Retrieving a record for editing

First, we need to retrieve the record to be edited. There is an id field in the employees table that has a unique number for each row, and this field is used to identify the row (being the primary key).

We also included a hidden field in the views\emplistall.dt file: the id field, which has the value of the id field in the employees table, and which we can use as a key to retrieve the record so we can populate the form with the employee data:

input(type="hidden", name="id", value="#{e.id}")

We can use that hidden field then.

Edit source\empcontrol.d and append this method:

  void getEditEmployee(int id)
  {
    Employee e = empModel.getEmployee(id);
    render!("empedit.dt", e, departments, paygrades, provinces);
  }

This method calls the empModel.getEmployee() method with the id as the argument, then receives the returned Employee with the needed data, which is used to populate the form empedit.dt, which we should create next.

Edit source\empmodel.d and append this method:

  Employee getEmployee(int id)
  {
    string sql = "select * from employees where id=?";
    Prepared pstmt = conn.prepare(sql);
    pstmt.setArgs(id);
    Employee e;
    Row[] rows = conn.query(pstmt).array;
    if(rows.length == 0) return e;
    return prepareEmployee(rows[0]);
  }

Then create views\empedit.dt.

extends layout
block maincontent
  include cssformgrid.dt
  div.form-grid-wrapper
    h2.center-align Edit employee details
    form.form-grid(method="post",action="edit_employee",enctype="multipart/form-data")
      label.form-grid-label Department
      select#deprt.form-grid-input(name="e_deprt", value="#{e.deprt}")
        -foreach(dep; departments)
          -if(dep == e.deprt)
            option(value="#{dep}", selected) #{dep}
          -else
            option(value="#{dep}") #{dep}
      label.form-grid-label Salary grade
      select#paygd.form-grid-input(name="e_paygd", value="#{e.paygd}")
        -foreach(pay; paygrades)
          -if(pay == e.paygd)
            option(value="#{pay}", selected) #{pay}
          -else
            option(value="#{pay}") #{pay}
      label.form-grid-label Email address
      input.form-grid-input(type="email", name="e_email", value="#{e.email}")
      label.form-grid-label Password
      input.form-grid-input(type="password", name="e_pword", value="#{e.pword}")
      label.form-grid-label First name
      input.form-grid-input(type="text", name="e_fname", value="#{e.fname}")
      label.form-grid-label Last name
      input.form-grid-input(type="text", name="e_lname", value="#{e.lname}")
      label.form-grid-label Phone
      input.form-grid-input(type="text", name="e_phone", value="#{e.phone}")
      label.form-grid-label Street address (no city)
      input.form-grid-input(type="text", name="e_street", value="#{e.street}")
      label.form-grid-label City
      input.form-grid-input(type="text", name="e_city", value="#{e.city}")
      label.form-grid-label Province
      select#province.form-grid-input(name="e_province", value="#{e.province}")
        -foreach(prov; provinces)
          -if(prov[0] == e.province)
            option(value="#{prov[0]}", selected) #{prov[1]}
          -else
            option(value="#{prov[0]}") #{prov[1]}
      label.form-grid-label Postal code
      input.form-grid-input(type="text", name="e_postcode", value="#{e.postcode}")
      label.form-grid-label ID Picture
      input.form-grid-input(type="file", name="picture")
      input(type="hidden", name="e_photo", value="#{e.photo}")
      input(type="hidden", name="e_id", value="#{e.id}")
      div
      div
        a(href="all_employees")
          button.form-grid-button(type="button") Cancel
        input.form-grid-button(type="submit", value="Submit")

The form is displayed using the Employee data that was passed to it.

Compile, run and refresh the browser and click on a pencil icon to edit a record.

Great, a record was opened for editing.

But after clicking Submit, we get this error:

Because we haven’t defined the method to save the changes to the database. Let’s do that next.