Comments on: Validation, Business and Functional http://adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/ Rants on technology, Ruby on Rails, Javascript and UI Design by Adam Fortuna Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:57:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joey http://adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-71220 Joey Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:52:54 +0000 http://www.adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-71220 @ziggy I agree with you.. Don't use the expandos. @ziggy

I agree with you.. Don’t use the expandos.

]]> By: Adam Fortuna http://adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-8437 Adam Fortuna Fri, 18 May 2007 22:54:25 +0000 http://www.adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-8437 @Brian Good point! I hadn't thought about screen readers for that case. I'd probably handle that case in the same way i'd do for if javascript was disabled -- redisplay the entire form in the updated state with the errors in there already. The problem with that though is that i'd have to have the markup in the form generation part, or create a form generator like you mentioned. I like the idea in theory of having a form generator, but it'd have to be very close sytanx to the actual form. As cool as it would be to have a generator that does everything you want, I don't want to get edged into a corner where I'm not implementing what I want because it wouldn't be easy with the builder. Definitely have to watch the ajaxproxy though. I agree it could make things even easier for validation. @Ziggy You're probably right. Having a new attribute wouldn't validate in xhtml strict I don't think. Doing everything with classes would work though. I'd probably edge away from adding the datatypes in javascript though, just because I'd like to have all information about the objects validation rules in one place. @Brian
Good point! I hadn’t thought about screen readers for that case. I’d probably handle that case in the same way i’d do for if javascript was disabled — redisplay the entire form in the updated state with the errors in there already. The problem with that though is that i’d have to have the markup in the form generation part, or create a form generator like you mentioned. I like the idea in theory of having a form generator, but it’d have to be very close sytanx to the actual form. As cool as it would be to have a generator that does everything you want, I don’t want to get edged into a corner where I’m not implementing what I want because it wouldn’t be easy with the builder.

Definitely have to watch the ajaxproxy though. I agree it could make things even easier for validation.

@Ziggy
You’re probably right. Having a new attribute wouldn’t validate in xhtml strict I don’t think. Doing everything with classes would work though. I’d probably edge away from adding the datatypes in javascript though, just because I’d like to have all information about the objects validation rules in one place.

]]> By: ziggy http://adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-8364 ziggy Fri, 18 May 2007 08:27:22 +0000 http://www.adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-8364 Don't use expandos; add the class "validate". You can even do "validate-email" and such. Don’t use expandos; add the class “validate”. You can even do “validate-email” and such.

]]> By: Brian Swartzfager http://adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-8150 Brian Swartzfager Wed, 16 May 2007 11:43:15 +0000 http://www.adamfortuna.com/2007/05/15/validation-business-and-functional/#comment-8150 I'd been thinking about doing something similar as part of an actual form generator off and on over the past few months. I was about to get serious about it when all this information about Scorpio started coming out. When I read about the new cfajaxproxy tag, which would allow you to call CFC methods via AJAX, I realized that I'd better wait and see what that tag can do: if it lives up to its promise, you could write a single set of validation algorithms that could be used to do both client-side and server-side validation. One comment about your plans: displaying validation errors next to the form elements that failed their validation tests is nice, but it could be a problem for those who use screen readers, as the screen reader may not be aware that new text has been displayed and that it needs to read it off. Not saying you need to scrap the idea, but you might want to provide a means for certain users to get their validation errors via a JavaScript pop-up box (which I believe most screen readers will acknowledge and read off). Sounds like you're off to a good start, though. I’d been thinking about doing something similar as part of an actual form generator off and on over the past few months.

I was about to get serious about it when all this information about Scorpio started coming out. When I read about the new cfajaxproxy tag, which would allow you to call CFC methods via AJAX, I realized that I’d better wait and see what that tag can do: if it lives up to its promise, you could write a single set of validation algorithms that could be used to do both client-side and server-side validation.

One comment about your plans: displaying validation errors next to the form elements that failed their validation tests is nice, but it could be a problem for those who use screen readers, as the screen reader may not be aware that new text has been displayed and that it needs to read it off. Not saying you need to scrap the idea, but you might want to provide a means for certain users to get their validation errors via a JavaScript pop-up box (which I believe most screen readers will acknowledge and read off).

Sounds like you’re off to a good start, though.

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