How to even start forms

Freeway
1

Waiting with baited breath…

[hands Dave the Listerine…]

k

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

2

You know Keith it wasn’t until you said/wrote that I discovered that I, amongst so many others, have had that wrong for ever…

You learn summat new every day!

D

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

3

My Shakespeare professor used to tease us and call it bait-breath.

Walter

On Mar 28, 2010, at 7:32 PM, DeltaDave wrote:

You know Keith it wasn’t until you said/wrote that I discovered that
I, amongst so many others, have had that wrong for ever…

You learn summat new every day!

D

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

4

SkipII

Can I just say that you have a table that contains hidden form elements on your page hiding behind the seated girl and extending behind the RH column. It is no wonder that the PHPFF action wouldn’t work.

If you change from ‘Site’ to ‘Page’ view and look for the table icon in the items list you should be able to track it down.

It extends from just left of her ear down to the top of the head of the lady in the bottom picture in the RH column. (Moving the hispanic girl reading pic over to the left should make it more obvious)

David

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

5

You guys have been amazingly patient and helpful.

I have it “working” but have one major glitch: the phone number and e-mail fields are not showing up in the e-mail I get back from the server when someone submits a form.

As well, I am unclear on how to set up a “thank you, your request was submitted” page that pops up.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

6

Thanks – good catch. I had pasted that from my other website in a vain attempt to get a form to work.

I have now removed it.

On 29 Mar 2010, 12:17 am, DeltaDave wrote:

SkipII

Can I just say that you have a table that contains hidden form elements on your page hiding behind the seated girl and extending behind the RH column. It is no wonder that the PHPFF action wouldn’t work.

If you change from ‘Site’ to ‘Page’ view and look for the table icon in the items list you should be able to track it down.

It extends from just left of her ear down to the top of the head of the lady in the bottom picture in the RH column. (Moving the hispanic girl reading pic over to the left should make it more obvious)

David

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

7

The three fields I set up as text fields (name, e-mail, phone number) do not come through on the contact forms sent back to me form the server. All the other fields work.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

8

You have a number of fields in your form with the same name: item1. If
you click on the form element, then look in the Inspector at the
Output tab (icon looks like a newspaper), you will see a field labeled
Name. Change this to be whatever you want the form element to be
labeled in the e-mail you receive. Note that this name MUST obey the
following rules.

  • Must begin with an alphabetical character.
  • May not contain any spaces or dollar signs or dots, commas, slashes,
    asterisks, plus signs, dashes, or semicolons.
  • When in doubt, use only lower-case letters a-z and the underscore
    character.
  • Should be unique on the page. If two fields have the same name, the
    last one “wins”.

These rules apply to most types of form elements, but there are
additional more complex rules governing Radio Buttons and Checkboxes
and Picking Lists (select element).

Walter

On Mar 30, 2010, at 11:51 AM, SkipII wrote:

The three fields I set up as text fields (name, e-mail, phone
number) do not come through on the contact forms sent back to me
form the server. All the other fields work.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

9

Thanks – I made the changes.

However…the boxes not working were all labeled correctly, so not sure that was the problem. GoDaddy says it is a scripting problem.

All the boes not working were made with the text field option in the forms drop-down. That is the only pattern I can see in this.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

10

The boxes might have had the correct name in the left-most tab of the
inspector (where I believe the field is labeled Title), but when I
viewed the page source, the actual input fields all had the same Name
property (which is set in the Output tab of the Inspector). They were
each coded as:

<input name="item1" value="" size="14">

So in your mail message, you would have gotten a line that read:
“item1: someValue”, where someValue (or maybe nothing) was the value
set in the LAST instance of the form element named item1.

Drawing a form element on the page using the HTML tool pull-down is a
fairly fragile way to design your form.

For one thing, these form elements can and do appear in nearly any
order within the source. (This order is controlled in Freeway by
changing the stacking order of the drawn elements.) Source order
matters to the browser and the form handler, but is not readily
apparent to the designer or the (sighted) visitor. If you tab between
elements to fill them in, you might notice the field order appearing
to be non-sequential.

For another thing, visually-disabled visitors using screen readers or
other assistive devices will have very little clue what text is meant
to be the form element’s label, since it could be anywhere in the
source order. Two elements that appear (visually) to be right next to
one another could be separated within the HTML source by a hundred
lines of unrelated code – and the elements that code describes.

Your best bet in the current version of Freeway is to draw a table
with the table tool (also under the HTML pull-down) containing two
columns and as many rows as you have form fields. In the left column
cells, enter your form label text as inline text. In the right column
cells, enter your form fields as inline elements. (Double-click inside
the table cell so you see a flashing text cursor, choose Insert / Text
Field from the main menu, then single-click that element and set its
Name property in the Output tab of the Inspector. You can style the
table so it has no visual impact on your page, and you will also be
getting a more robust layout which can respond gracefully to text size
or form styling changes between browsers.

While this is not strictly speaking a proper semantic form (for that
you must use actual Label elements, which Freeway does not support),
the fact that the text describing the form element and the form
element itself are grouped in a logical manner by the table makes it
very easy for a screen reader to sort out what is going on and clue
the visually-disabled visitor as to what this form field might
actually require.

Walter

On Mar 30, 2010, at 1:20 PM, SkipII wrote:

Thanks – I made the changes.

However…the boxes not working were all labeled correctly, so not
sure that was the problem. GoDaddy says it is a scripting problem.

All the boes not working were made with the text field option in the
forms drop-down. That is the only pattern I can see in this.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

11

They are still all called item1 on your web page

This is where you should be looking

David

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

12

Not showing the pic here - strange

try this http://www.deltadzine.net/test/deltapic006.jpg

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

13

Where isn’t it showing for you? It shows up fine on the Web view of the list…

Walter

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

14

Walter,

Thanks for your mini-tutorial. I will probably go back in to arrange the form into a table.

For now, I am going to keep working on getting the form elements to work. Still digging around…

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

15

All,

The problem was — ah,predictably — my fault. I was not paying attention to the output label. I thought there was just the box where you name the item, like with most other items on the page.

It now works GREAT!

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

16

Where isn’t it showing for you? It shows up fine on the Web view of the list…

Walter

My fault Walter I forgot that I had Disabled Images to look at something else

D

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options