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Posted by ELINTPimp on 08/10/07 15:14
On Aug 10, 10:33 am, "www.gerardvignes.com" <gerardvig...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Aug 10, 5:03 am, Daniel <d_pinea...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello,
>
> > Could someone explain/demonstrate how I can create a 'continuous
> > form' (similar to access) but in a webpage using php. What I am
> > trying to do is have and entry input, if the user enters info then
> > make another input available and so on. This way they can enter as
> > many items as they need. Then loop through each of their entry and
> > perform my action. If there is a proper web term for what I am trying
> > to accomplish could you please let me know so I start using the proper
> > terminology.
>
> > Thank you for the help.
>
> > Daniel
>
> Hi Daniel,
>
> I've seen this done using DHTML (JavaScript and DOM). If you support
> only the later versions of most major browsers, it should be cross-
> browser enough to be viable. If you go all the way back to IE4/NN4,
> you will probably run into critical differences between those two
> browsers. Pain.
>
> An event (either on a text box, radio button, check box or button)
> invokes a JavaScript that adds additional elements to a form.
> JavaScript can manimulate the web page (and thus the form) via the
> Document Object Model. This is a standard API which allows you to
> create additional nodes (div, input, ...).
>
> You could do it with only HTML and PHP, but it would require a round
> trip to the server each time the user needs to add another input. That
> is a bad thing.
>
> You can also use an Ajax solution to process input back to the server
> as it is typed in the browser by the client. This is a fancy version
> of the DHTML solution I suggested earlier. This is probably also a bad
> approach, since the traffic generated could easily overwhelm a busy
> server. A complex and inefficient solution. The worst of both worlds.
>
> I wonder if the Dojo toolkit can handle this problem? I believe it
> integrates well with Cake or ZendFramework.
>
> I hope this helps you.
>
> Gerard Vignes
All good points from Gerard...
Agreed, AJAX could be overwhelming to a server if not done properly,
however, when triggered correctly to contact the server, really
doesn't create the doom and gloom scenario. We're not turning the web
server into a 1sec/call RSS server, I'm talking triggered (event-
oriented) submissions. AJAX gives a large benefit in many web
application scenarios in that it does no longer require (hope) the
user *remembers* to click Save before they exit/session expires/etc.
No offense to DHTML, but in my opinion, all that DOM manipulation work
to just have to save the form once the user is complete seems like a
waste of time to me (most of the time). You're still going to have to
do a page refresh anytime the user wants to save, if the user
remembers to save periodically (depending on the application, of
course). If you're not wanting to do AJAX (which CakePHP supports but
I don't think a project like this definitely warrants a full-blows
MVC), perhaps the best/easiest would be to just do a refresh per row.
Assuming bandwidth isn't too bad, a call to the server to process an
individual request and send back a completed table with a new row.
Client side scripting has it's place, and this project might not
warrant it, but often times if I'm going to do something fancy with
DHTML, AJAX is only a hop away to a more desktop-application-like
product.
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