[FX.php List] Value lists or Data (FMView or Mult. Queries)

Thu Nov 2 18:04:22 MST 2006

Thanks Dale

In my current project, the FMP interface is a big part, so I think  
one valuelists table would end up requiring more overhead for the FMP  
side.  But it's a very cool idea and I imagine I'll find a use for it  
one of these days ;)

And thanks too for the note on session variables.

Best,
-Joel

On Nov 2, 2006, at 4:55 PM, Dale Bengston wrote:

> Umm, I don't really do any FMP client-server work, so I don't deal  
> with value lists that way.
>
> For lists, I have a table with (basically) these fields:
> 	active
> 	list_name
> 	key
> 	value
> 	sort_order
> 	description
> 	list_break
>
> I use list_break for setting up conditional popups on the web. I  
> also have a description field so I can pop up a help page showing  
> the value list values and some explanatory text. Active is for  
> turning them off and on.
>
> I have no trouble with extensive use of session variables. There  
> are some time-out problems in Firefox that I can't quite figure  
> out. Your mileage may vary.
>
> Dale
>
> On Nov 2, 2006, at 6:25 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>
>> Hi Dale
>>
>> That's interesting...  So you just have one ValueLists table, and  
>> to pull the "States" value list (for example) you'd query that  
>> table for VL = 'State', right?
>>
>> But then what do you do in the FMP interface?  Do you use globals  
>> to pull the appropriate/related values into the value lists?  So  
>> if I have 6 value lists on my FMP layout, I'd need 6 globals, each  
>> w/ its own relationship to the ValueLists table?
>>
>> Also, I've heard people here discuss overloading session  
>> variables, but I have no idea how much would be too much.  Do you  
>> think storing 6 more session arrays w/ these value lists is OK?
>>
>> Thanks very much,
>> -Joel
>>
>>
>> On Nov 2, 2006, at 4:06 PM, Dale Bengston wrote:
>>
>>> Hi guys,
>>>
>>> I use option C as well - store the data in a lists table and  
>>> query it to make value lists. Some advantages:
>>>
>>> 1. It's easy to set up a key & value pair for the value list,  
>>> where the key is the id and the value is more human readable  
>>> data. So you're storing the key and displaying the more friendly  
>>> information to the person using your system.
>>> 	C10001 => Bob
>>> 	C10002 => Joel
>>> 	C10003 => Dale
>>> 	C10004 => Gjermund
>>> 	...
>>>
>>> 2. I can have other fields in my list table to sort on, besides  
>>> the actual displayed values.
>>>
>>> 3. The first time I need to use that list, I make the query and  
>>> store the data in a session array, and then I can reuse it  
>>> subsequently without having to query again.
>>>
>>> Dale
>>>
>>> On Nov 2, 2006, at 5:39 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Bob
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure what you mean about querying one table twice -- why  
>>>> would you need to do that?
>>>>
>>>> What I was referring to is that having multiple queries on one  
>>>> PHP page is (reportedly) slower than having only one PHP query,  
>>>> and returning related data via related fields (w/ or w/o  
>>>> portals) on the one queried layout.  For instance, having a  
>>>> portal of Child records on a Parent's layout, and then just  
>>>> querying the Parent records, is faster than querying the Parent  
>>>> records and querying the Children records separately.
>>>>
>>>> -Joel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 2, 2006, at 3:25 PM, Bob Patin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Is there any difference between querying one table twice and  
>>>>> querying 2 different tables once each? I'm asking because I  
>>>>> can't imagine that there would be any speed difference...
>>>>>
>>>>> I have a lot of pages where I do multiple queries; I've never  
>>>>> done any comparative testing though. It would be fairly  
>>>>> difficult to do a fair test, unless it were on a local network  
>>>>> that's not influenced by Internet fluctuations. My hosting  
>>>>> company network, which has 30 servers in it and almost 200  
>>>>> websites and 150+ databases, fluctuates a good bit depending on  
>>>>> what's going on, who's downloading, who's updating sites, and  
>>>>> so on.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Bob Patin
>>>>> Longterm Solutions
>>>>> bob at longtermsolutions.com
>>>>> 615-333-6858
>>>>> http://www.longtermsolutions.com
>>>>>
>>>>>   CONTACT US VIA INSTANT MESSAGING:
>>>>>      AIM or iChat: longterm1954
>>>>>      Yahoo: longterm_solutions
>>>>>      MSN: tech at longtermsolutions.com
>>>>>      ICQ: 159333060
>>>>>
>>>>> On Nov 2, 2006, at 5:10 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks Bob and Gjermund
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've got 6 value lists on one form.  I've started implementing  
>>>>>> my option A.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I suppose, though, I could put portals (cartesian-join  
>>>>>> relationships) of each of the value-list tables onto my one  
>>>>>> layout so I wouldn't have to query the DB more than once.  At  
>>>>>> that point, it seems it would be pretty similar to pulling  
>>>>>> multiple value lists from the same one layout, and I wouldn't  
>>>>>> need to do a separate FMView -- only the one FMFind...  hmm...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Good food for thought... though I'm not gonna do any benchmark  
>>>>>> testing on this one ;)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks all,
>>>>>> -Joel
>>>>>
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