formated the text correctly according to the field.

but... you could always submit the form everytime the field if the value changed... that would personaly make me insane

another insane option would be to create a very quick popup that updated the value of that field in the db. then self.close after the query ran. you'd just have to figure out how to put the cursor back in the field they tabed or clicked to, if they did so.

or you could put each field in its own iframe. update the value onblur and it would leave the rest of the page alone...hope it isn't a big form.

have fun with it.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
-Douglas Adams (1952-2001)