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GUIDED TOUR - PART TWO - choosing options in:
PHP/MySQL Web Database Application Code Generator Version 10

  1. After connecting to the database, it will display a tree-view of the database structure, grouped by table.
    Database Structure Treeview
  2. Initially all tables / fields are included. If you don’t want to generate a data-entry / search form for a particular table, or there is a field that you don’t want to be visible, simply remove the tick checkbox. When unselecting a table, all fields in that table will automatically be de-selected.
    Unchecked Table
  3. The Database Navigator Column column shows the actual table/field names from the database. The Database Name Column column contains the label that will be applied to the table / field. By default, It tries to clean up the field name to make it more user friendly. E.g. removing ID from a field called GenreID, to display the field to the user as Genre. Of course, it can’t guess every possible cryptic fieldname, so these labels can be edited by you. For your first project don’t get too bogged down with these kind of details – you can always go back and regenerate the application later.
  4. The Editor Type Column column shows the available editors available depending on the underlying data type of the field. For example an Integer field can be a Dropdown List (populated from another table, or a hard-coded list of values), a checkbox, a radio-button list or an integer field. Properties Column has additional options, for example if you choose Number (Integer) as the editor type, there is an additional option “Linked to a record in related table” which when checked lets you select from an Ajax auto-complete list (which offers suggestions as you type) or a Search Form – which lets the user use search criteria to locate the lookup record. We will look at the various types of editors more closely in the next section.
  5. The program automatically tries to detect foreign keys – if it misses any, or has found a false-positive, you can easily correct the settings it has chosen. We will look at lookups in more detail in the next section.
  6. Required Value Column checkbox determines whether or not the value can be left blank. It will be ticked by default if the field does not allow null values. Search Criteria Column checkbox determines whether or not the user can search on this field. For example, an end user may be unlikely to know the ID value of a record – so including the ID field on the filter list is just cluttering it up. Grid Column checkbox determines whether or not the field appears on the search results grid. Avoid including too many fields otherwise the user will have to scroll to see the whole grid.

Continue to Guided Tour Part 3 - Choose Editors