Build Form OTF (on the fly)

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  • Dave
    #1

    Build Form OTF (on the fly)

    After much general searching, a JS newbie asks: can anyone point me to
    where I can find out how to build a page (including form) using
    Javascript? The reason I'd want to do this is because the page html is
    becoming quite large due to form element attributes for each row of a
    large form. I'm under the impression that I could condense this by
    assigning variables to blocks of text that make up the page elements
    and using script to write these elements to the window. Not only that,
    but if I want to modify an attribute, I currently have to do it 25x
    just for one column of the form. Being able to only modify a variable
    once would propagate the change to the entire colum at least. Here's
    an example of the length of just one table data tag (there are 5
    similar tags per row):

    <td width="72" align="center" height="22"><in put type="text" READONLY
    name="Item3" size="9" value="AS2K" style="height-style: 15;
    text-align: Right; font-size: 8"></td>

    I'm thinking that blocks of html such as everything in the above from
    "<td" to "value=" could be one variable, and the "style=...8 "> could
    be another.
    Would building the page using script be leaner?
    Thanks,
    Dave
    Tags: None
    • Richard Cornford
      #2
      Re: Build Form OTF (on the fly)

      "Dave" <millhouse@moun taincable.net> wrote in message
      news:cc2d0fc3.0 307102030.7e773 e28@posting.goo gle.com...
      <snip>[color=blue]
      > <td width="72" align="center" height="22">[/color]

      Every attribute in that tag can be replaced with separate CSS, the tag
      doesn't even need a class or ID attribute as the CSS selector could be
      context sensitive but even - class="colN" - would reduce the size of
      that tag by 2/3.
      [color=blue]
      ><input type="text" READONLY
      > name="Item3" size="9" value="AS2K"
      >style="heigh t-style: 15;text-align: Right; font-size: 8"></td>[/color]

      And much the same can be said for this inline style attributes.
      [color=blue]
      > I'm thinking that blocks of html such as everything in the
      >above from "<td" to "value=" could be one variable, and the
      >"style=...8" > could be another.
      > Would building the page using script be leaner?[/color]

      Of the many ways of approaching your problem JavaScript is probably the
      worst. It looks like the appropriate application of CSS would nearly
      half your pages size and move some of the attribute values to a
      centralised location.

      Having a complex form implies server-side scripting of some sort to
      process the results so dynamically generating the page on the server
      would be another option for inserting repetitive attribute values from a
      common source. Though that would not reduced the download size in the
      way that the appropriate use of CSS would.

      Richard.


        Comment

        • Dave
          #3
          Re: Build Form OTF (on the fly)

          "Richard Cornford" <Richard@litote s.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<bellro$jf j$1$830fa17d@ne ws.demon.co.uk> ...[color=blue]
          > "Dave" <millhouse@moun taincable.net> wrote in message
          > news:cc2d0fc3.0 307102030.7e773 e28@posting.goo gle.com...
          > <snip>[color=green]
          > > <td width="72" align="center" height="22">[/color]
          >
          > Every attribute in that tag can be replaced with separate CSS, the tag
          > doesn't even need a class or ID attribute as the CSS selector could be
          > context sensitive but even - class="colN" - would reduce the size of
          > that tag by 2/3.
          >[color=green]
          > ><input type="text" READONLY
          > > name="Item3" size="9" value="AS2K"
          > >style="heigh t-style: 15;text-align: Right; font-size: 8"></td>[/color]
          >
          > And much the same can be said for this inline style attributes.
          >[color=green]
          > > I'm thinking that blocks of html such as everything in the
          > >above from "<td" to "value=" could be one variable, and the
          > >"style=...8" > could be another.
          > > Would building the page using script be leaner?[/color]
          >
          > Of the many ways of approaching your problem JavaScript is probably the
          > worst. It looks like the appropriate application of CSS would nearly
          > half your pages size and move some of the attribute values to a
          > centralised location.
          >
          > Having a complex form implies server-side scripting of some sort to
          > process the results so dynamically generating the page on the server
          > would be another option for inserting repetitive attribute values from a
          > common source. Though that would not reduced the download size in the
          > way that the appropriate use of CSS would.
          >
          > Richard.[/color]

          To be truthful, I know little about CSS, but I guess I'll have to read
          up on it as it sounds like the most viable solution. Server side
          scripting is less desireable since we are not processing the results
          (as I think you have surmised) unless you mean validation. That we are
          doing using a js file. Thanks for the advice. I intend to take it.

            Comment

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