|  | Posted by Peter Fox on 06/25/05 10:21 
Following on from Daniel Tryba's message. . .>Geoff Berrow <blthecat@ckdog.co.uk> wrote:
 >>>My problem though is if form
 >>>validation fails on "page 2.php" (where the form data was submitted and
 >>>the validation performed), how do I return the user to "page1.php" to
 >>>try again?
 >>
 >> You could always tell them to press the back button.
 >
 >How very userfriendly. Server decides that something is wrong and that
 >the user should fix it by themselves by backing up a few pages. Some
 >problems it cause:
 >-what was wrong again?
 >-password fields tend to be empty in some browsers (good thing (tm))
 >-other fields may be reset to defaults (eg. select)
 >
 Quite agree 90% of time, as if there is _no decision_ to be made by the
 user except to type in the damn thing correctly then the suitable page
 should be displayed automatically there and then with _informative,
 unambiguous and well-positioned  error message_.
 
 However there are situations where the 'error' is not a matter of sloppy
 input but logic known to the system only.  For example : "You have
 ordered two sweets but no main course do you really want to do this?".
 In this case 'back' is a logical option in the minds of some users.  I
 would _not_ expect or encourage users to use Back (or forward) buttons
 and therefore provide proper yes and no buttons on the screen to do this
 *but* some users will use the Back button regardless and so your screen
 logic needs to be able to cope with this 'mis-use'.
 
 
 
 
 --
 PETER FOX Not the same since the bottom fell out of the bucket business
 peterfox@eminent.demon.co.uk.not.this.bit.no.html
 2 Tees Close, Witham, Essex.
 Gravity beer in Essex  <http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk>
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