Question

Looking for sugggestions on how to setup a sign-up sheet using TWiki...

I'd like to have a table that displays the days of the week across the top header row. On the second row, I'd like to see a check-box in each column. In the third row, I'd see a list of names under each column, indicating people that signed up on those days.

The user could then select or deselect check-boxes to indicate that they want to add or remove their name from respective days. They could then click on a submit button to make the change permanent.

There would be other functions, like the ability to clear all names. A great enhancement would be to have the ability for users to enroll and as such, there would be three rows, one showing users signed-up, another showing users that are not participating, and a third showing undecided users. The check boxes would move names from one row to another (e.g. undecided to either signed-up or not-participating).

This is for a recreational lunch time Volleyball sign-up sheet at work.

Any ideas as to how I can do this using Twiki? For now, I just have a table and people have to edit the TWiki page and add their name. I'd like to just have a form that they could submit. I've only used plain TWiki pages, so I could use some advice on how I could do this. Any suggestions?

• TWiki version: 01 Dec 2001
• Web server: Apache?
• Server OS: Solaris
• Web browser: Netscape
• Client OS: Windows 2000 and Solaris

-- PaulMichali - 18 Jul 2002

Answer

I do not know how to implement fancy processing witch checkboxes as you asked for, but here is I might do it:

1. KISS: forget about fancy checkboxes. Create ---++ headers for each day, TOC on top, and let anyone enter his/her name, maybe in bullet list. If many applicants, consider copying alphabet with links as in Main.TWikiUsers
2. It's not a bug, it's a feature Microsoft's war cry: Placing each participant's name in separate bullet allows to add specific comments to each day's entry (ie: Monday I need to leave before 4:30, Wednesday I prefer talk to blondes etc).
3. To make it even simpler, consider Plugins.CommentPlugin. You may place multiple instances in same page (for each day), but with COMMENT entries will be sorted by time of entry, not by alphabet. Warning: there is known bug in CommentPlugin (it ignores page lock for edit), COMMENT added while page was opened to manual edit will be lost when changes are saved.

-- PeterMasiar - 19 Jul 2002

Follow-up Questions

Right now I have a page with a table in it that has a row for each day of the week. Users add their name to the second column of the table. However, I see two shortcomings with this method. It takes longer and is more error prone to manipulate the table than to just click on some boxes and hit submit".

Second, we're seeing people complain about not being able to edit the page, because it is locked (either too many people at once or someone forgets to save their changes).

I'm looking for a quick and easy way for people to sign-up, but I'm not sure if any of the mechanisms (forms, plugins) will do what I want (mostly out of ignorance).

I'm just looking for a way for people to affix thier name next to a day of the week in a weekly calendar to sign-up for the activity. I'd like to be able to let them quick add/remove their name from one or more days.

Any ideas?

-- PaulMichali - 24 Jul 2002

Have you seen the ItemToDo application in the Sandbox web? It should address your needs wih some modifications.

-- PeterThoeny - 24 Jul 2002

I build example implementation using Plugins.CommentPlugin. on our server. Please be gentle!

-- PeterMasiar - 25 Jul 2002

Thanks guys. I downloaded the Comment plugin and will try playing with it. On a related note, if I add a form to the web page and use a checkbox or radio button pair, how can I access and do something with the posted results? Do I use the plugin mechanism or some other technique (like a specific CGI script)? I'm not very familiar with how to extend TWiki, so any pointers would be great.

-- PaulMichali - 26 Jul 2002

Use URLPARAM, see how to PassFormVariableToTopicTemplate. (I know it I asked this FAQ, too )

-- PeterMasiar - 29 Jul 2002