MC Scheduler Management—Edit Schedule with Ajax
- Set Up MC Scheduler People
- View MC Scheduler
- View One Caregiver's Schedule
- View One Kid's Schedule
- Find All Unfilled Slots
- Edit MC Scheduler
- Add a Caregiver
- Subtract a Caregiver
- Add a Care Needer
- Subtract a Care Needer
- Edit Schedule with Ajax.html
- Replace This Week With Next Week
This script is called edit-135W-790_________O8-6IY-Uv42ee.php
This utility is used by Edit MC Scheduler to utilize an Ajax script that changes the MySQL table data and the schedule on the fly. It changes one name at a time.
The MC Scheduler is a caregiving scheduler for kids and/or elders. It contains the application utilities listed above. There is a utility called Setup Scheduler which lets you enter the names of the kids and/or elders needing care. Then it saves 3 files, one with the names of the care needers, one with the names of the caregivers, and one with a blank 2-week schedule. The View Scheduler utility lets you see the schedule, with no editing.
Before you use the Edit MC Scheduler option on the main menu, you'll need to get everyone together and figure out the caregiving schedule which lasts two weeks, so you'll need to figure out who cares for whom. You'll see that the schedules are set up as half hour slots and cover 24 hours a day. When you first see the schedule it will be set up with two X characters for all slots for the whole two weeks. X means "no care needed." For most MCs or families or groups (or even babysitting co-ops), the slots from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. will be left with the Xs (parents are "watching over" their kids by sleeping in their own rooms—but still available), so you'll need to set up caregivers for 7 in the morning to 9 at night, mostly, since after that we assume the kids and care-needing elders will be asleep. Of course, also in the daytime will be Xs for when kids are at school or soccer practice or music lessons or preschool or whatever. So even if kids are sleeping over at a different home in your group, it is assumed there are parents sleeping in a nearby room, available as needed.
The reason there are Xs over Xs and—once you fill in the slots—names over names, is that the primary caregiver is on top and the secondary caregiver is on the bottom. See Why Register for an MC? to see why caregiver choice is important—the kid should be able to choose which of these two people will care for him/her. The kid starts with the primary caregiver and chooses to switch to the secondary caregiver if he wants to. The best place for the caregiving is a space set aside for it. This allows kids to play with other kids in their group, and the chosen (primary or secondary) caregiver will be there, playing with or talking with the kids as they wish or—more often—reading a book or doing something on a computer while the kids play together.
The editing of the schedule is simple. Select one of the caregivers from the dropdown menu in Edit MC Scheduler, and click him or her wherever appropriate on the schedule either on top, as the primary caregiver or on the bottom as the secondary caregiver. Do this for the whole two weeks and then go on to the next caregiver from the dropdown menu, until all slots are filled as needed. Yes, the first scheduling meeting will be a long one. Bring snacks!
Even though we designed the Scheduler for MCs (microcommunities), there would be nothing to stop babysitting co-ops from using it. Most co-ops think in terms of one caregiver for so many kids. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association recommend child-caregiver ratios of 3:1 for children from birth to 12 months, 4:1 for children from 13 to 30 months, 5:1 for children from 31 to 35 months, 7:1 for 3-year-olds, and 8:1 for 4-year-olds and older. We agree, but feel that there needs to be secondary caregivers as well—for backup. Like we say, the kids should be able to choose which of these two people will care for them.
On to the code: This utility is used by Edit MC Scheduler to utilize an Ajax script that changes the MySQL table data and the schedule on the fly. It changes one name at a time. The first section is at the start of the script. First, we use the checkid.php script to ensure that the session id variable is set, and send the user to register-with-captcha.php if it is not. Then we put the session variable 'username' into $U—we will be checking that it is set in a second. Then we define a named constant '_NODIRECTACCESS'. We include the config.php file (in the includes folder) which uses the PHP defined() function to check on this constant. If it is not set, we are thrown out of the config.php file like yesterday's trash.
Next we check if the session variables 'groupname', 'username', and 'userid' are set. If not, we are sent to the login-to-mc.php script. We make sure $U is still equal to the session variable 'username', that it is not an empty string, and that it's at least 6 characters long or . . . you guessed it . . . the login script. We make sure the session id is set and send them away if not.
