I'm creating a little web based recipe database program and I have the majority of it done and working. I initially created a script to parse existing txt files (and thanks to antiword, word files) and insert them into the database. I then added a editform.pl cgi script to edit the values in case something went wrong. Now I want to add the ability to enter in a new recipe via a web form. Now I could have two text boxes and then parse the ingredients but that can be prone to errors when things don't follow the standard qty, amt, description (like 1 cup sugar). Therefore I want to do fields for the qty (1) amt (cup) and description (sugar). However there is no telling how many ingredients there are.

I thought the best way to handle this would be to have a few fields up and if they are blank, just not use them. However, if the user has a long list of ingredients, I would like the ability to add a set of three text fields. What would be the best way to go about this?

My edit recipe forms look like this:

print "Qty:", $query->textfield(-name=>"qty$ingredientAoH[$i]{ingID}",
                                        -default=>"$ingredientAoH[$i]{
+qty}", -size=>'10',
                                        -maxlength=>'20', "\n");
        print "Amt:", $query->textfield(-name=> "ammount$ingredientAoH
+[$i]{ingID}",
                                        -default=> "$ingredientAoH[$i]
+{amt}", -size=>10, -maxlength=>100, "\n");
        print "Des:", $query->textfield(-name=> "description$ingredien
+tAoH[$i]{ingID}",
                                        -default=> "$ingredientAoH[$i]
+{des}", -size=>50, -maxlength=>100), "\n";
        print $query->hidden(-name=>"ingID$ingredientAoH[$i]{ingID}", 
+-default=>"$ingredientAoH[$i]{ingID}"), "<br>\n";
[download]

Should I just have a parameter indicating the number of fields and then just increment that on a add ingredient button and reload the form? If so how do I keep already existing values from disapearing? Should I pass my ingredientsAoH as a parameter?