DJ
2003-04-05 06:25:58 |
blank comments
A problem I mentioned a while ago in the chatterbox, which more of an annoyance than a bug, and probably only affects people as dumb as me anyway, is that I have the bad habit of typing the subject and hitting 'enter' instead of 'tab,' thus posting a blank comment. The simplest suggestion, which would prevent that specific case but not prevent blank comments altogether, would be to disable the form submission until the comment box had been selected. Once the box is selected, hitting 'enter' merely types a new line, and the post button has to be clicked on or 'tabbed' to in order to submit.
Something like <textarea onFocus=\"post.disabled=false\"> and then <input type=submit name=post value=Post disabled=true> in the tag for the button would work. The other option would be to modify the PHP to not display a comment if it is blank. That would be more thorough, but perhaps less favorable as sometimes people intentionally leave just a word or two in the subject with no following comment. The focus/disable option would allow people to still do that (if you want them to be able to), but make sure that when they do, it is on purpose.
Anyway, just a thought. Again, I don't know how much access anyone has to the nitty-gritty of the webpages and the source files, but modifying show.php when op=post to include those few parameters in the tags would be extremely simple if they can be accessed.
=) |
levik
2003-04-05 06:42:07 |
Re: blank comments
DJ, the other day I added some javascript to the form's "onlcick" that doesn't allow you to press the button unless there is something in the text area.
Are you still having a problem with blank comments? if so, what browser are you on
? |
DJ
2003-04-08 06:59:42 |
Re: blank comments
The problem is not that I try to click the button before I type the comment in. The 'onclick' you implemented will prevent people from intentionally leaving blank comments. However, you don't have to click the button to submit the form, wherein lies my problem. It is an altogether trivial problem, but I have inadvertently posted blank comments many times by pushing enter out of habit after the subject. The disabling mechanism I proposed above would prevent that from happening, and would not interfere in any way with using the form. Thanks.
=) |
levik
2003-04-09 01:56:41 |
Re: blank comments
DJ, I understood the problem... It's just that i was under the impression that when you submit the form by pressing "enter", the onClick of the submit button gets called.
I guess I will just move the empty text checking to the onSubmit handler. I just find the disabling mechanism to be a little non-obvious to the user - they may see that the post button is disabled, and not realize why. This may prevent them from posting (they will think they're not alowed or something)
Also, if in explorer submission by "Enter" is not done through the submit button, having the button disabled will probably not disable the form. |
DJ
2003-04-10 01:30:36 |
Re: blank comments
Yeah, I see [now] what you mean about the disabled button being confusing. Disabling the submit it will, indeed, prevent the form from being submitted at all, but it is probably not the best solution. It was just the simplest thing I could think of that would solve the problem without changing the functionality of the forms. But, it is probably also the only way that will change the physical appearance of the page. So, do what you have to (or don't, as it appears I am the only person with this problem), and always second-guess anything I say. Good job (seriously). Thanks.
=) |
levik
2003-04-10 01:49:19 |
Re: blank comments
I actually did the onSubmit thing yesterday - let me know if you still experience the problem. (Seems to work for me in IE 6 and Mozilla, but I'm not sure if you're using a different browser version) |
DJ
2003-04-12 17:59:43 |
Re: blank comments
Yeah, I just did it again, haha..and a little popup told me that I am a moron.
It's great. Thanks.
=) |
