using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

**Børge Alvestad** · Jul 20 '05, 10:16 AM

Re: using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

"Carl" wrote in message news:bja9er$5a6 $1@reader10.wxs .nl...[color=blue]
> When using 'name' in the form, it works, when using 'id' it doesn't.[/color]
Any[color=blue]
> comments about this? By the way, is this a good method or is it better[/color]
to[color=blue]
> use 'getElementById '?
> Carl
>
> <body>
> <form name="myform">
> <input type button id="antw1" value="test">
> </form>
>
> <script type="text/javascript">
> res=document.my form.antw1.valu e
> alert(res)
> </script>
>[/color]

I usually give my forms both a name and an ID (both the same).
Then i reference them by document.forms['myForm']
i.e. document.forms['myform'].antw1.value

getElementById( ) is the most recent method and is only available in IE5+
and NN6+.
It might be a good idea to get used to that method now, but make sure
you include and option for older browsers.
I.e.
d=document // to ease further scripting
if (myObject=d.get ElementById('my form')) {
res=myObject.an tw1.value
} else {
res=d.forms['myforms'].antw1.value
}

If you don't need the form tags you can access the objects directly
though;
res=antw1.value

Hope this helped.

--
B Alvestad
aka BraveBrain

**Grant Wagner** · Jul 20 '05, 10:16 AM

Re: using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

"Børge Alvestad" wrote:
[color=blue]
> "Carl" wrote in message news:bja9er$5a6 $1@reader10.wxs .nl...[color=green]
> > When using 'name' in the form, it works, when using 'id' it doesn't.[/color]
> Any[color=green]
> > comments about this? By the way, is this a good method or is it better[/color]
> to[color=green]
> > use 'getElementById '?
> > Carl
> >
> > <body>
> > <form name="myform">
> > <input type button id="antw1" value="test">
> > </form>
> >
> > <script type="text/javascript">
> > res=document.my form.antw1.valu e
> > alert(res)
> > </script>
> >[/color]
>
> I usually give my forms both a name and an ID (both the same).
> Then i reference them by document.forms['myForm']
> i.e. document.forms['myform'].antw1.value
>
> getElementById( ) is the most recent method and is only available in IE5+
> and NN6+.
> It might be a good idea to get used to that method now, but make sure
> you include and option for older browsers.
> I.e.
> d=document // to ease further scripting
> if (myObject=d.get ElementById('my form')) {
> res=myObject.an tw1.value
> } else {
> res=d.forms['myforms'].antw1.value
> }
>
> If you don't need the form tags you can access the objects directly
> though;
> res=antw1.value
>
> Hope this helped.
>
> --
> B Alvestad
> aka BraveBrain[/color]

document.forms['formName'].elements['elementName'] (or
document.forms['formName'].elementName) is still part of the standard.
There's no reason to test for and use getElementById( ). If getElementById( )
/is/ present, then you know you can still retrieve the value of a form
element using document.forms[...].elements[...].

As for giving your form elements the same NAME and ID. While it seems
economical and seems to work reliably across the majority of browsers,
recent discussions in this newsgroup have convinced me it's a bad practice.
This is especially true of things like checkboxes and radio buttons, which
can have several input instances with the same NAME, but each one should
have a unique ID.

As a result, I've begun using something like NAME="myInputNA ME"
ID="myInputID" (I haven't quite decided on the best naming scheme yet). For
groups of radio buttons, it's NAME="myRadioNA ME" ID="myRadioID1 " (or maybe
ID="myRadio1ID" , as I said, I haven't arrived at a conclusion as to what's
better).

Anyway, the point was, there's no reason to test for and use
getElementById( ). If it's supported, then so is
document.forms[...].elements[...].

--
| Grant Wagner <gwagner@agrico reunited.com>

* Client-side Javascript and Netscape 4 DOM Reference available at:
*

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*

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**Douglas Crockford** · Jul 20 '05, 10:16 AM

Re: using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

> When using 'name' in the form, it works, when using 'id' it doesn't. Any[color=blue]
> comments about this? By the way, is this a good method or is it better to
> use 'getElementById '?[/color]

'id' is used to access specific objects in the DOM. 'name', in form elements, is
used to fill in the names in the postdata that is generated when the form is
submitted. Early browsers tended to use one as the default for the other, which
led to general confusion about the roles of the attributes.

crockford.com

http://www.crockford.com/#javascript

**Børge Alvestad** · Jul 20 '05, 10:17 AM

Re: using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

Reply to "Grant Wagner", message
news:3F58B9CB.8 74CA599@agricor eunited.com...

Thanks for useful information, Grant ;)

--
Børge Alvestad
aka BraveBrain

using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

using 'name' or using 'id' of a form?

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