Required but empty

All,

I have a doubt about the meaning of "empty" in the wording "required but 
empty" (which appears in 11.2.3 and 4.3.5).

It seems that "empty" could either mean:

1. A zero-length string (clear technical interpretation)
2. A string empty as per #1 above, or a string with only white-space
    (human-friendly interpretation)

Imagine a user entering by error a space in an input field. Visually, 
with most agents (typically web browsers), you can't tell whether the 
field is empty according to #1 above, or contains white space. So to the 
user, the field is "empty".

But if the XForms implementation implements #1, then this visually empty 
field will be considered non-empty, and pass submission even if required.

This would favor an interpretation of "empty" where not only strictly 
empty strings are "empty", but also strings containing only white space.

At the very least, the spec should say whether it means #1, #2, or 
implementation-dependent.

-Erik

-- 
Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
http://www.orbeon.com/

Received on Friday, 25 May 2007 17:56:46 UTC