[whatwg] RE: modal and modeless windows

This use case is exactly why browsers allow XForms controls inside
xf:message.
One minor quibble is that the message is not a different XForms
document, but is part of the same host document (XHTML probably), and
operates on the same model.
You can use xf:duplicate from Xforms 1.1 to implement the undo/cancel
button, to save away a copy of the data before and restore it on cancel.
Or you can save away a copy of the data on open of the xf:message,
operate on it, and copy it back on save.
Your choice! 

Leigh.

-----Original Message-----
From: www-forms-request@w3.org [mailto:www-forms-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Karl Pongratz
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 7:24 AM
To: Mark Birbeck
Cc: www-forms at w3.org; whatwg-whatwg.org at lists.whatwg.org; dean at w3.org
Subject: Re: modal and modeless windows


Mark,

I appreciate that Xforms supports modal and modeless messages, yet I
miss it in the web browser.

I could envision that as follows, lets take the address book of
Microsoft Outlook, the desktop application, as an example.

You have a page (resource) my_addresses.html, a simple document that
shows you all your addresses without any form fields. If you want to
edit an address you click on it, which will open a modal window, this
modal window should then contain the xforms document to edit the
address, with a "Save and Close" and "Cancel" button. Cancel will close
the modal window, no other action is taken. Save and Close will save the
form data, closes the modal window and it will update the changes in the
underlying my_addresses.html document, i.e. by reloading it.

You can do the same without modal windows, the traditional approach, see
i.e.
Views and Forms: Principles of Task Flow for Web Applications Part 1
(Bob Baxley)
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/views_and_forms_principles_of_tas
k_flow_for_web_applications_part_1.php

Though I believe the modal window approach would be much cleaner and
saver, maybe Bob Baxley would have chosen that way, if modal windows
existed.

Karl

Received on Tuesday, 28 June 2005 11:14:18 UTC