[barrystaes]

I think this is the long way around to simply making a DB procedure? Those have parameters, can easily be run by external tools like phpMyAdmin or an IDE, and if the database constraints are sane will help avoid invalid input.

[mattatkeyboard]

That is true, and I considered this approach. But DB procedures cannot link to each other and the target users are different - giving some people a DB procedure is much harder than giving them a web interface.