[Gllug] Javascript Books

[Wulf Forrester-Barker]

Can you guarantee what browser your customers will be using? If not,
then JavaScript could cause problems... even if you do use it, I'd
suggest keeping it as simple as possible.

How many choices will the users have on the first page? If they've got
two fields to fill in, one with four options and one with two, that's
only eight possible outcomes - you could probably present all eight
options on the front page for the user to choose from, rather than
processing the form either server side (unnecessary data transmission)
or client side (potentially problematic for a hetrogenous audience).

With a bit of thinking, you may be able to avoid unnecessary pages by
design rather than by JavaScript ;-)

Wulf


>>> tim at seacon.co.uk 24/10/2002 10:57:11 am >>>
Hi

We are currently providing 'cgi' access to csutomers on our web site,
to
various Cobol report programs which provide Stock Reports etc.

So far, the various 'form' parameters that are passed to the cgi
programs
are static in nature and can be all presented for filling in on a
simple
web page using the standard html 'form' construct.

However, I now need to provide a report which requires different input
depending on what variation of the information it is expected to
supply.
The 'dumb screen' version, for instance, will take the user through a
heircarchy of prompts which differ depending on the previous response.

Whilst I could present an initial form, process the response and then
present another form depending on that response, followed by another
....
this does seem a rather clumsy way of doing things.

I have a feeling that 'javascript' embedded into the web form may
provide the
answers.   If that is the case, then I should appreciate some
recommendations
as to a good book to buy.  By the way, most of my books to date are
O'Reilly
which generally seems to be a good publisher.

I would mention that I am very much self-taught on computers and
programming,
so would like to avoid anything that it is too cerebral, but on the
other hand
I find the 'Idiots guide to...' style books just a bit to 'idiotic' !!


Tim

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