Question

I will have 4 data entry forms for 4 different roles of users.

All the data will be stored in the same table in a SQL Server 2008 database.

Once the data is entered it will need to be viewed and “approved” by a specific set of users. The specified users that will need to approve data may change with time.

I do not yet know how to manage this approval process, especially since the users might change. I was thinking of giving those specified users viewing privileges of the data which needs to be approved in a gridview. To approve it they can click a checkbox in the gridview next to the data and update.

If I need 3 specific users to approve this data, how do I keep track that every one of these users has approved it?

The second question is since I’m an asp.net beginner, simple question: how do I create a an entry form that will append data into a database?

Answer 1

I would make it by creating linking table between tables Data and User, you can call it Approvals or whatever makes sense to you. I would put there data_id, user_id and boolean approved (default false). Then you can get all data_id that have been approved by at least 3 ysers by SELECT data_id from Approvals where approved=1 group by data_id having count(*) > 2. You can of course go more fancy and add approved_by and requesting that it had to be approved during last two months for example etc.