[FX.php List] FMSkipRecords

[Kevin Futter]

On 28/3/06 9:46 AM, "Steve Hannah" <shannah at sfu.ca> wrote:

> 
> On 27-Mar-06, at 2:23 PM, Kevin Futter wrote:
> 
>>> 
>>> <FORM NAME="sub" METHOD="POST" ACTION="file.php">
>>> <input type="hidden" id="data" name="data" value="mydata">
>>> </FORM>
>>> <a href="javascript:void(0)"
>>> ONCLICK="document.sub.submit(); return false;"
>>> target="_blank">LINK TEXT HERE</a>
>>> 
>>> This puts a simple form (add hidden elements for any data that you
>>> want
>>> to shepherd into the next form submission) right before the link that
>>> will use it. Tested in Safari, Firefox (Mac), and IE6.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> dan
>> 
>> Just a quick note about the JavaScript here: please avoid the
>> "javascript:"
>> pseudo protocol; it's invalid and clunky,
> Not sure in what way this is invalid.
> Clunky?  Sounds like personal taste (although  many web developers
> share this personal taste).
> 
> 
>> and in your example, not even
>> necessary. The "return false" should be sufficient.
> 
> True
>> Of course, the form will
>> fail completely if JS is disabled or unavailable.
>> 
>> Additionally, if you're going to use hrefs, they should point a
>> legitimate
>> URI. If no such thing exists for your purpose, then you can simply
>> use the
>> onclick handler on a more appropriate element, such as <span> or
>> even <p>.
> I agree with the spirit of this comment (not using the wrong tag for
> the wrong job), but in this case an <a href> is the most appropriate
> tag because this IS a link.  You click it, and it takes you to
> another page.  Clearly this is NOT a paragraph (p) and it is not just
> a span of text ... it is a link and thus should be represented by an
> href.

Actually, technically it's not a link as it doesn't contain or point to a
valid URI. It's simply a mechanism to make the thing "clickable", and JS
does the rest - it's just a JavaScript trigger. Why not just use a standard
"submit" button, with an onclick handler in the form attributes? eg:

<FORM NAME="sub" METHOD="POST" ACTION="file.php" onclick="jsFunction();
return false;">
...
<input type="submit" value="Button Title">
...
</form>

This is a much more standards-friendly approach, and pretty much how it
should be done these days.

-- 
Kevin Futter
Webmaster, St. Bernard's College
http://www.sbc.melb.catholic.edu.au/