Edit and Delete options for tabular data

Common Practices

[coopster]

As server-side programmers we are often required to display a listing of information from a database in tabular form for routine maintenance. Take for example an administrator's function for maintaining a group of users that are allowed to enter a restricted area of the site. Typically, you have two options, display the data as a list of <a href=""> elements and offer maintenance through a GET request, or put them into a <form> with an *Edit* and *Delete* button for each item using the POST method.

There are a couple of options using the GET method. Typically we see ...

while (getting data from the database) { 
 print '<td>' . $row['username'] . '</td>' .  
 '<td><a href="edit_user.php?id=' . $row['id'] . '>Edit</a></td>' . 
 '<td><a href="delete_user.php?id=' . $row['id'] . '>Delete</a></td>'; 
} 
// which will give us something along the lines of ... 
+------+------+--------+ 
¦ User ¦ Edit ¦ Delete ¦ 
+------+------+--------+ 
¦ John ¦ Edit ¦ Delete ¦ 
¦ Suzy ¦ Edit ¦ Delete ¦ 
¦ Bill ¦ Edit ¦ Delete ¦ 
¦ Joan ¦ Edit ¦ Delete ¦ 
¦ Eddy ¦ Edit ¦ Delete ¦ 
+------+------+--------+

... where the Edit and Delete columns are hyperlinks.

It works and it works just fine. Another option of course would be to drop in a URL without the query string and employ something like Apache's mod_rewrite engine to parse the static url and invoke our PHP script ...

while (getting data from the database) { 
 print '<td>' . $row['username'] . '</td>' .  
 '<td><a href="edit_user/' . $row['id'] . '>Edit</a></td>' . 
 '<td><a href="delete_user/' . $row['id'] . '>Delete</a></td>'; 
}

I won't go into the RewriteRule, but you get the picture. This option forces a bit more work on the server and really doesn't accomplish anything except get the query string off the url. I'm not a big fan of the query string on the GET method but in some cases it works just fine.

The POST method is pretty self explanatory -- a form and submit buttons. I find myself trying to find new ways around the obviously simple routes every once in awhile and thought I'd ask others what they use, and why.

Anybody care to discuss?

[ergophobe]

I'm not a big fan of the query string on the GET method but in some cases it works just fine.

I try to keep them out of public areas, but I think anyone who wears the title "admin" should be able to handle seeing a query string in a url. Since these areas are usually password protected, it also removes worries related to SEO.

As for the rest, I definitely know what you mean. If you remember way back, I was for a while enamored with the idea of displaying first as formatted text and then having it turn into an editable textarea upon clicking (there's a good example on the quirksmode.org site). That way you could have it both ways - nice looking for reading, but still editable if necessary.

The problem is that the data on the site I was thinking of doing it for was not formatted really, so there was no particular advantage to doing it in the long run. I still like the idea, but I've only done it fooling around on my experiments.

I usually try to do a table with checkboxes if possible, so the admin doesn't have to submit a form for each and every change. In your GET example, the admin would have to click on a link, wait for the page to reload, click on a link, wait for the page. I find that trying, so I like to give them a form that's more like

+------+-------------+-----------+  
¦ User ¦ User Level  ¦  Delete ¦  
+------+--------_----+-----------+  
¦ John ¦[select box] ¦[check box]¦  
¦ Suzy ¦[select box] ¦[check box]¦  
¦ Bill ¦[select box] ¦[check box]¦  
¦ Joan ¦[select box] ¦[check box]¦  
¦ Eddy ¦[select box] ¦[check box]¦ 
+------+-------------+-----------+ 
¦ [submit button            ¦ 
---------------------------------+ 

I would much rather batch process if possible.