All; 
I?d like some analysis of my idea for a major change I need to make to our 
existing web-based database program. I?m not versed enough in ASP, et.al. 
to know for certain how best to solve the problem. I need to know if my 
ideas are practical; plus specific code snippits would be a help. 

I need to add several fields that together constitute a single record that 
will end up on one table in our database ? with appropriate keys for data 
relationships. 

The biggest question is how best to build the client end; related of 
course is the server/ASP stuff that gets things into the database. 

Basic Design 
The presumption is that we are creating a new record from scratch. We are 
not doing an initial fetch from the database nor editing a pre-existing 
record. 

The user needs to be able to enter any number of these new ?sub-records? 
within the web page. In other words this new record has a many-to-one 
relationship to the other data entered on this same web page. 

I?m thinking of a button that opens a child window ? here is where new 
records are entered. This will keep all this code ?off? of the main web 
page during that initial page load. Additionally these fields are not 
required entry so that?s another good reason to not load all that code 
unnecessarily. Anyway, add and edit as needed then clicking a ?finished? 
button will transfer all the data to the main page and close the child 
page. 

On the child page I?m thinking of an ?add? button, that when pressed 
creates a new row of blank fields for the user to fill in. To delete an 
existing record, check a ?delete? checkbox and click a ?delete checked 
records? button and makes that row of fields disappear from the screen. 
The shopping cart at amazon.com comes to mind. How does the shopping cart 
remember what's in it? 

The HTML Elements 
Here?s the hard part. The record is a mix of text and Boolean fields (well 
pseudo-boolean in the database ? ie single charaters ?y? or ?n?). What?s 
the best way to tackle this so all the various fields ?stay together? for 
a single record (ie during ONSUBMIT for example). 

My initial thought is a series of <select multiple ?> that I keep in synch 
(ie keeping the indexing coordinated). But using a <select> for a field 
that rightly should be a checkbox seems clumsy to me. 

Passing these multiple <select multiple> objects to the server is easy. I 
know how to do that. 

OR 

Build a javascript data structure (OK, ?object?) that holds the fields. 
Can an array of these objects be kept in synch with a particular table row 
in HTML? In other words if I change the 3rd field of the 2nd record, how 
do I know which JS object is affected? Or is that moot because, well, 
let?s just redraw the page on every field edit; which will re-build the JS 
objects each time. Does this make sense? 

How would I pass the set of JS objects to the server? Store them as a 
cookie? I?ve never used cookies; don?t know what?s possible here. 

OR 

Any other ideas? 

The Server Side 
I will use an object separate from the "main" command object that puts the 
rest of the data into the database. 

I?ve had zero success in the past using recordsets to get a multi-value 
field of the Request.Form into the database. It just doesn?t work. I ended 
up using a command with parameters. I suspect recordsets are less than 
they appear.  

TIA?