just4fun6969
9/30/2008 4:30:00 AM
Hey Cowboy - Thanks for your response and help!
The part I omitted, making it harder for you to follow, is this:
A. The form renders with empty fields
(name,address,phone,field1,field2, etc.)
B. The data entry person then types the information from a printout
and submits the form.
C. We have some of the information already available (say name and
address info)
D. When the data entry person enters the phone number - I want the
form (originally conceived as using AJAX) to look up the phone number
in the DB and populate name, address,city,state and zip so it saves
the data entry person some time.
Here's where I think my limited knowledge of AJAX is hurting me.... I
see four ways to solve the problem.
1. User submits the form and server side populates name and address -
this was rejected because the submit intrupts the data entry flow
2. use AJAX and DynamicPopulateExtender on name, addess,
city,state,zip. This was rejected because it would require 5 separate
DB look ups.
3. use AJAX and DynamicPopulateExtender return all 5 data elements to
a hidden input box and use javascript to parse and populate
name,address,city,state and zip - just didn't want to start down this
road yet...
4. My current approach - User AJAX and DynamicPopulationExtenders. The
server method on one field, say name, queries the DB and populates
server side variables for address, city,state, and zip. It returns
name. Then the DynamicPopulationExtender Server Side methods for
address, city, state, and zip just return the prepopulated server side
variable.
#4 works but it isn't fluid because of my arbitrary timeout. The
problem with #4 is getting it to execute the DynamicPopulationExtender
methods for address,city, state, and zip only AFTER the server side
method for name has completed. I think your suggestions are for an
initial page load solution??
I'm still trying to get it right :-)