[FX.php List] Looping validation

[Derrick Fogle]

The single biggest performance hit (95% of total execution time) will  
be getting data between FMP and PHP. If this were engineered in PHP  
with MySQL (or similar) as a database, it would blow the doors off  
anything that involved FMP. But FMP scripts are reasonably fast in  
their native environment, so if you can just trigger the script and it  
works, that will be your second best option in terms of performance.  
By far the worst performance will be getting all the data out of FMP,  
processing it in PHP, then inserting data back into FMP from the PHP  
script.

If you've got a script that's working, I would have to recommend  
trying to just trigger the script. There are some gotchas in there  
(FMP global fields don't really work with the API's), but it's a heck  
of a lot less work (and will be faster) than completely re-engineering  
the script in PHP.

HTH,

On Sep 7, 2008, at 5:20 PM, Josh Shrier wrote:

> What is the downside to using the script instead of rewriting the  
> script in
> PHP? Is there a dramatic speed difference? Is it that other users  
> will be
> slower while that is running and in PHP not?
>
> -Josh Shrier
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
> [mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Derrick  
> Fogle
> Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 12:18 AM
> To: FX.php Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [FX.php List] Looping validation
>
>>>
>
> The PHP scripting would actually be very similar, in concept, to your
> FMP script. The syntax is just completely different.
>
> I'm a little fuzzy on how you get to the point you start at in your
> description, so I'll start with the "creates variables for date and
> time" part. The PHP equivalent is a form that submits the date and
> time to another PHP script. In that 2nd PHP script, use FX.php to find
> all tutor staff records with (I'm guessing) the portal data of
> scheduled time.
>
> You'll need a couple nested foreach() statements to loop through first
> the staff records, and within each staff record, loops through the
> portal data. The comparisons you use in FMP vs PHP to determine
> availability  will be virtually identical, although you'll probably
> need to learn a bit about unixtime and PHP's date and time functions
> to pull it off.
>
> When a match is found, create the schedule record in FMP and redirect
> to a 'successful' page. If you get to the end of the nested loops,
> you're in error territory and can show the error there.
>
> Just remember that the logic used in your FMP script is the exact same
> logic you'll use in the PHP script. You've just got to learn the PHP
> syntax, and how to get data in and out of FMP with FX.php, to
> implement it.
>
> Good luck!
>
>>> 2008/9/7 Josh Shrier <joshshrier at gmail.com>:
>>>> I have a script that checks if an activity a user suggests have an
>>> available
>>>> employee to train at that date and time. The way the script works
>>>> is it
>>>> creates variables for the date and time, and then goes to the
>>>> staff table
>>>> and loops through the portal rows to see if that person has a spot
>>>> available. If yes, then it books that trainer. If not, it goes to
>>>> the next
>>>> staff member and repeats the same. If the script gets through all
>>>> the
>>> staff
>>>> members and there is no one available during that time then an
>>>> error is
>>>> returned. I would like to know how to approach coding this script
>>>> in PHP,
>>>> given that the staff table is not related to the contacts table
>>>> until a
>>>> staff member is chosen which isn't until the end of the script.
>
>
> Derrick
>
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Derrick