Could you please clarify the meaning of "Please note that tables created with Formidable Forms integration are NOT server-side tables (this means that these tables can’t contain a large amount of data (no exact limit, but 2.000 – 3.000 rows is a good example), and that they cannot be editable)."
I will give an example of the way I plan on using the three plugins and you please explain in what way, if any, my application will be restricted and what could I do to overcome those restriction.
Here is the example:
The purpose of the application is a kind of shoppers' club.
1. The users (members) will scan barcodes by phone or key-in products' UPC codes in various stores or products for that they believe have a good price. The data will be entered through a Formidable form into a table "products". There will be also a table "members". Every day there will be, say, 1000 new members and 1000 new products. So, after a half a year there will be about 200,000 rows in each table (this is just an example);
2. Before all this starts I will make a table "products with barcodes" (within my WordPress website) using your
Formidable Forms integration plugin and upload into it, say, 1,000,000 records. The table would have three fields: "barcode", "product name" and, "country of origin".
3. I will make a query using your integration plugin which (query) will connect in real time my uploaded table with barcodes and table made by Formidable and show the combined result to a member (barcode, product name, store name with location and country of origin).
Now, my question is: in what way my application will be restricted, for example:
a) I won't be able to upload more than 2000 or so records into "products with barcodes" table created by integration plugin, and/or
b) The query made by integration plugin won't be able to read/access the "products" table made by Formidable, and/or
c) something else...
Also, what does it means that tables "cannot be editable"? Is it:
d) Once I upload my table with barcodes onto my website I wont be able to add/delete/edit records, or
e) I won't be able to add new fields, like "brand"?
Please, beside the answer, try to give a suggestion, if possible.
It would be really bad if I have to download and delete some records every day or every few hours to make sure that any table doesn't have more than 2,000 records at any given time, or, even worse, to make websites only for customers who will for sure never have more than 2,000 records in any given table at any given time. Would it help (and be possible) to keep database on an external server, like Google SQL database server?
Thank you for investing your time in reading this - it is very important for me to know the exact limitations of the plugin.
Of course, we will do our best to clarify any questions you might have.
I think the main point to clarify for this use-case, since you mentioned that you need to make Queries and to have editable tables, as well as having very large data-sets, over hundreds of thousands of rows;
you will not be able to use Formidable Forms in this scenario, but i will do my best to elaborate in more details on several points.
1. Storing the data in the database from Formidable Forms :
These datatables which are connected to source data, such as Formidable Forms ( or CSV, Excel, Google Spreadsheets, PHP Array, JSON, etc) are all non-server-side tables;
which means they are not saved in the database like manual tables,
but instead, their data is stored in the database table wp_wpdatatables_rows.
So, if you wish to pull this data in an SQL Query, it is complex because this database table stores data in JSON format, not like manual tables ( each table having its own individual columns * rows).
It would require a custom SQL Query, which can not be provided by our support.
2. Server-Side processing :
These tables from Formidable Forms can not have server-side processing,
which means that it can not be editable ( we will add details about editing later)
and also, when your data set is larger than a couple of thousand rows,
it can’t effectively be loaded in the page from a Google Spreadsheet, a CSV or Excel file, or other sources like this.
Each of these methods first reads the data from the source, and then prints out the complete table data on your page;
so, as the row count grows, it makes both the page generation time on server side and the page load and initialization time on client side, slower and slower.
If your server host has a certain memory or timeout limit defined for PHP scripts, it can ‘break’ the page, because the script would try to allocate more memory than it’s allowed.
-
Server side processing is available only for MySQL-based tables;
consequently all filtering, sorting, pagination, and other data processing routines will be delegated to the MySQL engine, and only a smaller number of rows will be fetched from the server by a background AJAX request at a time.
You can check out this example , a large table we made, from data set of 2.560.000 rows and see how it loads on the page with server-side processing.
You can see more details about server-side processing explained here.
3. Editing tables connected to Forms :
what does it means that tables "cannot be editable"? Is it:
d) Once I upload my table with barcodes onto my website I wont be able to add/delete/edit records, or
e) I won't be able to add new fields, like "brand"?
- You won't be able to add/delete/edit rows in the table connected to a source Formidable Form.
- You will be able to add fields, but each time you add a new field to the source Form, you have to go back in the back-end settings and to add this field as selected to be output in the table.
-
The only editable Form integration we have currently ( add rows/edit/delete)
Hi,
Could you please clarify the meaning of "Please note that tables created with Formidable Forms integration are NOT server-side tables (this means that these tables can’t contain a large amount of data (no exact limit, but 2.000 – 3.000 rows is a good example), and that they cannot be editable)."
I will give an example of the way I plan on using the three plugins and you please explain in what way, if any, my application will be restricted and what could I do to overcome those restriction.
Here is the example:
The purpose of the application is a kind of shoppers' club.
