Validating submission to avoid schedule conflicts

Problem:

I created a webpage for users to register for a conference. In the form the users can select different seminars in the conference as the following:

Several seminars will be held at the same time. The server should reject the input if the selection leads to a schedule conflict.

Solution:

I have experimented with several ways for this type of erroring checking. Before I tell you what can work, let me tell you what cannot work. Using IsEmpty function may not work properly. For example, you can set up a validation rule for the field Seminar 1 as "IsEmpty(Seminar 2) and IsEmpty(Seminar 3)" It works fine as long as the user does not go back to edit his record. If the user wants to cancel Seminar 2 and choose Seminar 1, he will not be allowed to do so because even if Seminar 2 is deselected, the field value is "blank" rather than "empty." ("Blank" is datum of nothing but "empty" is no datum at all) Also, in a web form even if the field is empty, it will be submitted as "blank."

The following is a better way:

• Create fields "Seminar 1-Seminar 9" as numeric fields.
• In Auto Enter make "0" as the default value.
• Create three text fields. Name them as "Check morning," "Check afternoon" and "Check evening."
• In "Check morning, enter this validation rule: "Seminar 1 + Seminar 2 + Seminar 3 < 2". It means that the user can choose either none or one of those seminars. Apply the same rule into "Check afternoon" and "Check evening."
• In both new.htm and record_detail.htm, add the following tags. It will force the submission to activiate the validation.

<input type=hidden name="Check morning" value=1> <input type=hidden name="Check afternoon" value=1> <input type=hidden name="Check evening" value=1>

The same approach can be applied to more complicated scheduling.

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