Hi Everyone: I am using <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN ...> HTML tags to store place (state) data on the displayed page (in the source, anyway) in order that I can allow the user to move arbitrarily with the Web browser's 'Forward' and 'Back' buttons without me being concerned about not knowing the page they are looking at (which is out of my control). I checked the archives and apparently this is not an uncommon approach (Item #609 (13 Oct 1998 08:40) - FW: Method for keeping track of data from multiple pages). In many circumstances I prefer this to using HttpSession for state recording. I find myself using HttpSession for user validation and user preference data (valid across all pages) and the hidden HTML data more as a means to store data manipulated by the user but of interest for perhaps only one page. For instance, in the online bookstore case (a la Amazon.com), each time a user goes to a book-purchase submission page and then presses 'Add to Shopping Cart', the same book would be added to the shopping cart no matter how often it is already added, and no matter how the user arrives at that page. Is this a relatively typical approach? Thanks, David Hildebrandt ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff SERVLET-INTEREST". Archives: http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/servlet-interest.html Resources: http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/external-resources.html LISTSERV Help: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/user/user.html
