Linking one customer record to several other records.

  • DaveR1974

    (@daver1974)


    10 years, 3 months ago

    I’ve just downloaded Participants Database, and I really like it – it’s so simple and easy to use. However, I’d like to use it for a different purpose. I want to use it as a database of servers linked to a customer.

    For example, a customer may have more than one server. The record will contain an identity code, the software product, software version, IP address etc, but I’d also like to have the customers name, address, maintenance details etc without needing to type it in for each server record. Obviously, I could type it in for each server, but that is likely to make lots of duplication of effort, and introduce mistakes and will be harder to keep up to date. If this was a relational database, this would be easy, but I’m not sure that it will be in this case!

    I thought perhaps about creating a field with a link to a record elsewhere – perhaps either a WP page for each customer, or a separate table within the ParticipantsDB database, but I’m not sure how practical it would be. Any ideas if something like this will be possible or how it might be achieved?

    Thanks!

    http://wordpress.org/plugins/participants-database/

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Author xnau webdesign

    (@xnau)

    10 years, 3 months ago

    With an application like this, it’s best to set up your users as WP users…maybe use a custom role editor to create a role for them. Then you can set up the registration form so it captures the user information along with the information they enter in the form. Then you have all your records linked to a particular user.

    Check the “other notes” section under “hidden fields” to get an idea how to capture user information and add it to the record.

    Your persistent fields (user defaults) will have to be handled with a custom template…definitely some coding involved there, but quite possible.

    Thread Starter DaveR1974

    (@daver1974)

    10 years, 3 months ago

    Oh, that’s an interesting approach – I’d never have thought of that. I’ll have a think about it and try it out! 🙂 Thanks!

    alby54

    (@alby54)

    10 years, 3 months ago

    You could create wp-users as customers, a DB field for the user_name and a post for each of them. In the posts put the necessary infos about the customer and place the pdb_list shortcode filterd by the user_name. When you recall the posts in one page (no excerpts) you will have the name of the customer as title, the info you need and the list of his servers. Then if one page is not enough to hold all the data, you can assign different categories to the posts and have them organised on different pages as you wish.

    Alberto

    Plugin Author xnau webdesign

    (@xnau)

    10 years, 3 months ago

    That’s a great idea, Alberto!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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