How to know which checkbox has been ticked per row?

Question

Using: Coldfusion 10, JQuery 1.9, HTML5 (more HTML4)

The title is deceptively simple for this question. I have a table which displays permissions that users have on entities within an application. To create a new user I have a FORM which allows you to enter personal details and then a table on the same page which allows you to select permissions you wish to give to this user.

So here is how the webpage table looks (sort-of):

EntityName  | Write | Read | Delete   // Permissions
===================================
Note        |  □    |   □   |   □     // 1 row per entity
Appointment |  □    |   □   |   □
Sale        |  □    |   □   |   □

(Imagine the square boxes are checkboxes for the sake of illustration).

The Permissions are coming from a result called rsPermissions (with primary key PermissionID). I'm looping over my rsPermissions resultset and creating a new header column for each one.

The EntityNames are coming from a resultset called rsEntities (with primary key EntityID). I'm looping over my rsEntities resultset and creating a new row for each one.

Here's the problem: I know which checkbox has been checked and can get the PermissionID e.g. Write or Read or Delete. But I don't know for which EntityID this Permission was checked. That is, I cannot seem to get the Permissions to relate to the Entities so that this combination of PermissionID and EntityID can be passed to my database for insertion into a EntityPermission database table as such:

EntityID | PermissionID 
=======================
1        |  1
1        |  2
1        |  3
2        |  1
2        |  3
3        |  1
3        |  2  

UPDATE TO SHOW HTML: http://jsfiddle.net/2jZYB/

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">EntityName</th>
      <th scope="col">Write</th>
      <th scope="col">Read</th>
      <th scope="col">Delete</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Note</td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Appointment</td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Sale</td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
      <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Here is the ColdFusion markup:

   <cfloop query="rsEntities">
  <table>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th scope="col">EntityName</th>
        <cfloop query="rsPermissions">
          <th scope="col">#Permission#</th>
        </cfloop>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <cfloop>
        <tr>
          <td>#Entity#</td>
          <cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#rsPermissions.RecordCount#">
            <td><input name="" type="checkbox" value=""></td>
          </cfloop>
        </tr>
      </cfloop>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</cfloop>

Answer 1

Assuming the list of Permissions is very small, another option is to name each set of checkboxes by entity ID, and use the permission ID for the checkbox value:

 <cfloop query="rsEntities">
     <!--- generate a list of all entity ids --->
     <input type="hidden" name="EntityIDList" value="#rsEntities.EntityID#">

     ...
     <cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#rsPermissions.RecordCount#">
         <!--- Group each set of permissions by entity id --->
         <input name="EntityPermissions_#rsEntities.EntityID#" 
               value="#rsPermissions.permissionID[i]#"
               type="checkbox" >
    </cfloop>
    ...
</cfloop>

The end result would be a list of permissions for each entity id. So say you checked "Read" and "Write" for the entities "Note" and "Sale", the result would be a list of permissions for each entity, ie:

   FORM.EntityPermissions_1 = 1,2  <== Note (Write=1,Read=2)
   FORM.EntityPermissions_3 = 1,2  <== Sale (Write=1,Read=2)

When the form is submitted you could loop through the entity id's, and use a simple CROSS JOIN to insert the selected permissions into your table via an INSERT/SELECT, minimizing the overall number of database calls. A nice side benefit of this method is built in validation of the id values. (Obviously the queries should be wrapped in a cftransaction to ensure data integrity).

<cfloop list="#FORM.EntityIDList#" index="EntityID">

    <!--- if any permissions were assigned for this entity ....--->
    <cfif structKeyExists(FORM, "EntityPermissions_"& EntityID)
            AND listLen(FORM["EntityPermissions_"& EntityID])>

        <!--- insert them into the db ...--->
        <cfquery ...>
            SELECT e.EntityID, p.PermissionID
            FROM   EntityTable e CROSS JOIN PermissionTable p
            WHERE  e.EntityID = <cfqueryparam value="#EntityID#" .... >
            AND    p.PermissionID IN 
                   (
                       <cfqueryparam 
                            value="#FORM['EntityPermissions_'& EntityID]#" 
                            list="true" .... >
                   ) 
        </cfquery>
    </cfif>
</cfloop>

Answer 2

You could use something like

<input type="checkbox" name="permission[note][1]" />
<input type="checkbox" name="permission[note][2]" />
<input type="checkbox" name="permission[note][3]" />

For the three checkbox of Note?

Let me know if this is applicable to your case.

Answer 3

It would be easier to answer if we could see the HTML, not a mockup. That said, you should be able to give each checkbox a unique name/id that you can reference in javascript or backend code.

<input type="checkbox" id="Write_1"  name="Write_1" />  <!-- Write chk, entity 1 -->
<input type="checkbox" id="Read_1"   name="Read_1" />   <!-- Read chk, entity 1 -->
<input type="checkbox" id="Delete_1" name="Delete_1" /> <!-- Delete chk, entity 1 -->
<input type="checkbox" id="Write_2"  name="Write_2" />  <!-- Write chk, entity 2 -->
<input type="checkbox" id="Read_2"   name="Read_2" />   <!-- Read chk, entity 2 -->
<input type="checkbox" id="Delete_2" name="Delete_2" /> <!-- Delete chk, entity 2 -->

Or what might be easier:

<input type="checkbox" id="Perm_1_1"  name="Perm_1_1" /> <!-- perm 1, entity 1 -->
<input type="checkbox" id="Perm_2_1"  name="Perm_2_1" /> <!-- perm 2, entity 1 -->
etc.

In ColdFusion, you could loop through entities and permissions to see which ones the user has checked-

<cfloop list="#entityList#" index="entityID">
    <cfloop list="#permissionList#" index="permID">
        <cfif IsDefined("Form.Perm_#permID#_#entityID#")>
            <!--- User has checked this permission. --->
        <cfelse>
            <!--- User has NOT checked this permission. --->
        </cfif>
    </cfloop>
</cfloop>