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Howdy Bob et All,

I'm trying to wrap my mind around the Multiplier function of ChronoForms V5, but I'm hitting a lot of things that don't make too much sense to me.

First, here's what I'm trying to do: I need to make a form where music festivals submit the listings for all of their concerts and events, which may take place over multiple days, possibly at multiple venues. So, I want a form where they first enter all their information that is applicable to all the events (Festival name, contact info, etc) then they enter their venue information (first multiplier set) being Venue Name, Address and Postal code for each venue. Then they get to enter the concert information (second multiplier set) being datepicker, time, title, performer, repertoire, ticket price, etc. On submit, I want the information either sent by email or saved to a Google Sheet. I'm starting out trying to just make the venue portion of this to work properly, and then I'll replicate the steps for the concert portion.

My problems are as follows:

Data Arrays - I know these have to be used somehow, but I can't figure out how this is supposed to work... I set a Data Path in the Venues multiplier outer container as "venues". Then my field names and ID's are venues_##n##_name, venues_##n##_address and venues_##n##_postal. Are these right or should they be venues_[##n##]_[name]? The documentation speaks about the square brackets being needed for the Data Array, but I don't get where these are applied.

DB Save - It is said that I need to make 2 databases for each multiplier. How? Is it just a 2nd copy of the same database? Am I making a new DB with custom fields? Totally lost on this point.

Email - How do I get the email function to email all the info to the recipient? I have done some poking around on the forum about this, but there is a lot of talk about Data Arrays and PHP code... I am pretty lost, especially since I don't understand the Arrays to begin with. Should I be using a Handle Array portion before the email function?

EEK! Help please? Is there someone I can pay to work through this form with me? I have a great need for these multipliers, and if someone does one properly for me to look at I feel like I could get the rest. I don't mean to complain about the info layed out in the FAQ, but I just can't seem to wrap my mind around how this is supposed to work.

Peace and Thanks,
Bryson (@ The WholeNote)

Hi Bryson,

First off I'm not sure that the Multiplier is the best way to do this. You might be better using several smaller linked forms. You need to think through the design and functionality before going to far building multipliers.

The application of arrays here is because a multiplier generates repeated data and you have to be able to separate the results from each row - so they get numbers as e.g. row 1 has name[1], email[1] and row 2 has name[2] email[2] etc,

There's more on using multipliers in this FAQ.

The issue of tables is because typically a form including a multiplier has one set of data that is included once only and a sub-set that is repeated x times. The normal way to handle this kind of data structure is to use two tables, One for the 'core' data where a single record is created and the second for the multiplier data where many records can be created inked to the single record.

Yes you are going to need some Custom code here - either Max or I can help with some paid support or development (and maybe other users as well).

Bob

Hey Bob,

In my initial creation of the form, I tried to follow the FAQ, but when I got to the section called "Setting element names and ids" I got lost in the instruction of how to apply the Data Arrays.

I feel that because of the nature of Festivals (and other things we list) we need to have the flexibility to have people add many rows of Venues and Events that are all attached to a single form that comes through as a single email to the people in our company who need said data. Maybe multipliers aren't the way to go, but I don't get how else we could do an indefinite number of field sets that need to be filled out.

I will try to figure out the linked forms, but if not I may need come back to y'all for some help with custom forms. Would you be able to send me a PM with rates and estimate of hours you feel a form such as this would require? I would need to take it to my board to get approval of funds.

Peace and Thanks,
Bryson