CSV and WordPress
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Beginner asking a question before he makes a recommendation to his boss!!! I have been tasked with fixing a database issue for my company and I need to ensure I am on the right track so I am asking here for confirmation. Our current process is we use two forms for input into our database. A registration form on Wordpress and a Facebook leads form We take the information from there and we input it into Zoho and a Mysql database behind a Wordpress web portal. The file format we use is CSV. My understanding of CSV is that the data fields have to match the database table. If there is a column mismatch between the file and the database, data will go into the wrong field unless it is processed in some form to move the column in the CSV file. That is my understanding. Am I correct in this? So, if my above assumption is correct, then it would be logical that the forms used would need to be standardised in order to ensure the data format is standardised. Please let me now if I am on the right track with this. Thanks
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Beginner asking a question before he makes a recommendation to his boss!!! I have been tasked with fixing a database issue for my company and I need to ensure I am on the right track so I am asking here for confirmation. Our current process is we use two forms for input into our database. A registration form on Wordpress and a Facebook leads form We take the information from there and we input it into Zoho and a Mysql database behind a Wordpress web portal. The file format we use is CSV. My understanding of CSV is that the data fields have to match the database table. If there is a column mismatch between the file and the database, data will go into the wrong field unless it is processed in some form to move the column in the CSV file. That is my understanding. Am I correct in this? So, if my above assumption is correct, then it would be logical that the forms used would need to be standardised in order to ensure the data format is standardised. Please let me now if I am on the right track with this. Thanks
Yes you are on the correct track with this info. If you are importing directly from the CSV then the file format MUST match the database fields. You could write a parser which does the importing for you, this would give you an opportunity to trap crappy data before it hits your DB. CSV has some gotchas, if it is not well formed, dealing with commas in the data, then you are in big trouble. "Form" implies a standardised format otherwise it is just free form text.
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