Is there a way with webforms when submitting a new entry to have it only save the stuff that was actually touched by the user?

Question

I have a webform that has a lot of custom fields. These fields should probably have been set up as boolean but they weren't. They each have one checkbox, which results in a "Y" being saved in the table.

This works great for new entries, but if an anonymous user who has already submitted the form then goes and submits it again, maybe they decided they now also want to volunteer for X, all the things they selected the first time gets wiped out or really overwritten with a null unless they select all the same things again. (The form is set to match existing contacts based upon first, last and email)

Fields that aren't check boxes work this way. If you leave the address or phone number blank it doesn't overwrite what's already there.

So I'd like it to not save any check box the user didn't touch.

Answer 1

If there is information that you don’t want people to override/edit - you probably want move to towards issuing Drupal User Accounts - so you can start creating forms that are serving purposes like Update My Profile, Update My Volunteer Shifts, Update My Conference Registration. When a user is logged in - Webform CiviCRM module can display current information stored for that contact and it’s immediately clear they are overriding/editing or adding.