help needed for one page order form - data uploaded by client

Hello Onestar :-)

>What you want to do is not going to be to hard to do.
That's encouraging :-)
 
>- We need to turn this spreadsheet into a form from where the customers can submit orders.
>- My client should be able to upload the updated files themselves.
>I would save the excel file as cvs file and you can the upload the file using ftp or you could make a php upload program >to send the file to the server.
Yes, I have already downloaded a script form hotscripts.com and that should take care of this part of the project, should..

>Then you can write a php program to read in the cvs file and generate the form. This again would be pretty simple.
That's encouraging too to hear. I'm far from being proficient in php though. I know HOW thing should work, but I'm ages away from actually DOING it :-)

>However there is some more info you need to figure out. What are you going to do when the customers hit submit on
>the form?
>Is the form going to be emailed, saved to a text file or saved into a database.
Yes, a "normal" email will be all that is needed. It does not even need to be encrypted.

>Do you have to keep track of inventory at all?
No, the ordered items will be shipped directly by the supplier, so the inventory is being taken care of at that end.

>How do your customers pay, online with credit card or do they just get billed later?
Payments are handled offline through company accounts. No headaches for us here :-)

>Do you need to save all your customers into a database and do they need to login?
Yes, the form will be password protected. All registered customers will receive a login/password combo. I already have that part ready to go in Perl. Pretty neat little thing I'll gladly pass on to you if you are interested.

>What is your knowledge of php and mysql?
Very, I mean VERY rudimentary. I just started out learning php two days ago and am on page 30something on the Visual Quickstart Guide.  I just never needed it up to now ....  However I can install and alter Perl scripts and make whole shopping cart systems work.  I guess installing scripts and altering them if I have instructions on how to do it won't be a problem. Writing anything myself IS not realistic at this point.

>Creating the form will be the easy part if you are going to get into selling stuff and taking money online then you have
>some more work to do.

So what do you suggest to do next?

Thanks for your help and I'm looking forward to the next round :-)

:: doris

I agree that going the database route is the best route to go in the end. I think you could make something quick just using a form that is generated by a php script after reading in the cvs file. After the user hits submit it gives them a invoice with the details on it and then they could hit a submit button to confirm and the invoice gets emailed to you and then you place the order.

I guess its up to you if you want to learn how to use mysql aswell then you can do that. I am not sure of timing you have for this job, personally would start by making something with out a database then once you get that going you can switch it over to a database app. If I was going to do it I would use a database but if you don't know php or mysql then you could just do it in php. You could even store the invoices in a text file on the server for backup incase email fails.


First you upload the file.

Then you need to read the file in. This is a simple example but it would change based on your cvs file. I used this before to read in a file that was a text file that had the product name and then the price. So I used $ to seperate the prices.
        //----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      // OPEN AND READ IN DATA FILE AND SET VARIABLES
      //----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      // open data file
      @ $fp = fopen("price.dat", "a+");
      if (!$fp)
      {
            echo "data file cannot be opened";
            exit;
      }
      
      // create and array of the text file
      // note: the $ is the seperator
      while (!feof($fp))
      {
            $data[] = fgetcsv($fp, 1000, "$");
      }

Then create the form html


<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="<?php $PHP_SELF ?>" method="POST">
          <input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="true">
          <table border="0" align="center">
                  
Then I would create a function to process the $data[]; This would be based on your price file
<?php pricetable($data); ?>
            </table>

Then you could have the rest of the form with any other questions the customer needs to answer.
Then hit submit

You can either submit the form to a new page or back to the current page its up to you.

This should get you started if you need any other help just ask.