Dave Hodder | 1 Jul 2004 01:11
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[whatwg] Web Forms 2.0 (WD 30 June 2004): 'separator' Attribute

Hello WHAT Task Force,

I would like to suggest an additional, optional attribute for the 'form' 
element, called 'separator'.  It would also be valid for 'input' 
elements with a 'type' attribute of either 'submit' or 'image'.

Example usage:

     <form action="process-form.py" method="get" separator=";">

'separator' accepts either a semicolon character or an ampersand 
character (the default).

The attribute changes the behaviour of forms sent with the 
application/x-www-form-urlencoded content type.  When 'separator' is set 
to ';', a semicolon character rather than an ampersand character is used 
to separate name/value pairs as described in Web Forms 2.0 (WD 30 June 
2004) Section 5.3, point 5.

In the case where a 'separator' attribute is missing from a submit 
button (<input type="submit"> or <input type="image">), then the 
equivalent attribute on the form is used instead.

It has no effect on forms submitted by content types other than 
application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

The 'separator' attribute is similiar to the 'separator' attribute of 
the XForms 1.0 'submission' element, except for the different default 
value.  (The difference is to ensure backwards compatibility with HTML 
forms.)  The existence of this attribute would hopefully ease migration 
(Continue reading)

Ian Hickson | 1 Jul 2004 01:35
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[whatwg] Re: several messages


Wow. Ok, I get the message, you all want editable selects back. :-)

I read all your mails, and here's the compromise I think makes most
sense. It is based directly on suggestions made in these threads, so
if it looks familiar, that's why!

If backwards compatibility is not important:

   <p>
    <label>
     Select a breed:
     <input type="text" name="breed" data="breeds">
     <datalist id="breeds">
      <option value="Abyssinian">
      <option value="Alpaca">
      <!-- ... -->
     </datalist>
    </label>
   </p>

If it is:

   <p>
    <label>
     Select a breed:
     <input type="text" name="breed" data="breeds">
    </label>
    <datalist id="breeds">
     <label>
(Continue reading)

martijn | 1 Jul 2004 01:45

Re: [whatwg] Label question

Ian Hickson wrote:

>As I think someone else pointed out, this is already disallowed by HTML4.
>
>WF2 says:
>
># For labels pointing (via for) to elements that are not form controls
>#   The attribute must be ignored. It will appear in the DOM (including as
>#   the value of htmlFor) but the control DOM attribute must return null and
>#   activating the label must not send focus to the associated element.
> - http://whatwg.org/specs/web-forms/current-work/#handling
>
>  
>
So labels aren't form controls?
That seems the case, I guess, when I look at this:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#h-17.2.1

Thanks,
Martijn

Ian Hickson | 1 Jul 2004 01:59
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Re: [whatwg] Label question

On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, martijn wrote:
>
> So labels aren't form controls?
> That seems the case, I guess, when I look at this:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#h-17.2.1

Yeah, labels aren't controls.

--

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

martijn | 1 Jul 2004 02:16

[whatwg] Question about "Type here your search word(s)" input box

Another question. (apologies if this 'issue' has been raised before or 
not relevant at all)

There are lots of sites (and even Opera has it with the Google search 
box) that use an input box, which have some predefined value in it and 
when you focus it, that value disappears. 
A lot of times you see it used in a search input box. Something like 
"Type here your search word(s)".

Is this something that should be handled by the web forms spec, or 
should it stay in the realm of javascript?

Regards,
Martijn

Edmund Lai | 1 Jul 2004 02:19
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Re: [whatwg] several mail addresses in input type email?

I reply to this thread earlier without realizing that I am not sending
it to the list and only to Ian. Ian kindly answer it in private
e-mail. Maybe we can change the default reply to the group rather than
the individual mail sender for the benefits of idiots like me.

Any way here is Ian's message and my comments.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 12:18:22 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian@...> wrote:
> 
> 
> (You sent your e-mail directly to me, so I haven't cc'ed the list. Feel
> free to forward my e-mail to the list if you want.)
> 
> On Sun, 27 Jun 2004, Edmund Lai wrote:
> >
> > I think a lot of the discussions here on datatype is related to W3C XML
> > schema part 2: Datatypes. Rather than inventing a new set, we should
> > take advantage of XML schema. And even if we don't want to do the full
> > XML schema spec, we should borrow the idea as much as possible.
> 
> Why? Is there any advantage to using the (complex) data type structure of
> XML Schema rather than simply extending the existing HTML4 data types?
> 

First of all I am only talking about W3C XML schema part 2: Datatypes,
which is about simpleType and is fairly simple compared to the rest of
the XML schema.

