[Bug 11347] Submitting a partially downloaded form

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=11347

--- Comment #10 from Ed Avis <eda@waniasset.com> 2011-01-06 14:34:30 UTC ---
>AFAIK, the specs don't mention the case where there is no submit control in the
>form. However, all major browsers have the same behavior: the form is submitted
>if you press enter in a text field even if there is no submit control.

That is true, but it's not the issue here.  The question is the behaviour when
you press Enter in a text field but there is no submit control *because the
form
has not yet been fully downloaded*.  To recap the example from the Firefox bug:

<form method="get" action="/cgi-bin/test_page" enctype="multipart/form-data">
  <input type="text" name="y" value="y" />
  <!-- download got here -->
  <input type="text" name="z" value="z" />
  <input type="submit" name=".submit" />
</form>

Suppose the browser has downloaded as far as 'download got here' and displayed
the partial form retrieved so far.  The user clicks in the first text field and
presses Enter.  Should the form now be submitted immediately?

According to earlier replies in this comment, according to the standards the
answer is yes.  A partially downloaded form is not treated any differently from
a fully downloaded one, because of a general principle in the HTML standard
that
says 'the spec applies as-is to the DOM as it currently exists'.

Browser behaviour differs: Firefox will submit the partial form when you press
Enter, but Safari will not - it waits for the form to download fully.

In my personal view, submitting the partial form is not a helpful behaviour for
the user, and if this behaviour is the standard, it means web sites have to
resort to clunky workarounds like a 'form complete' hidden field in every form.

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Received on Thursday, 6 January 2011 14:34:33 UTC