Re: Flash Alternates

On Thu, 4 Nov 1999, Neff, Robert wrote:

> SRC="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
> <http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2> "
> 		HEIGHT="111" BORDER="0" WIDTH="222" NATURALSIZEFLAG="1"
> ALIGN="BOTTOM"
> 		ALT="Description of the Image"
> 		>

Excuse me for butting in with a technical detail that isn't directly
relevant to your topic, but both of those attribute values (SRC and
HREF resp.) are syntactically invalid HTML.  Some browsers will fix
up the error by treating the &para as a paragraph sign, which makes
mincemeat of the attempted aubmission.  And HTML validators will very
properly report an error.

           Line 12, character 45: 

               ... h/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
                                                ^

           Error: unknown entity param1

           Line 12, character 57: 

                   ... ate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
                                                    ^

           Error: unknown entity param2


Ideally, one should use the technique documented in the HTML
specificaitons, of using a semi-colon as an alternative delimiter;
but of course this only works if the server-side programming has been
planned to support both ( '&' for actual form submissions, ';' for
URL-created GETs).

Should that not be the case, then the correct move is to code the '&'
character(s) in the URL, as &amp; (or of course the corresponding
&#38; numerical character reference) in the HREF and SRC attributes.

(I have a small page discussing this issue, with some actual browser
results, at http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/www/formgetbyurl.html )

best regards