The first advantage is that we have an established comprehesive
datatype standard that has been tested and used extensively. The
(Continue reading)

Ian Hickson | 1 Jul 2004 02:29
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If you want the list to Reply-To the list... (Was: [whatwg] several mail addresses in input type email?)

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Edmund Lai wrote:
>
> I reply to this thread earlier without realizing that I am not sending
> it to the list and only to Ian. Ian kindly answer it in private e-mail.
> Maybe we can change the default reply to the group rather than the
> individual mail sender for the benefits of idiots like me.

Just use Reply All and everything will be ok. (If you don't like receiving
multiple copies of the messages, you can change your subscripting
settings; see the links in the headers of this e-mail for details.)

--

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Ian Hickson | 1 Jul 2004 02:58
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Re: [whatwg] several mail addresses in input type email?

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Edmund Lai wrote:
> >
> > Why? Is there any advantage to using the (complex) data type structure of
> > XML Schema rather than simply extending the existing HTML4 data types?
>
> The first advantage is that we have an established comprehesive datatype
> standard that has been tested and used extensively. The standard goes
> beyond what is proposed here. So there is no reason to revent it again.
> As more and more people are getting familiar with the W3C XML schema
> datatypes, developers do not need to learn two set of datatype standard
> and this would reduce the learning curve.

It isn't really clear to me that it has been used that extensively, and I
am not really aware of any testing, but ok.

> The second advantage is that as more and more data are stored in XML
> format described by XML schema, developer who wants to use WF2(Web Forms
> 2.0) to enter their XML data would have a easier time if the same
> datatype described in XML schema can be used WF2. In fact the process
> can be automated by some tool.

I'm not sure what you mean. How would you convert a field with type IDREFS
into a form control? Or a field with type NOTATION?

> The third advantage is that if we can have type definition, then let say
> we have a datatype with a long and complicated pattern used in 10
> different places, we don't ned have that pattern in 10 different places.

If we can have a type definition, then we are including a lot more than
just XML Schema Part 2.
(Continue reading)

Matthew Raymond | 1 Jul 2004 03:04
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Re: [whatwg] Re: several messages

Ian Hickson wrote:

> If backwards compatibility is not important:
> 
>    <p>
>     <label>
>      Select a breed:
>      <input type="text" name="breed" data="breeds">
>      <datalist id="breeds">
>       <option value="Abyssinian">
>       <option value="Alpaca">
>       <!-- ... -->
>      </datalist>
>     </label>
>    </p>

    How is this not backward compatible? For both UA types, the a single 
value is submitted under the name "breed". In both cases, the input 
submitted is available for editing in a textbox prior to submission. 
ECMAScript can be used to implement the drop-down menu on non-WF2 user 
agents. Seems rather backward compatible to me.

> If it is:
> 
>    <p>
>     <label>
>      Select a breed:
>      <input type="text" name="breed" data="breeds">
>     </label>
>     <datalist id="breeds">
(Continue reading)

Edmund Lai | 1 Jul 2004 03:31
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Re: [whatwg] Textarea Wishlist

Give them an inch and they will take a mile, how about on any HTML
element, I used fieldset in the example, but sometimes it is all the
field elements within a <div> elements.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 20:53:59 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian@...> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Edmund Lai wrote:
> >
> > My wish is that textarea can also be specified as an input element,
> > i.e. something like
> > <input type="textarea" ...
> > or better yet
> > <input type="text" display="textarea" ...
> >
> > The reason is this, let say I want to clear all text fields within a
> > fieldset, I would do a fieldSetNode.getElementsByTagName('input'), and
> > then do the clearing, but then I missed all the textareas, so I have
> > to repeat it for textarea. Sometimes I like the text input and
> > textarea to be in the right order, then I cannot use
> > getElementsByTagName at all. Things are much cleaner if textarea
> > element can be written as input element.
> 
> Wouldn't it be easier to just add a "clear all controls" method on the
> <fieldset> elements?
> 
> Or, probably better, simply add an "elements" DOM attribute to the
> fieldset element that contains all the input nodes, and then you can
> simply walk that and do whatever you want to it.
> 
> In fact that seems like a good idea. There, fieldsets now have an
(Continue reading)


Gmane