ITEC 325 2011fall ibarland

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lect06b-sticky
sticky forms
and, the mechanics of invoking javascript validation

Javascript events for validating client-side

• The straightforward way: <form submit='return myValidateFunc();'>, where myValidateFunc returns a boolean; a false-value will not cause the form to be submitted.
  (If you leave this attribute off a form tag, then it's like sayign submit='return true;'.
• When you use the above, it causes the browser to call a javascript method for forms, submit(): this is what truly causes the submission to occur.
  Note that you certainly can call someForm.submit() yourself; that's how you can get other buttons to cause a submit (e.g. hitting return on a password field).

  A common misunderstanding: “if I call someForm.submit() myself, then the browser will first look at the form's onSubmit tag and run that”. This is false! These two are layered the other way around: the onSubmit event causes submit to be called, not vice-versa.

• Other events, onChange, onFocus, blur

Sticky forms

 - sticky form:
    (a) When you make the form, include 'value=...' in the tags appropriately.
    (b) But to do this, the page that *makes* the form has to be the
         same as the page that *recives* the form!
    (c) Imagine a big if-statement:
             if (this-form-was-submitted) {
                 ...validate and print server-side error message...
                 }
           
             if (form-was-submitted && data-is-valid) {
                 ...handle the accepted form stuff...
                 }
             else {
                 ...print the form...
                 echo "<input type='text' name="lastName" value=??? maxlength=??? />
             }
     (c2) example: lect06c-sticky-form.php
             
     (d) <input type="hidden" name="i-came-from-the-form" value="true" />
     (e) You can include files:
                require         include       require_once      include_once

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©2011, Ian Barland, Radford University Last modified 2011.Oct.07 (Fri)

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