Approval Module/ site

[johnthetech]

First off thanks for form tools. Pretty fantastic so far.

I had a question put to me by the first live implementation I've done. It may be covered by an existing module, or some other modification. If it is I apologize I couldn't find specifics in the forum.

Ok. We are a small distribution/ logistics company. One of our new clients wants us to handle their sample requests. Normally not a problem. User fills out basic request form, we get it, export it daily to .xls/.csv file to USPS software, print labels and ship.

However this client wants intermediary approval. He want's to manually approve all sample requests as they come in. This is so he can feel like he is staying in control, preventing sample packs from going to the wrong people, etc...

So in comes FormTools, in my mind pretty much the perfect software for this. User submits form from website --> Client logs into formtools and deletes anything he doesn't want being sent out --> We run daily or weekly exports of the remaining submissions and ship out.

Unfortunately they felt (and my sales team has no choice but to agree with) that the interface is clunky and doesn't address deleted submissions in regards to keeping them for demographic purposes. They want simple and automatic, and me being the lowly IT guy, has to comply.

I am wondering if I should try to customize FT to do this. Basically client logs in, sees submissions and has only 2 options(buttons next to each entry). Approve or Disapprove. If he clicks approve it either automatically changes a bit in a hidden database field from 0 to 1, or moves the entry to a second table marked approved. We get our shipping list from that second table. Same for disapproved, the 0 gets marked 2 for not approved, or it moves to third table for that. **EDIT** I now see that I can sort the clients view by data type in a specific field. So only if it shows a 0 in that field will it display. Once he clicks the button for approved it would change it to a 1 and no longer be on his list. We could then ship to anything with a 1 in it. If he clicks disapprove (or NO) it would change it to a 2.

Anyways, I know very little programming, and feel that my limit would be pulling the info out of the database and displaying it in a web browser, hence my using FT. Anything past that is not within my skills. The goal is to make this as easy and simple as humanly possible for the client to either approve or disapprove of a submission. I have no problem having my guys just use the system as is.

Thanks ahead of time for any thoughts on this, I appreciate it.

Regards,
John

[Ben]

Hi John,

Thanks for the post.

Unfortunately they felt (and my sales team has no choice but to agree with) that the interface is clunky and doesn't address deleted submissions in regards to keeping them for demographic purposes. They want simple and automatic, and me being the lowly IT guy, has to comply.

haha sure, no problem.

You are, of course, welcome to customize the code however you see fit. Of course, the drawback is that it will prevent you from safely upgrading when new versions come out. So a better approach would be to write a module or just find a workaround from within the interface.

**EDIT** I now see that I can sort the clients view by data type in a specific field. So only if it shows a 0 in that field will it display. Once he clicks the button for approved it would change it to a 1 and no longer be on his list. We could then ship to anything with a 1 in it. If he clicks disapprove (or NO) it would change it to a 2.

Exactly! To do this with Form Tools, you can't currently add in "Approve"/"Reject" buttons like that,but you can do something very similar: just add a new form field (in Form Tools only) called "Status" or something, which is a radio buttons field with two values: "Approve" / "Reject".

Then assign that field to the very top of the View that the client sees. Finally, add a "Standard Filter" to the View that says: Show all results where Status != "Reject".

Then, as soon as the client clicks "Reject" and updates the submission, it will disappear from their list, and effectively be archived. It's basically exactly like the example here: "Only letting clients view 'reviewed' submissions". Same idea!
http://docs.formtools.org/userdoc/?page=...s_examples

Good luck with it!

- Ben

[johnthetech]

Ok I've been having my share of fun setting this up, here is what I have so far. If I could borrow your time for another minute just to let me know if I am missing anything.

I created a hidden field in my form called 'approved' set it to default 'no'.

I Mapped that field in FT to approved, with radio box set. Group allows for yes and no options.

The default Client 'view' is filtered to only show approved = no.

The secondary view is filtered to only show approved = yes (for us mainly or for him if he wants to review later).

This seems to be working out technically, but I have a few thoughts/questions.

1. Is there any way to have the approve "yes/no" option editable from the main submission view, or do we have to click 'edit' for each entry to change the status from no to yes.

2. I installed the mass edit module. Unfortunately it shows up tiny. Full screen works but.... *** Brain Fart here trying something *** Damn that only sort of worked.

I edited the clients menu options and created a custom URL page of "http://mydomain.com/samplereq/modules/mass_edit/fullscreen.php" and called it "Approval" That view is very nice for what I need to do. Unfortunately if I login and click on that menu directly after logging in I get permission and/or table not found errors. If I login as the client and goto the view submissions page (click view) and then click on the custom approval page in the menu it works and shows me the beautifully simple mass edit page already in full screen.

So I know it's not too much to ask for the client to click 'view' before they then go to the menu and click 'Approve', taking them to the mass edit page. I just don't want to hear the complaining when they see a scary error message when they click on the approval page first. Or don't want to explain why they can't just go straight to the approval (mass edit) page from the beginning.

Anyone have any thoughts or am I overcomplicating things?