How to Collect Data via Web Form, Then Provide Aggregate Display and Search Functionality?

I need to collect data (text and radio button / dropbox / checkbox selections) on a web form, store it somewhere, then provide the ability for users to display similarly collected data from other users, as well as search, sort, and filter the aggregate data. I can probably handle building the web form via PHP, but I'm not sure how to do the rest.

I need to keep things as simple (and updateable) as possible. I'd like to avoid most server-side technologies if possible. I do have access to MySQL databases, but wouldn't be able to write any code or design the schema. Ideally, there'd be some way to collect the data client-side, store it "in the cloud", then access and manipulate it somehow via HTTP / PHP / Javascript.

As an example that hopefully explains it better than I did above, consider a web site for runners. Each runner would be able to enter his own racing data (date, distance, time, place, age, gender, etc.). He'd be able to retrieve and view his data, as well as see data from other runners. Also, he would be able to search / sort / filter on one or more criteria. For example, he could say, "Show me the data for 40 year old males who ran a 5K between date X and date Y.

My "coding from scratch" days are long ago, but I'm a pretty good tweaker if I understand what I'm looking at. Is there anything you can think of that I could wrangle into the solution I need?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

Yeah, I thought about Google Docs Spreadsheets Forms. But it has these limitations:1. Fewer data types than form creators like Wufoo2. Very "spreadsheet-like" results display3. Sort by column available, but clunky and only visible if you know how to do it4. No search ability in results5. No filter ability in resultsI'm a complete Google fanboy, and would love to use Google Docs, but I just don't see how I can get it to do more than 25% of what I need it to do.

2009-09-12 02:18:46

Fair enough. It's about the only really no-code out of the box solution that I can think of. If I were going for a more full-scale app like this personally, I'd use one of the existing ORM frameworks to do this, with my first choice being Django. Beyond that, your best bet might be hiring someone who knows what they're doing to whip up your backend for you (your example site is exactly the sort of thing that comes pretty easily in Django, and would be easy to modify once the backend was running).

Paul McMillan 2009-09-12 10:23:31

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How to Collect Data via Web Form, Then Provide Aggregate Display and Search Functionality?

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