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J
jlig
Inspiring
February 22, 2010
Question

Append Text to Notes field, including User, Date & Time

  • February 22, 2010
  • 2 replies
  • 4058 views

Any help on creating this User/Date/TimeStamp this would be much appreciated..

I have the following objects on my page:

Two Text boxes:

  • txtNewNote (this is a textarea field to type in the new notes)
  • wkRptOrdStaNts (this is the actual Database field where notes are stored)

One Submit button:

  • btnAppend (this is to run the Javascript code that takes the content in the txtNewNote box & appends it to the wkRptOrdStaNts field contents, along with a User, Date & Time stamp)

Here is an example of what a final "appended text" entry should look like:

[02/22/2010 1:17 pm by: joe_user] New notes, blah, blah, etc..

I found this javascript code : http://www.mediacollege.com/internet/javascript/form/add-text.html, but not sure how to make it work with date/time/user.

btw: I can pull the logged in user from a Session variable: #Session.kt_login_user#

Thanks,

jlig

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    W
    wyntermoonwolf
    Participant
    January 20, 2011

    If you have a log table, why not create a DateStamp column to go with the record?  If you have a log file, simply prepend the date stamp to the log text.

    Example:

    When writing to a database:

    <CFQUERY ...>

    INSERT INTO MyTable (DateStamp,wkRptOrdStaNts)

    values

    (#CreateODBCDateTime(Now())#,'#FORM.wkRptOrdStaNts#')

    </CFQUERY>

    When outputting the log from a query:

    [#DateFormat(MyQuery.DateStamp,"mm/dd/yyyy")# #TimeFormat(MyQuery.DateStamp,"h:mm tt")#] #MyQuery.wkRptOrdStaNts#

    If writing to a file:

    [#DateFormat(Now(),"mm/dd/yyyy")# #TimeFormat(Now(),"h:mm tt")#] #MyQuery.wkRptOrdStaNts#

    Note that you do not need to wrap every variable with a <cfoutput> block.  You can wrap multiples with it.  Much easier reading.

    Before:
    <textarea name="wkRptOrdStaNts_<cfoutput>#cnt1#</cfoutput>" id="wkRptOrdStaNts_<cfoutput>#cnt1#</cfoutput>" cols="120" rows="15"><cfoutput>#Request.KT_escapeAttribute(rstblWeeklyRpt.wkRptOrdStaNts)#</cfoutput></textarea>

    After:
    <cfoutput><textarea name="wkRptOrdStaNts_#cnt1#" id="wkRptOrdStaNts_#cnt1#" cols="120" rows="15">#Request.KT_escapeAttribute(rstblWeeklyRpt.wkRptOrdStaNts)#</textarea></CFOUTPUT>

    J
    jligAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 20, 2011

    John, I really appreciate the detailed post..

    I actually do not have a Log Table or Log File,  just a Main Table called tblWeeklyRpt with all the other fields, including the wkRptOrdStaNts field (LongText type)

    Here is the flow of the data:

    ---------------------------------------

    • The Sales Agent will call their Customer, and then record the call details in the wkRptOrdStaNts field.
    • If there are previous notes already in that field, they click in front of the text, hit return twice, and type in the new text and Save the record
    • This works but is not very user-friendly and sometimes allows part of the old notes to get deleted accidentally

    • What I'm trying to do is display two boxes on the form: One for the new Notes, the other for the existing notes
    • When they type their new notes in the first box, and click Submit, the TimeStamp plus New Notes is Appended to the wkRptOrdStaNts field.

    What do i place behind the Submit button to accomplish this?

    Thanks again for the help..

    jlig

    J
    jligAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 24, 2011

    Still trying to get the Append to work..

    John, When you say that you do not need to wrap every variable with a <cfoutput> block.. You can wrap multiples with it.. Much easier reading..

    If I do as you mentioned in the "After" line below, what name do i use when the actual variable name is called.. just the actual name of the database field?

    - In this case that field is called rstblWeeklyRpt.wkRptOrdStaNts

    Before:
    <textarea name="wkRptOrdStaNts_<cfoutput>#cnt1#</cfoutput>" id="wkRptOrdStaNts_<cfoutput>#cnt1#</cfoutput>" cols="120" rows="15"><cfoutput>#Request.KT_escapeAttribute(rstblWeeklyRpt.wkRptO rdStaNts)#</cfoutput></textarea>

    After:
    <cfoutput><textarea name="wkRptOrdStaNts_#cnt1#" id="wkRptOrdStaNts_#cnt1#" cols="120" rows="15">#Request.KT_escapeAttribute(rstblWeeklyRpt.wkRptOrdStaNts)# </textarea></CFOUTPUT>

    Also, If I use my current rsStamp (see below) to generate the Timestamp, how do I alter it to actually grab the "Logged-End users" Session variable?

    If I use the code below, it uses the default user value I set, but will not grab the actual SESSION.kt_login_user..?

    -----------------------------------------------

    <cfquery name="rsStamp" datasource="salesPipeline">
    SELECT tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptID, tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptCustName, user_usr.name_usr, tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptOrdStaNts,
    CONCAT("[ ", date_format(NOW(), '%a, %b %D, %Y %l:%i %p')
    , " by: ",(<cfqueryparam value="#SESSION.kt_login_user#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_clob">), "] ") AS stamp
    FROM (tblWeeklyRpt INNER JOIN user_usr ON user_usr.id_usr=tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptUser)
    WHERE tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptID = <cfqueryparam value="#URL.id_com#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_numeric"> AND tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptUser=<cfqueryparam value="#SESSION.kt_login_id#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_numeric">
    </cfquery>

    ------------------------------------------------

    D
    Dan_Bracuk
    Inspiring
    February 22, 2010

    I suggest using coldfusion instead of javascript.  To do exactly what you say you want to do, you can use dateformat(), timeformat(), and now() to get the date and time stuff you need.  You already have the user stuff.

    You might want to look at your database design.  If your table has a date_entered field, or something like that, defaulted to the current date and time, everything will look after itself.  You could also store use info in a different column.  That will give you more flexibility for querys.

    J
    jligAuthor
    Inspiring
    February 22, 2010

    Dan, Thanks for the reply..

    Good idea..

    I do have access to the Logged-in User via the {Session.kt_login_user} and the Date & Time via {now_dt()}, so this makes sense to just "Append" those values to my Text field before posting.

    What would be the general code to place behind the Submit Button to make sure my text string is "Appended" to my existing Notes field, and that it doesn't "Overwrite" the previous notes?

    Thanks again,

    jlig

    J
    jligAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 3, 2010

    Using the following code in my existing Query, I was able to create the User-Date-Time-Stamp text string portion:

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    <cfquery name="rsStamp" datasource="salesPipeline">
    SELECT tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptID, tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptCustName, user_usr.name_usr, tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptOrdStaNts,
    CONCAT(date_format(NOW(), '%a, %b %D, %Y. %l:%i %p'), " by: ",(user_usr.name_usr), "] ") AS stamp
    FROM (tblWeeklyRpt INNER JOIN user_usr ON user_usr.id_usr=tblWeeklyRpt.wkRptUser)
    WHERE wkRptID = <cfqueryparam value="#URL.id_com#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_numeric">
    </cfquery>

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This produces the following value: Wed, Mar 3rd, 2010. 11:34 AM by: mgoodman]

    Question: How do I take this value, along with the "text" from my TextBox named "inputtext", and PRE-APPEND it to my existing Notes field called "outputtext"?

    Here is a sample of what the page looks like: The first box is named: "inputtext", the second is "outputtext"

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