Determining data types
Once you have a list of database fields, you need to determine what kind of fields they will be. Since you are building a web based application, the entry forms will be HTML based. Therefore you have handful of options to choose from. Go through your database fields list and determine which type fits your data best.
Text Field:
Text fields are one line areas that allow the user to input text. For instance, name and email fields are most common text fields.
If you want several lines or if the expected text to be entered is more than 50 characters, you should use a text area instead.
Text Area:
Text areas are text fields that can span several lines. For instance, addresses, hobbies, and comments fields are most common text area fields. You will also need to specify number of lines in the text area.
Pulldown Menu:
To categorize and search users easily, some fields should be in a consistent format. Dropdown or pulldown menus are best if you need consistency and the data entered will be well defined. For instance, country, date of birth or gender are very commonly used as pulldown menu.
Radio Button:
Radio buttons are used when you want to let the visitor select one option from a set of alternatives.
If you have multiple well-defined categories like pulldown menus, but the number of selection is limited to couple, then you can use a radio button. The user can only choose one of the options. The advantage of using radio button instead of pulldown menus is that users can read the option without having to click and open a menu.
Checkbox:
Checkboxes are used when you would like to allow users to make a decision on a question. They are basically "yes" or "no" questions. For example, use a checkbox if you would like to ask users
"
Receive Newsletters
?".
Upload Picture:
You can add new picture upload fields. These fields will show up on the upload page and let users upload a picture from their hard disk to your site. The types and maximum sizes of pictures can be defined from preferences (See admin -> preferences -> picture upload).
Password Field:
You can add a text field that does not show what is typed on the browser. These fields are exactly same as "text fields" except letters typed will be showed up as stars.
Hidden Field:
Hidden fields do not show up on the page. Therefore the visitor can't type anything into a hidden field. Purpose of these fields are to submit information that is not entered by the visitor. For instance, to have multiple membership types, you can create a "membership type" hidden field and submit its value during registration. If you have two registration forms, one form would have "free" as "membership type" hidden field and the other would have "premium" in this field. This information will not be visible to the user directly, but you can create other functions such as serving different pages for different membership types.
These are the form fields you can use to collect information from your users. To create a database field with one of them, use the Database Wizard (See: admin -> database -> fields). Next topic will explain how to use the Database Wizard.
