Let’s say I have a dropdown selection list of existing teachers. The
user can (1) select any one teacher, or (2) create a new one.
How would you tackle something like that?
I’m thinking what I could do is check if there’s any data inputted into
the “new teacher” field – and if there is, create a new teacher. But,
the issue with that is the user might also have an existing teacher
highlighted, so that creates confusion – (not to mention bad
usability!)
Based on your supreme knowledge, how would you approach something like
this?
Bob S. wrote:
Based on your supreme knowledge, how would you approach something like
this?
I don’t think you should allow people to create new teachers this way -
you need to control the quality of people who teach the future!! 
But seriously, I’ve given the same thing some thought for one of my
applications (and haven’t yet implemented anything for it) but in my
opinion, there are a couple of main ways to do it:
-
Have an option for ‘Other (enter below):’ and the person has to
select that option and enter a name in the new teacher box.
-
Use Javascript & AJAX that if such an option is selected, it darkens
out some of the screen and shows a div that allows you to create a new
teacher record and then updates the select box.
-
Have a checkbox that allows you to create a new teacher. When the
user checks it, the drop down select list is hidden and a new field is
shown for creating a teacher.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Mohit.
8/24/2007 | 6:01 PM.
Let’s say I have a dropdown selection list of existing teachers. The
user can (1) select any one teacher, or (2) create a new one.
How would you tackle something like that?
I’m thinking what I could do is check if there’s any data inputted into
the “new teacher” field – and if there is, create a new teacher. But,
the issue with that is the user might also have an existing teacher
highlighted, so that creates confusion – (not to mention bad
usability!)
You could use auto_complete_field to have a simple text field. They
type
in the name, it pulls up a list. If they don’t like one of those
options,
they finish typing and (assuming you only need the teacher’s name) you
create a new teacher record when they submit the form.
If you need more information, I’d have a “Other/New” option in the
select
box, and have it overlay a div asking for that info like the other
poster
suggested.
Bob S. wrote:
Bob,
If you do get the AJAX one done, do consider sharing
Cheers,
Mohit.
8/26/2007 | 5:03 PM.
Philip and Mohit,
Thank you for the replies! I’m going to try all of your various ideas
and see which works best. The AJAX one sounds really cool, and I think
would be very use-friendly if done right.
Of course, relying on my skills isn’t the best, so we’ll see what
happens
Thanks again!
On 8/26/07, Mohit S. [email protected] wrote:
Thanks again!
Bob,
If you do get the AJAX one done, do consider sharing 
I do this in quite a few different places in my app… In one
instance, an Event belongs_to a venue, so I give the user the option
to select any venue from a list, or they can create a new one by
clicking on the “Create new venue…” option in the dropdown (I use a
javascript onclick handler to detect when they select the appropriate
option). I then display a hidden div which contains a form for
creating a new venue.
An event can also be associated with an artist, so I use an ajax
autocomplete field to display a list of artists. I then use something
like @event.artist =
Artist.find_or_initialize_by_artist_name(params[:artist_name]) which
will either retrieve the Artist with the given name, or it’ll create a
new instance, which will then be saved when I call @event.save.
So the Ajax code isn’t necessarily very complicated, it’s just a
standard autocomplete field and uses find_or_initialize_by_*.
Adam
Adam C. wrote:
Of course, relying on my skills isn’t the best, so we’ll see what
like @event.artist =
Artist.find_or_initialize_by_artist_name(params[:artist_name]) which
will either retrieve the Artist with the given name, or it’ll create a
new instance, which will then be saved when I call @event.save.
So the Ajax code isn’t necessarily very complicated, it’s just a
standard autocomplete field and uses find_or_initialize_by_*.
Adam
Thanks Adam!
Cheers,
Mohit.
8/29/2007 | 10:41 AM.