Re: Suggestions for www4mail next patch

Steve,
I must confess I have given some thought to such an option. It is a secret
that www4mail can accept form data using the following syntax in e-mail

XBASE= BASE HREF "http://www.altavista.com"
XFORM= FORM METHOD GET ACTION "/cgi-bin/query"
pg=q
text=yes
k1=XX
q=Steve Song
act=search
submit=Submit
XSUBMIT_NOW=Submit
XFORM= /FORM
 
The above example when sent to a www4mail server will perform a search
using Altavista for "Steve Song" 

Note that at least the METHOD & ACTION entries are required, the
HTML entries do not have the < or > or the = sign (they were replaced
with spaces). In order to have a = sign in the data entry it could escaped
as \=.


Okay, I have three reasons for shying away from this getweb form
filling problem:

1. Some pull down lists are over 100 items (E.g list of countries).
	(This means adding 100 extra lines to the page ??) or ignoring the
		such items???)

2. One has to write code to support each type of HTML tag, if some new
	tag appears tomorrow, you have to code again. Using the current
	browser method, a new TAG means that the USER should get a new
	browser and not the Administrator getting a new server software.

3. I did not get any encouraging response to my earlier question on the
	need for such a system.

So the solution I have in mind is to make public the above syntax, this
means that the user has to extract the FORM syntax from the source web
page himself...:-).
Provide a command for the USER to select that the reply should be in the
GET or tsource format and  I was thinking of having a XJSDUMP command (A
javascript program that will dump the www4mail DATA syntax to the BROWSER
window. 

I look forward to your comments...

Clement Onime

 On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Steve Song wrote:

> Clement,
> 
> Your list looks excellent.  I have only one other item that I would put on
> the wish list and it's a big one.  You may disagree with me on it..... ;-)
>  but I think that for true user flexibility, it would be great to allow
> getweb style form-filling as well as the existing browser based form filling.  
> 
> Cheers.... steve
> 
> At 07:06 AM 99/03/10 , www-email-discuss-request@w3.org wrote:
> >
> >Dear,
> >I am trying to compile a list for the next www4mail patch
> >
> >1. Allow END Tag or Command
> >	end and a few other tags E.g --
> >
> >2. Allow autodetection of MIME-TYPE for the get or send command
> >	(right now www4mail assumes text/plain for get or send)
> >
> >3. Allow Users to select That FORM replies should arrive as 
> >	get or tsource..
> >
> >4. Smarter IP blocking
> >	www4mail should try to look up the name of the IP address,
> >	test the name and if the name fails then restrict the site
> >	otherwise answer the request.
> >
> >5. Smarter HELP/COmment system
> >	E.g split messages should carry a comment about re-combining
> >	split parts.
> >	Suggest decoder programs based on MIME type ???
> >
> >	Allow context sensitive help
> >	E.g help XURLCODE or help GETPART , etc...
> >
> >6. Option to allow users turn off mail splitting
> >
> >7. Check for duplicate frame entries
> >
> >8. Additional check for X-RATED sites, via the 
> >	META Keywords header
> >
> >Any additions and suggestions or comments or code ;-) are welcomed.
> >
> >Thanks
> >Clement Onime
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> Steve Song <ssong@idrc.ca>
> Unganisha (Connectivity) Project <http://www.idrc.ca/unganisha>
> International Development Research Centre
> P.O. Box 8500, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1G 3H9
> Tel. +1 613 236 6163 x2268  Fax +1 613 567 7748
>

Received on Wednesday, 10 March 1999 10:03:32 UTC