> On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 01:10:16 -0500, S. Isaac Dealey > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> You might also have a look at the onTap framework -- >> which has much >> more robust, bulletproof and reuseable (but no more >> difficult to use) >> form validation features.
> That is *way* more complex than the equivalent Blackstone > form! > Blackstone's XML forms allow you to specify just the plain > fields > without formatting and have an automatic XSL > transformation applied to > create nicely lined up form fields and labels... > For example, the following simple form: > <cfform format="xml" action="ikeform.cfm" method="post"> > <cfinput type="text" name="productName" label="Product > Name"/> > <cfselect name="productCategory" label="Product Category" > query="cats" display="data" value="value"/> > <cfinput type="radio" name="productStatus" label="Product > Status" value="1"/> > <cfinput type="text" validate="numeric" name="listPrice" > required="yes" label="List Price"/> > <cfinput type="text" name="availableData" required="yes" > label="Available Data"/> > <cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit"/> > </cfform> > With no other code, this produces: > http://www.corfield.org/articles/stuff/ike.gif See, that's *way* more control than I want to leave to the form tag... It also doesn't account for a great number of other possibilities -- i.e. text description of a field's content above, below or to the right of the input element. Sure a lot of forms are formatted this way (label on the left, input on the right), but by no means all of them. How would you make the form align all of the labels to the left? (I don't like having them right-aligned.) Would it require an align attribute in each input element (which is the sort of thing I do with a singular css element in a col tag)? I have to admit I've been busy enough with both my day job and work on the framework that I haven't researched blackstone's form features very much. My comment that they were no more difficult to use was in reference to the use of cfform in previous versions of ColdFusion. Do the input elements still require the form context? I.e. if I change <cfform> to <form> will the <cfinput> and <cfselect> tags still produce an error the way they did with previous versions of ColdFusion? The onTap framework's form elements don't have that issue -- actually they can be moved, removed, etc. at will -- you can add and remove options on the server after a select element is created, etc. > (I didn't both mapping Ike's radio button stuff) Say what?! Is that in reference to the automated database integration? Or merely to the fact that blackstone doesn't create multiple radio buttons from a single input element? It looks like it still leaves other complexities unhandled by the form tho... Would this form be populated (since there aren't any value attributes) if I entered "&productName=myprocuct" on the url for example? Does this equivalent Blackstone form also automatically validate the input elements? I don't see any validation attributes for required fields, numeric, date or character-length values, all of which would have been automatically handled by the code I presented. Does blackstone offer a validation tag (as opposed to attributes) which allows multiple input elements to be validated simultaneously? When fields fail validation are they highlighted? Do blackstone forms handle server-side form validation gracefully using the same code or does it still rely on the clunky server-side validation provided with previous versions of ColdFusion? Although the _formatting_ of forms (a matter of visual display only) may be easier, I suspect the Blackstone forms still don't provide a lot of the nicer features offered by the onTap framework. So I would content that it's still no harder to use -- it largely seems to provide a different set of features for simplifying forms than the onTap framework provides (focus on formatting rather than on model-integration). Though it does bring up a good point I should probably add a filter function to specifically mark the label fields for required input elements (the red asterisk or something else). It would take me likely all of a minute to do that. s. isaac dealey 954.927.5117 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/p49777853/ http://www.sys-con.com/story/?storyid=44477&DE=1 http://www.sys-con.com/story/?storyid=45569&DE=1 http://www.fusiontap.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:192076 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
