:-)
Let me see if I can explain what's going on with your links, especially the one that uses the "modify_form" language.
Let's say you went through the normal modify routine. You would click the link in the footer that says "Modify," which would take you to a search form. You would fill in your search criteria and click the button. The script would do a search for records that fit that criteria. If there were more than one record returned from the search, you would get a list of the records, with radio buttons to the side so that you could select which one you wanted to modify. After you click the button at the bottom of the form, the script then displays the form with the record so that you can modify it.
If the search returns only one record, the form with the radio buttons is skipped and the script automatically switches to the form with the record, pulling the $db_key value from the record and assigning it to the $in{'modify'} variable.
Your link with the "modify_form" language does the same thing that the modify search form does. You set a criterion for a search, only one record is returned, so the script skips the form with the radio button and sends you to the modify form. If your search criterion were to return two or more records, you would get the form with the radio buttons so you could choose which one you want to use. Your results would be identical if your "M" link was as follows:
<A HREF="$db_script_link_url&modify_form
_record=1&
modify=$rec{
$db_key}"><B>M</B><A>
I think it would be better to use the format above. It would use fewer of the server's resources, for one thing. The way you have it, the script has to do two searches, the first one of which is unnecessary.
The reason I use the
$rec{$db_key} format instead of the field name is that you won't have to make any changes to your script if you change which field is the $db_key field. Also, with the code I gave you, the bolding tags are only taken out of the $db_key field. If your original list of records uses some other search criteria, you might have the same bolding problem that you had before.
If it was my database, the links would look like:
<A HREF="$db_script_link_url&modify_form_record=1&modify=$rec{$db_key}"><B>M</B><A>
<A HREF="$db_script_link_url&modify_form_action=1&modify=$rec{$db_key}"><B>A</B><A>
JPD
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