[Zope] - Help with Zope Project -- please!

[Rob Page]

Dave:

>  Ok - first please 'reply to all' for this message. While I have
>  sent a subsribe to the list, I have yet to receive any mail 
>  from it, so I'm not certain that it is working for me yet.

<SNIP>

>  I want to have a method for inserting into the data_table that does
>  uses this value:
>  
>  ie, it should look like this:
>  
>  Last Name ************
>  Name      ***************************
>  Keywords  ****************************
>  
>  and populate both the data_table, including the submitter id, 
>  and the data_table2.
>  
>  So my questions are:
>  
>  a) how do I get the sql_method that I am using to look up the 
>     id# for the user based on the LastName and insert that value
>     into the data_table?

This might be a little dangerous since you've not indicated that
LastName is a key field.  Such a query (i.e., SELECT id from  user_table
where l_name = <!--#var l_name--> ) might very well return multiple
rows.

Could you get the person to "login" to the system and either a) set a
cookie or b) a hidden form variable?

>             INSERT INTO data_talbe values (
>                       "",
>  		     '<!--#sqlvar name fmt=sql-quote-->',
>                       ???????????????????
>             
>      what do I put in the ?????????????? to make it work?
>  
>  b) then I have an sql_delimeter line, and I want to iterate 
>  through the 
>     keywords tokens and insert a record into the data_table2 for each 
>     of the keywords, including the submitter id# and the id# 
>  of the just
>     inserted record from data_table. How do I do this??

I think this is harder than you might think...  It's hard (impossible?)
to get the id of a just-inserted record when you're using the database's
native auto-increment facility.  In cases where we've needed to this
very thing we define a table key that is populated with a pseudo-random
string (e.g., a string-ified time representation plus some a few random
characters).  This gives you uniqueness in the keys and, more
importantly, you can do other things with the key value.

So, to summarize I would, get the person to visit a "login" screen.
Successful logins set a non-persistent cookie which is that person's
user_id.  Subsequent requests can use the cookie in DTML (and in SQL
Methods).  Inserts into data_tables should use a pseudo-random string
(PrincipiaTime works nicely for this).  This way you'll know the id.
Maybe even stuff it into the REQUEST so it's available for the entire
request.

--Rob