Need some help with a small project

[gmagerr]

Hello all.. i have a project I need to do, but i cannot think of the best way to go about it, so i thought i'd pick the brains of some experts here.
I have a workorder form for ordering parts. There are about 5 or 6 vendors, about 5 or 6 catagories for the supplies (eg. Cables, Hanging material, etc etc)
I created a form but it's not working, first of all it's huge! and i have all the stuff listed, but the only interactive part of it is you can put the quantity you want... Oh yeah and one more thing. the selected items in the workorder need to be emailed to someone (only the selected items) so they can charge the customer, and send the materials. Ok so how would you guys suggest i go about this.. i thought of doing a database, but even that is a mindfull right now.. if that is a suggestion, could someone please elaborate and give me an idea of the tables and relationship setup as well.. Ok thanks in advance everyone.

 

[hithere]

if you're using dropdown menus for all that, I can see why the form is huge (and probably not user friendly either I'd guess). Database is prolly the way to go. Create a table for each vendor that has their particular products. Maybe have a dropdown that lists the vendors and then when the vendor is selected have it dynamically create the list of stuff available from that vendor. Once they select their choice (or choices if you want to allow a multiple select), they get the box for quantity. I think there's a faq on this site about the dropdown spawning the data in the second box..if not there's on javascript.internet.com (i think that's addy). Going this way would shorten your form considerably and be much easier on the user.
hth
mark

 

[Swany]

I would suggest you look at some of the free shopping carts out there. Almost all of them can do exactly what you are looking for. .
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