By jdugger on

New and need help. Which is better to use CCK, webform, or something else, for the following form content type that I need to create. I need to create a quality control checklist form that gets filled out and updated throughout the life of a project. The form will have 4 elements to it.

  1. A checklist subject line item (this is an unchanging field in the form)
  2. A status of the checklist subject line item (conditional, approved yes, or no) possibly a radio button .
  3. A text field entry box below each individual checklist subject line item to provide an optional comment.
  4. The forth element would be a global selector for the entire form to indicate at what phase the checklist is being utilized (i.e. conceptual, preliminary, or final).

I'll try and give an example:

A lead mechanic of a shop needs to inspect the work done or to be done on a car. He needs to fill out a checklist for other mechanics working on a car to inform them as to the status of the car and note repairs or the inspected status of repairs done. the form would function like the following:

  • checklist item - Check the oil.
  • Status - OK or Not Okay - mechanic clicks the appropriate radio button.
  • Comment field, mechanic adds the comment - oil needs to be changed.

He would use a global selector to select a phase of the checklist such as an inspection status i.e. pre-repair or post repair

This sounds simple however I need to create this checklist for an engineering/land planning firm where the checklist has more than 100 possible checklist items each with its own comment text field and status condition. Also they will need to be able to compare the checklist done at say the preliminary phase of the job against the final checklist.

Any recommendations on the use of appropriate modules for this would be greatly appreciated. I have gone through several tutorials for CCk and on for webform but I am still so new that I have trouble defining the best way to go about things. Thanks in advance.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

I've built something similar to this using CCK and Views. The form was built using CCK and was similar to what you've mentioned with checkboxes and comments, but also allows adding photos.

The form has a number of 'states' selectable using a CCK drop down (same as your phases). I created a number of Views, each using the 'state' field as the criteria, so in effect the user can run a report which shows which formss are at that state.

I also used Actions and Workflow so that certain people get notified by email when each form was set to a certain state (each state is part of a procurement approval process).

This was done a while ago, and in Drupal 5, but you should be able to do this in Drupal 6 without issue.

The best advice I can give is that I spent way nore time mapping this out on paper and thinking through the workflow, than I did actually building it!

*Edit*

I just remembered. Because each person in the process had a different role in Drupal, I was able to control access to each section as it progressed throught he workflow. That way, anyone who only needed to fill out basic information didn't get presented with a gigantic form, most of which wasn't relevant to them.

Barry

jdugger’s picture

jdugger commented

Barry,

Thanks for the infromation I will take a closer look at CCK and Views for the task.

I know how to set up new fields in CCK as part of a new content type, but how do I associate the checklist text (this is a field of unchangeable pre-existing text) with the comment field (a form entry field) and the approval status (a selector field) so that the database can relationally connect the three. I also plan on grouping certain checklist text entries together by subject say all of the checklist items that deal with drainage vs another group that deals with grading, or landscaping etc. My hope in doing this is that I can break the checklist into separate pages of logically similar topics. Knowing that there will be over 100 checklist entries I don't want users to have to scroll forever to get to the bottom of a page to submit and preview. It will also allow them to complete the large task in meaningful sections.

It is also important that main components of each entry (checklist text, comment entry, and status selector) be linked to the database because I want to be able sort and filter items that have a different status in an action items status query page located elsewhere on the site. What I am trying to do is probably simple I just am not seeing it right now.

Thanks again.

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