Mark Hensler — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 06:10:45 +0000

I saw your post in the CGI forum, and the note to here. I'm not a JavaScript guru [pretty novice], so I kept quiet. But now that I know that NN doesn't support a solution, you may want to look server-side.

when you submit the form, set a flag.
$flag = 1;

make the page forward to itself. When the page is executed, have it check the state of the flag, if it's not up, then print the form.

If the flag is up, check for invalid data. if invalid data is found, pring the form WITH some user notification thingy. You can use the Javascript alert() function, or you can insert style="color:ff0000" into the textbox/area to make the text red, or print something at the top of the form.

If the flag is up, and there is no invalid data, then process it.

This is just a basic plan. I've writen stuff like this in CGI, PHP, and ASP. It works well. Another bonus: when you add a field, you just scroll to the other end of the script and add it to the data checker. No other files to siff through.

Good luck,

Vincent Puglia — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 03:03:11 +0000

Hi Ijustgotplayed,

Maybe in IE, but definitely not with Netscape. If you are only concerned about showing the user, have the validation routine set the focus for the miscreant form element as it is found. Something like this:

if (document.formname.fieldname.value == "")
{
alert("you must fill in the field")
document.formname.fieldname.focus();
}

or you can check the value with an onBlur event handler:

Vinny