[thelist] Data Entry to Web Page

[Michele Foster]

Hi Folks ..

I need some direction .. that I'm hoping someone can help me work through
this sceario.  There are probably some good resources out there, but I'm not
even sure what I should be searching for.

Scenario:

Access database available both online (their web site) as well as to all
staff in the office (their lan).  I've been working for the past several
weeks creating complex, very specific registration forms.  No problem with
that everything is working fine.  The users on the web site can add their
data, the staff inhouse can view it through Access forms/reports, etc.

What they want now, is to allow the inhouse staff to enter job descriptions
for display on the website. They don't want them to enter the data on the
website, have it go into Access then redisplay it via the web site, so
that's not an issue.  The data will be copied from MS Word into the forms in
Access (it could also be typed directly into the Access form).  There are
various text fields, and 5 memo fields.  It's the memo fields that I need to
be able to manipulate and mark up with proper HTML.   Each of the five memo
fields used to build their job descriptions will/can contain multiple
paragraphs and bulleted lists.  (These aren't just simple one/two paragraph
jobs; there is a lot of detailed information provided for each posting.)

They don't want to have to use ANY HTML at all.  So,  I need to take the
data they enter in the memo fields and add <p> and <ul><li> tags to it as
appropriate. This is where I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out what it
is I should be searching for within the text and how to replace it.  They've
agreed that if an item is to be a bullet list then they will use [*] in the
Access form to signify a list.

I'm a bit lost as to the logic to go through the various pieces and add the
HTML.  Simply, search for two hard returns (chr 13, I think) and add <p>
tag, not sure how to add the end tag.  Search for the [*] tags and replacee
with <li> tags.  How to search for the first [*] and the last one, and add
<ul>, </ul> tags, I'm not sure how to do that.  As it can appear at any part
of the field (i.e. at the very beginning, in the middle (several times even)
and at the end.

The web site is in ASP.

As I said, I'm not sure how to work through this logic .. any help, tips,
resources would be greatly appreciated.  Anything else I should be looking
for?  I don't think this should matter in any way, but the data that is
entered can be in either French or English (hopefully not both within the
same record tho ;).

Thanks,

Michele
___________________________
Michele Foster
WordPro Services
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
(613) 789-7079
mailto:michele at wordpro.on.ca
http://wordpro.on.ca/