Re: Enhancements to Forms - another loss??

>From:	galactus@htmlhelp.com (Arnoud Galactus Engelfriet)
>> While we're on the subject of form enhancements :-), something I've 
>> wanted is an ACTION attribute on the <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT> tag:
>> 
>> <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT ACTION= METHOD=>
>
>Why is that necessary? Can't you just assign each submit element
>a NAME attribute, and distinguish between the various 'actions'
>in your script depending on which one was pressed?

No. In the examples, I had both http: and https: actions. These have very 
different effects than just using a NAME attribute.

>From:	sja20@hermes.cam.ac.uk (James Aylett)
>This sounds to me a lot like the idea of specifying multiple URL's for a
>single resource, which I seem to remember being thrown around sometime
>last year.

This makes sense. Perhaps the right thing to do is allow alternate values 
for any attribute. This would also be useful for specifying alternate 
versions of pictures:
   <IMG SRC=x.png> ... x.gif ... lowres-x.gif ...
Something like
   <IMG SRC=x.png SRC=x.gif SRC=lowres-x.gif>
isn't valid, and besides we need a way to attach semantics to the 
alternate attributes so a browser could pick (e.g., highres/lowres). So 
something similar to what I suggested, maybe a <SUBST> tag that 
substitutes attribute values. Something like:
   (1)  <SUBST other-attributes...>
   (2)  <SUBST ERROR=problem(s) other-attributes...>
   (3)  <SUBST CHOICE=pref(s) other-attributes...>
   (4)  <SUBST ERROR=problem(s) CHOICE=pref(s) other-attributes...>
Version (1) substitutes the listed attributes if the previous tag has any 
error. (2) substitutes only if the previous tag has one of the listed 
errors. (3) substitutes if the user has selected one of the listed 
preferences. (4) substitutes if we have one of the listed errors AND one 
of the listed preferences. (An OR can be acheived by two <SUBST> tags.) 
Specifying ERROR with no value is the same as specifying all errors, 
i.e., <SUBST ERROR> is the same as <SUBST>.

   <IMG SRC=x.png>
   <SUBST CHOICE=lowres SRC=lowres-x.gif>
        <!-- Substitute lowres picture if chosen by user -->
   <SUBST SRC=x.gif>
        <!-- Substitute x.gif if x.png or lowres-x.gif can't be loaded -->

The CHOICE and ERROR attributes would need to be unique among all tags 
and the SUBST tag itself would need to have every attribute of every tag 
assigned to it. A bit messy in the DTD, but no human should be reading 
that anyway.

    --- Bruce Leban
    Akimbo Systems
    http://www.akimbo.com/globetrotter
    Publish on the web without learning HTML! (Really.)

Received on Wednesday, 12 February 1997 10:17:16 UTC