Member Avatar for landroverthing

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for my ignorance, but I am a little knew at this!

I am creating a website for my diving club, as part of the club we have a dive boat that can fit 8 people on it.

I firstly want to be able to create an area on our site which says the date and where we will be diving at the weekend (usualy 1 dive on saturday and 1 on sunday so two tables will be needed).

Then I want to create an area that people can type their name into to take a space on the boat, this will then update the list until the boat is full (8 people).

I guess it would be good it they could delete themselves aswell should their wifes tell them they are not allowed to go!!

Can anyone tell me the best & easiest way of doing this!

Thank you in advance, Alex

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by drjohn

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A short expert note tying the thread together: described the real need (two weekend slots, fixed-capacity signups, and cancellations). flagged forum placement, correctly noted that a programming solution is the usual route, and pointed out quick calendar workarounds but also the deletion problem. Below are practical, implementation-focused recommendations that build on those comments and are safe to apply years later.

Technical pattern to follow: use persistent storage and enforce capacity with an atomic operation so two people cannot grab the last seat at once. A reliable approach is to keep a dives row with a seats_left field and perform a DB transaction that does SELECT seats_left FROM dives WHERE id=? FOR UPDATE; then decrement and insert the reservation only if seats remain. Give each registrant a unique, single-use cancellation token sent by email instead of public edit rights. Add a simple waiting-list table and promote the first waiting entrant automatically when a slot frees. Protect endpoints with basic auth/CSRF checks, rate limits, and simple spam controls.

UX and admin tips: display remaining seats and a clear confirmation email with the cancel/edit link. Require a verified email to establish ownership for cancellations. Keep logs for audit and provide a tiny admin view to change dates or manage the waiting list. For a no-code fast path, form+sheet services that issue per-entry edit links will work, but they trade control for convenience. Prioritize ownership and atomic capacity checks so entries cannot be removed by unrelated users.

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Member Avatar for ko ko

You were wrong forum. Maybe PHP or any programming forum that you should go.

Member Avatar for webmaven

i can't think of a way of doing this without some programming involved.

Member Avatar for drjohn

You could use a google calendar and save yourself a bit of effort. Only problem there is that people can jump the queue by deleting someone if the list is full.

So I too suspect that overall you want a simple MySQL database and some PHP programming to allow people to add their names to the list, a secure login for the admin to enter the dive location and date, and to count the number of names for a given date and either display the data entry form or a sorry boat full message. Members might need a secure login to keep out troublesome scammers. Not difficult to do at all, if you play with databases and php regularly.

You might want to look at the business exchange part of the forum.

As I'm new here, I don't want to break any rules by making an offer to do paid work until I'm more familiar with the way the forum runs.

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