Hi;

My database is finally up and running smoothly. Thanks so much. However I have one concern:

When the server is at peek traffic (not in my control) and someone clicks on "submit" but quickly cancels his/her submission, an incomplete field is added to the database. For example a line with only 4 diciders is added when something like 10 is required. What this does is throws off all follosing entries and all the fields are shown incorrectly after that.

Do you have any suggestions as to how to get over this? One way would be to have a routine to constantly check for these bad lines and insert as many "|" as there are needed after "bad lines". This could be done at any step like before submission of a new entry. How wold one write such a code?

p.s. My site http://www.universitybookexchange.com is operational for anyone interested (Please do not add fake entries for test purposes).

This is something I haven't encountered before. I'd have to think about it quite a bit before I could come up with I a solution.


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JPD

I am confused...I just tested your site and I don't see a way of "canceling" a submission other than clicking on the STOP button.

Regards,

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Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

okay... this does not happen all the time... it only happens when the server is loaded or the user is on a slow connection. I have looked at it in detail and this is what happens:

The person clicks on submit button during peak hours at a very slow connection. The Perl script writes part of the information into the database. Now if the user clicks cancel and is disconnected or if the server lags, not all the information is written in the file. The result is that you get one line with missing fields and dividers:

line100|field1|field2|filed3|field4|field5
line101|field1|field2
line102|field1|field2|field3|field4|field5

Now... the next person who clicks on "List All" will find datas after line101 screwed up with each field switched over and showing up in the wrong spot.

I saw this error in one of my databases and fixed it manually by erasing that line (I could have added a bunch of "|"). I am looking for a way to make this process automatic, sort of like autodelete routine, where by clicking on a button the routine would check each line to ensure there are the right number of fields and "|"'s. I must admit this error occurred only once on my server, but as the list grows, I cannot stand watch on every database 24 hours a day (I am planning to have one database for each university in N America!).