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Re: how to create (open) a dialog box

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sheldonlg wrote:

> On 8/16/2011 1:03 PM, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>> The client-side dialog – in fact, any client-side code – should augment a
>> server-side generated solution (to reduce the number of roundtrips to the
>> server, thus enhancing user experience and reducing server/network load);
>> with few exceptions, it should not replace it.  This can be done easily,
>> for example:
>>
>>    <form action="delete-dialog.php"
>>          onsubmit="return window.confirm('Delete?')">
>>      <input type="submit" value="Delete">
>>    </form>
>>
>> The best solution regarding this approach is a server-side framework
>> which provides the classes to generate the forms (here: both for
>> submitting the deletion request and confirming it) and the client-side
>> code, so that the data only needs to be maintained in one place.
> 
> Wouldn't you use onsubmit only if you are submitting the entire page?
> The onclick allows you to confirm the deletion, send off an AJAX
> request, and still stay on the page.

You need to be more precise with your terminology.  There are no pages, in 
particular not with server-side programming.

An (X)HTML document (as it can also be generated by a server-side script) 
can contain more than one form, and they can be submitted separatedly.  
Also, the target of a form submission can be – in HTML 4.01 Transitional or 
XHTML 1.0 Transitional, or in XHTML 1.x with a user-defined DTD, to satisfy 
validity constraints – another window (an iframe, a frame, or a tab), in 
which case the document in the form's viewport would not change.

In this case, change is the purpose of the form, though.  One *wants* to 
display a document with a delete confirmation dialog *even if* the client-
side dialog *cannot* be displayed.

If the client-side dialog cannot be displayed (which is the premise of my 
suggestion), then "AJAX" would not work either (keep in mind that the term 
is not exactly a misnomer in the only regard that the "J" stands for 
"JavaScript".)

However, my example is flawed as it is – due to oversimplification – 
incomplete: If you would confirm the client-side dialog, the server-side 
confirmation dialog would be displayed regardless.

A fix would be to set the submitted value of an `input' element to a certain 
different value before submission so that the server side would not generate 
the confirmation dialog again, e.g.:

  <script type="text/javascript">
    function confirmDelete(form)
    {
      if (window.confirm("Delete this item?"))
      {
        form.elements["confirmed"].value = "1";
        return true;
      }

      return false;
    }
  </script>

  <form action="delete-dialog.php"
        onsubmit="return confirmDelete(this)"
        method="POST">
    <input type="hidden" name="confirmed" value="0">
    <input type="submit" value="Delete">
  </form>

Then, on the server-side, e.g.:

<?php
  if ($_POST['confirmed'] !== '1')
  {
    /* this part should be done dynamically by the mentioned framework */
?>
  <form action="delete-dialog.php"
        method="POST">
    <div>
      <input type="hidden" name="confirmed" value="1">
      <span>Delete this item?</span>
      <input type="submit" value="Delete">
    </div>
  </form>
<?php
  }
  else
  {
    /* proceed with deletion */
  }
?>

(I am using POST, and not GET, here so that one is less likely to cause 
deletion accidentally when navigating the history.  A good browser would ask 
the user before submitting POST data again.)

More sophisticated approaches include using XHR (colloquially and falsely 
called "AJAX") to request, retrieve and display a server generated 
confirmation dialog instead of the rather crude, built-in one (BTDT).  But 
AISB, this would not work without client-side scripting, so it can be safely 
excluded as a *fallback* for a server-side solution.


HTH

PointedEars
-- 
var bugRiddenCrashPronePieceOfJunk = (
    navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE 5') != -1
    && navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Mac') != -1
)  // Plone, register_function.js:16

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Thread

how to create (open) a dialog box Andre <pas@pourmois.be> - 2011-08-14 10:43 +0000
  Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2011-08-14 09:13 -0400
  Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Robert Hairgrove <nobody@hogwash.com> - 2011-08-14 18:18 +0200
    Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-14 20:59 +0200
      Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2011-08-15 08:48 -0400
        Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2011-08-15 18:12 +0100
          Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2011-08-15 13:31 -0400
            Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2011-08-15 19:13 +0100
        Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-15 21:07 +0200
          Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2011-08-15 17:19 -0400
            Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-16 18:47 +0200
              Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2011-08-16 19:47 -0400
  Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Andre <pas@pourmois.be> - 2011-08-15 12:39 +0000
    Re: how to create (open) a dialog box A.Reader <anonymously@example.com> - 2011-08-15 14:18 -0400
      Re: how to create (open) a dialog box sheldonlg <sheldonlg@thevillages.net> - 2011-08-15 20:50 -0400
        Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Robert Hairgrove <nobody@hogwash.com> - 2011-08-16 08:21 +0200
          Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-16 19:03 +0200
            Re: how to create (open) a dialog box sheldonlg <sheldonlg@thevillages.net> - 2011-08-16 16:02 -0400
              Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2011-08-16 21:13 +0100
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-16 23:16 +0200
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2011-08-16 22:25 +0100
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-17 20:31 +0200
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2011-08-17 21:50 +0100
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box sheldonlg <sheldonlg@thevillages.net> - 2011-08-17 21:06 -0400
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Michael Fesser <netizen@gmx.de> - 2011-08-18 17:13 +0200
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2011-08-18 18:37 +0100
              Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-16 23:11 +0200
                Re: how to create (open) a dialog box Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-08-16 23:15 +0200

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