[Fwd: [Fwd: Re: [Zope-DB] Need help passing table data as a variable to next SQL method]]

[Philip Kilner]

Hi Gil,

Gil Pangilinan wrote:
>    The dilemma I'm in is that my initial query of companies alone is 
> tremendous, over 500.  To list the employees in the same table is just 
> not an option.  What I've been experimenting with is to make the company 
> name in the table a hyperlink.  But the troubles I'm having is passing 
> the company name, id, and a couple other variables into another SQL 
> method as arguments.  The method itself works fine, when I test it in 
> zope it creates the 4 fields that need input.  The furthest I've gone is 
> to get the hyperlink working to a ZSQL search interface  but again, the 
> user needs to input the data manually which is very troublesome.  I'm 
> trying to figure out how to automate this process.  This would help the 
> user navigating the DB so that he could just click on the company and 
> see the branches, and then click on a specific branch and then see the 
> employees there. (Yes, I'm trying to do various levels of this.)
> 

Not sure if I understand you right: -
- You want a searchable list of companies (which you have?).
- You want the user to be able to click on a hyperlink in this list.
- You want the target of the hyperlink to be a company page, listing the 
  employees of that company?
- The issue is passing the parameters from the companies page to the 
company employees page?

You can pass the parameters you need in the request, so you need to form 
a link in the companies page that points to, say: -

	/company/index_html?Company=123

The parameter (Company=123) is then available to the ZSQL method 
providing data to the target page.

The ZSQL might look like: -

select * from COMPANY
WHERE
Company = <dtml-sqlvar expr="REQUEST.form['Company']" type="int">

(Needless to say, you can pass multiple parameters this way - and you 
could use a form with a POST rather than a link if you don't want all 
the parameters in the URL)

Docs for the magic of ZSQL methods (and there is a lot of magic!) are at: -

	http://www.plope.com/Books/2_7Edition/RelationalDatabases.stx

Does this sound helpful? Not sure if this is what you were after, or if 
I'm missing the point of the problem!

HTH!

-- 

Regards,

PhilK

Email: phil at xfr.co.uk / Voicemail & Facsimile: 07092 070518

"Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation." - Alasdair Gray