[Bug 12561] New: Add the @action in the <form> so that there is a way to submit to the same page

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=12561

           Summary: Add the @action in the <form> so that there is a way
                    to submit to the same page
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: other
            Status: NEW
          Severity: minor
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson)
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: brunoaiss@gmail.com
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org


The HTML5 spec clearly states:
Section 4.10.19.6 Form submission,
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#attr-fs-action:

"The action and formaction content attributes, if specified, must have a value
that is a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces."

The specification does not estate a way to submit to the page where the form
exists so I'd like it to be specified.
I have some options but I don't really know which one is best.
1: "_self"
2: "" (empty string, some browsers already implement what I stated with the
empty string)
3: "?"
Examples of application:

If the url of the page that has the <form> tag is:
http://the.web.org/path/to/the/thing
I want the form to submit to: http://the.web.org/path/to/the/thing

If the url of the page that has the <form> tag is: http://the.web.org/index.pl
I want the form to submit to: http://the.web.org/index.pl

If the url of the page that has the <form> tag is:
http://the.web.com/wierdplace/place
I want the form to submit to: http://the.web.com/wierdplace/place

I'm asking this for some reasons:
The filenames are not something something that is that constant as some think.
With this there is no need for the server to process the page it should submit
(even it it's easy). With that, the form would be completely portable.
Less mess with the server code as (for example) <?php echo ... ?>.

Personally I already had problems when tried to reuse code and when I change
filenames. I usually have to spend time trying to find that form that has the
action to the same file (ex: "index.php") and change it (ex:
"applicationform.php") so that the form works again. Something I could have
avoided if I used server side scripting (works but not the best solution) or if
the browser had already implemented this natively (best option).

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Received on Wednesday, 27 April 2011 08:26:07 UTC