Posted by d on 09/28/05 11:41

"Good Man" <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns977B7881A6989sonicyouth@216.196.97.131...
> "d" <d@example.com> wrote in
> news:zm_Nf.29523$wl.21033@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:
>
>>> The only point would be saving me programming time. On a page with
>>> 50+ form-fields, I can save lot of time by writing a PHP loop that
>>> writes an HTML call to a javscript function instead of going to each
>>> form field and entering the value="<?= $first_name ?>" stuff...
>>
>> May I suggest learning templates? They exist for just this sort of
>> thing. They take the edge off writing repetative pages. Either write
>> your own templating toolkit (better) or get one off the shelf.
>
> is this where the SMARTY thing comes into play? I've heard of it for a
> long time but have never used it, as I generally prefer to code my
> applications personally...

then write your own template toolkit :) It's not as hard as you'd imagine.
Mine is well under 200 lines, and that's got a lot of comments and
white-space. I prefer to write my own code as well ;)

> i think i'm still looking for a good reason NOT to use javascript to
> populate my form fields, since I know that my audience is finite and
> restricted to javascript-enabled browsers.... especially when my form has
> 50+ fields. it's too late to look at templating (ie: learning something
> new) at this point in the project, but i will do it in the future.

Of course - if you think it'll work, and if you're happy that your audience
can run it, then go for it :) just be aware that any errors in javascript
on the page will most likely result in the fields not being populated, and a
wee bit more processing power is required for each page (but nothing
drastic - barely noticeable).

use the javascript, and learn templating when you get a chance :)

>
> thanks

cheers!

dave

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