I am creating an inventory system for myself that contains a list of items (with description, count, last date used, etc.) that also contains a status for the item. At the most basic level, I am listing all items from a MySQL query (SELECT * FROM Items), along with their status in a SELECT HTML FORM element (int datatype, 0/1/2 status indicator).
I want to be able to update any item in this list without having to parse through every item that was listed and do a comparison against the SQL server's contents. I would imagine this is not the best practice and the better way to accomplish this would be to compile a list of items that are changing and submit them via HTTP POST. Is this correct? What would be the best way to accomplish this?