[thelist] ASP & Databases

I'm currently doing something exactly the same as you... except the user is
buying products rather than accepting loads...

>                 I like to think that I'm conquering all my ASP problems
one
> by one, but one question is really bugging me. The whole idea of this site
> is that people can view loads available & then accept the one(s) they want
> to take. What I can't figure out is this, how can I transfer the
information
> that they have chosen to another page?

I think the best way is to store it in a database. These records would be
deleted after the process is complete. It's also a good idea to timestamp
the records so a process can delete all records that are N days old.

>                 This is how I envisage the process to work. At the end of
> the rows containing the information there would be a checkbox which the
user
> would tick to accept a load. This would then delete the record from the
> database & send out 3      e-mails, one to the person who posted the job
to
> say it has been accepted, one to the person who has accepted the job, and
> one to my clients for billing purposes. Is this how it is done, or should
I
> have a submit button at the end of the row instead of a checkbox?

Both. Checkboxes and then a submit button. This way, multiple loads can be
checked at one time. Even better, the user expects nothing to happen (except
the box to check) when he/she clicks on a checkbox. Submitting a form would
be something unexpected. Let them check a box and then click submit.

Rather than deleting from the database, why not just set a Active flag? Just
have a Active column in the database and set it to 0/false once it is
accepted. This way, it can easily be put back into "circulation" if there
ends up being a problem.

Code on,


--
mattwarden
mattwarden.com