The reason we are willing to use JavaScript to send visitors away is that none of our scripts will work without it. One cannot register, enter data, get from here to there, etc., in most of our scripts without it. What serious web surfer turns off JavaScript? In case you were not aware, many sites rely totally on JavaScript for menu functioning and some of their scripts. And what about data entry? In case you didn't know it, it is a huge convenience for the user because of the way it does input validation. A good site will validate in JavaScript as well as PHP. When the JavaScript data validation script catches unacceptable input, it can simply send focus to the input box where the bad input happened, the user fixes it, and the script is submitted. But if JavaScript is disabled, the user gets sent to PHP data validation which catches the bad data and sends the user back to the input form to redo all input from scratch. The JavaScript data validation script will not make a user restart, if well written. If you have experienced restarting data entry in a long form due to an accidental character, you know exactly what we are talking about. It's maddening! And a good way to get users to surf away from your site forever. If a person turns off THE major browser scripting language just because of a miniscule chance of encountering a scripting exploit on some web page, rather than installing good anti-spyware and anti-virus software, his Internet experience overall will be greatly diminished. Many sites have no alternatives to their script-enabled navigation, so the person is 100% screwed on those sites. But even on those with the alternative, it is always cumbersome and awkward. Besides, the scheduler editing script requires AJAX which in turn needs JavaScript, and if you cannot edit the schedule, it's useless. Point taken?
Next we GET the four variables sent in the query string: topornot, person, kd, N. We use the isset() function to make sure they are all set (one can check a list of variables or just one, with this function).
We use the $kd variable to determine which field to change. The reason we have to get the contents of that schedule cell before changing it is that we only update half the cell at a time—either the upper half where the primary caregiver name is or the bottom half where the secondary caregiver is. $topornot controls which one we change. We look for the start of the break tag (there is one in every cell—separating the 2 names) and put that offset in $pos1, then look for the end of the break tag and put that offset in $pos2. We use the substr() function to find the partial string that is everything from the start of the string onward, put it in $pp, then concatenate $pp and the $person string to change the primary caregiver in the cell. We do the same with the partial string that is everything after the break tag, put it in $pp, then concatenate $person and the $pp string to change the secondary caregiver in the cell.
Then we search for the break tag in the cell. If it cannot be found the data in the cell is corrupted so we fix it the best we can by simply putting in the selected caregiver twice with a break tag separator. $q will now be a valid cell content. We dump $q into $contents and UPDATE the table with $q. Next we declare that $theid="N".$N."k".$kd;, which means we are sending the id back to the Ajax script that called it, and this is the id: (e.g., N13k4, which means the 13th of 700 records in the MySQL table and the 4th field, which corresponds to the 4th kid in the group—s/he gets the entire 4th column on all 14 pages). Now we take the id, concatenate both "^" and $contents to it, and echo this to the screen. The Ajax script will take this and update the screen without refresh.
This script below is called edit-135W-790_________O8-6IY-Uv42ee.php
<?php
include_once"checkid.php";
$U=$_SESSION['username'];
define('_NODIRECTACCESS', TRUE);
include_once"includes/config.php";
if (!isset($_SESSION['groupname']) || !isset($_SESSION['userid']) || !isset($_SESSION['username']) || $_SESSION['username']<>$U || !isset($U) || $U=="" || strlen($U)<6 || !isset($_SESSION['sessionid'])){echo '<script language="javascript">alert("Please login, then select MC Scheduler."); window.location = "login-to-mc.php";</script>';}
?>
<?php
$topornot=$_GET["topornot"];
$kd=$_GET["kd"];
$N=$_GET["N"];
$person=$_GET["person"];
if (isset($topornot,$kd,$N,$person)){
$a=$U."_scheduler";$k='kid'.$kd;
$res = mysql_query("SELECT ".$k." FROM $a WHERE N='$N' LIMIT 1") or die(mysql_error());
$row = mysql_fetch_array($res);
$q=$row[$k];
$pos1 = stripos($q,'<');
$pos2 = strripos($q,'>');
if($topornot=="t"){$pp=substr($q, $pos1);$q=$person.$pp;
}else{
$pp=substr($q, 0, $pos2+1);$q=$pp.$person;}
$pos = strpos($q, "<BR>");
if ($pos === false) {$q=$person."<BR>".$person;}
$contents=$q;
mysql_query("UPDATE $a SET ".$k."='$q' WHERE N='$N' LIMIT 1") or die(mysql_error());
$theid="N".$N."k".$kd;
$v=$theid."^".$contents;
echo $v;
}else{echo 'INVALID';}
?>