Re: Submitting input-form data to server

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Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 02:10:53 -0700
From: wei@xcf.berkeley.edu (Pei Y. Wei)
Message-id: <9309060910.AA28323@xcf.Berkeley.EDU>
To: hgs@research.att.com, marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu, wei@xcf.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: Submitting input-form data to server
Cc: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Status: RO

Henning G. Schulzrinne:
> Is there a good case where the same 'name' would result in two
> different 'localvar'?
 
How about a checklist like this:
	<INPUT name="topping" type="check" 
	       value="artichoke" localvar="PIZZA_TOPPING_artichoke">Artichoke
	<INPUT name="topping" type="check" 
	       value="mushroom" localvar="PIZZA_TOPPING_mushroom">Mushroom
	<INPUT name="topping" type="check"
 	       value="mushroom" localvar="PIZZA_TOPPING_olive">Olive
 
Where the pizza topping defaults might be this:
	% setenv PIZZA_TOPPING_artichoke checked
	% setenv PIZZA_TOPPING_olive checked
 
But, the thing that concerns me a bit about overloading 'name' is that 
it could get us into a situation where authors (or construction programs)
of input-forms must tip toe around when assigning 'name's. The authors
would have to know about the default-variables people might have, to know 
which names to use and to avoid, or risk browsers sticking in inappropriate 
default values.
 
Put it another way, I (as a form author) would like the browser to 
attempt default value substitution only if I explicitly specify
'localvar'. If I'm not sure about people's local variables, or don't
want to bother, I'd leave 'localvar' out and avoid any unintended side
effects.
 
-Pei