1. The users (members) will scan barcodes by phone or key-in products' UPC codes in various stores or products for that they believe have a good price. The data will be entered through a Formidable form into a table "products". There will be also a table "members". Every day there will be, say, 1000 new members and 1000 new products. So, after a half a year there will be about 200,000 rows in each table (this is just an example);
2. Before all this starts I will make a table "products with barcodes" (within my WordPress website) using your
Formidable Forms integration plugin and upload into it, say, 1,000,000 records. The table would have three fields: "barcode", "product name" and, "country of origin".
3. I will make a query using your integration plugin which (query) will connect in real time my uploaded table with barcodes and table made by Formidable and show the combined result to a member (barcode, product name, store name with location and country of origin).
Now, my question is: in what way my application will be restricted, for example:
a) I won't be able to upload more than 2000 or so records into "products with barcodes" table created by integration plugin, and/or
b) The query made by integration plugin won't be able to read/access the "products" table made by Formidable, and/or
c) something else...
Also, what does it means that tables "cannot be editable"? Is it:
d) Once I upload my table with barcodes onto my website I wont be able to add/delete/edit records, or
e) I won't be able to add new fields, like "brand"?
Please, beside the answer, try to give a suggestion, if possible.
It would be really bad if I have to download and delete some records every day or every few hours to make sure that any table doesn't have more than 2,000 records at any given time, or, even worse, to make websites only for customers who will for sure never have more than 2,000 records in any given table at any given time. Would it help (and be possible) to keep database on an external server, like Google SQL database server?
Thank you for investing your time in reading this - it is very important for me to know the exact limitations of the plugin.
Dragan
Hi, Dragan
Sorry for the delayed response time.
-
Of course, we will do our best to clarify any questions you might have.
I think the main point to clarify for this use-case, since you mentioned that you need to make Queries and to have editable tables, as well as having very large data-sets, over hundreds of thousands of rows;
you will not be able to use Formidable Forms in this scenario, but i will do my best to elaborate in more details on several points.
1. Storing the data in the database from Formidable Forms :
These datatables which are connected to source data, such as Formidable Forms ( or CSV, Excel, Google Spreadsheets, PHP Array, JSON, etc) are all non-server-side tables;
which means they are not saved in the database like manual tables,
but instead, their data is stored in the database table wp_wpdatatables_rows.
So, if you wish to pull this data in an SQL Query, it is complex because this database table stores data in JSON format, not like manual tables ( each table having its own individual columns * rows).
It would require a custom SQL Query, which can not be provided by our support.
2. Server-Side processing :
These tables from Formidable Forms can not have server-side processing,
which means that it can not be editable ( we will add details about editing later)
and also, when your data set is larger than a couple of thousand rows,
it can’t effectively be loaded in the page from a Google Spreadsheet, a CSV or Excel file, or other sources like this.
Each of these methods first reads the data from the source, and then prints out the complete table data on your page;
so, as the row count grows, it makes both the page generation time on server side and the page load and initialization time on client side, slower and slower.
If your server host has a certain memory or timeout limit defined for PHP scripts, it can ‘break’ the page, because the script would try to allocate more memory than it’s allowed.
-
Server side processing is available only for MySQL-based tables;
consequently all filtering, sorting, pagination, and other data processing routines will be delegated to the MySQL engine, and only a smaller number of rows will be fetched from the server by a background AJAX request at a time.
You can check out this example , a large table we made, from data set of 2.560.000 rows and see how it loads on the page with server-side processing.
You can see more details about server-side processing explained here.
3. Editing tables connected to Forms :
what does it means that tables "cannot be editable"? Is it:
d) Once I upload my table with barcodes onto my website I wont be able to add/delete/edit records, or
e) I won't be able to add new fields, like "brand"?
- You won't be able to add/delete/edit rows in the table connected to a source Formidable Form.
- You will be able to add fields, but each time you add a new field to the source Form, you have to go back in the back-end settings and to add this field as selected to be output in the table.
-
The only editable Form integration we have currently ( add rows/edit/delete)
is with Gravity Forms integration add-on.
It can use server-side processing and thus it can be made editable.
Before purchase you can test the Gravity Add-on features on our sandbox site.
-
Let me know if this helped to clarify at least some main points, and let me know if you have any additional questions. Thank you
Kind Regards,
Miloš Jovanović
[email protected]
Rate my support
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
Amelia: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amelia demo sites | Docs | Discord Community
You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
Powerful Filters | Gravity Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Formidable Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Master-Detail Tables
Thank you, Milos,
I am switching to Gravity Forms add-on.
Hi, Dragan
You're welcome, i am happy to help.
Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.
Thank you
Kind Regards,
Miloš Jovanović
[email protected]
Rate my support
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
Amelia: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amelia demo sites | Docs | Discord Community
You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
Powerful Filters | Gravity Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Formidable Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Master-Detail Tables