Can't get value into html form field

Kelly · Jul 18, 2008

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here?

==================================

<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
</head>

<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value="Fanny";
</script>

<form method="POST" name="EmailFound" id="EmailFound">
<input name="CMName" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" />
</form>

</body>

</html>

==================================

"Fanny" will not appear in the input field.

Bart Van der Donck · Jul 18, 2008

Kelly said:
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here?

==================================

<html>

Missing doctype declaration.
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html

<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

</head>

<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value="Fanny";
</script>

document.EmailFound.CMName is not an object yet at this point of the
code execution. The basic flow is still top-down.

For a better backwards compatibility, one could also use:

document.forms['EmailFound'].elements['CMName'].value

in stead of

document.EmailFound.CMName.value

<form method="POST" name="EmailFound" id="EmailFound">
<input name="CMName" />

Though not strictly required, this should be <input type="text"
name="CMName">.

<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>

All together:

<!doctype HTML public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
</head>
<body
onLoad="document.EmailFound.CMName.value='Fanny';">
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>

The 'onLoad' event handler is executed right after the page has fully
loaded.

Hope this helps,

Jorge · Jul 18, 2008

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here?

"Fanny" will not appear in the input field.

<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound" id="EmailFound">
<input name="CMName" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" />
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value="Fanny";
</script>
</body>
</html>

--Jorge

jorabi1 · Jul 18, 2008

<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound" id="EmailFound">
<input name="CMName" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" />
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value="Fanny";
</script>
</body>
</html>

--Jorge

Thank you both, it works great!

But now that I want to put back some of the code I stripped out for
the example, I can't get it to work again.

I don't want "Fanny" to be hardcoded, but to be returned from a
function call. Here is the adjusted code with a stripped-down
function:

=================================================

<!doctype HTML public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
</head>

<script type="text/javascript">
function getValue();
return "Fanny";
</script>

<body
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value=getvalue();
</script>

</body>
</html>

=================================================

jorabi1 · Jul 18, 2008

Thank you both, it works great!

But now that I want to put back some of the code I stripped out for
the example, I can't get it to work again.

I don't want "Fanny" to be hardcoded, but to be returned from a
function call. Here is the adjusted code with a stripped-down
function:

=================================================

<!doctype HTML public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
</head>

<script type="text/javascript">
function getValue();
return "Fanny";
</script>

<body
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value=getvalue();
</script>

</body>
</html>

=================================================- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Note, that should read <body>

Jorge · Jul 18, 2008

But now that I want to put back some of the code I stripped out for
the example, I can't get it to work again.

<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
function getValue () {
return "Fanny";
};
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value= getValue();
</script>
</body>
</html>

--Jorge.

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn · Jul 18, 2008

Bart said:
Kelly said:

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here?
[...]
<html>

Click to expand...

Missing doctype declaration.

^^^^^^^
See below.

http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html

<script> tag not closed.

The <script> tag was closed, with `>'. However, the `script' *element* was

[...]
document.EmailFound.CMName.value="Fanny";
[...]

Click to expand...

[...]
For a better backwards compatibility, one could also use:

document.forms['EmailFound'].elements['CMName'].value

in stead of

document.EmailFound.CMName.value

Backwards compatibility is _not_ the reason why collections should be used
instead; both approaches are equally backwards-compatible. This is instead
about standards compliance: HTML collections are a specified Web standard
(per W3C DOM Level 2 HTML); shorthand references like these are not.

Not Valid, the required `action' attribute is missing.

See below.

Though not strictly required, this should be <input type="text"
name="CMName">.

Why? TEXT is the default value for the `type' attribute of the HTML INPUT
element, and `text' is the default value of the XHTML `input' element.

I know of no non-obsolete user agent that requires this default value to be
set explicitly for the element to be considered a text input control. Do you?

All together:

<!doctype HTML public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

Strange, I thought SGML keywords are case-sensitive, i.e. "DOCTYPE". Is
this a (W3C) Validator bug not recognizing the error, or has there been a
(W3C) Validator bug before, that is now fixed, which marked the lowercase
version as such?

[...]
<body
onLoad="document.EmailFound.CMName.value='Fanny';">

Have you not just suggested the standards-compliant solution?

onload="document.forms['EmailFound'].elements['CMName'].value='Fanny';">

<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

This is, again, _not_ Valid HTML 4.01 Strict. The required `action'
attribute is missing and the inline-level `input' elements must be
descendants of another block-level element for this.

[...]
The 'onLoad' event handler is executed right after the page has fully
loaded.

The *value* of the intrinsic `onload' event handler _attribute_ is then
passed to the script engine and executed as a program by it.

--

Your signature delimiter has been broken by Google Groups; the necessary
trailing space was removed. I suggest not to use signatures with user
agents this broken. (Or, even better, not to use those applications for
posting at all.)

PointedEars

Bart Van der Donck · Jul 18, 2008

[email protected] said:
...
But now that I want to put back some of the code I stripped out for
the example, I can't get it to work again.

I don't want "Fanny" to be hardcoded, but to be returned from a
function call. Here is the adjusted code with a stripped-down
function:

=================================================

<!doctype HTML public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Test Form</title>
</head>

<script type="text/javascript">
function getValue();
return "Fanny";
</script>
<body
<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.EmailFound.CMName.value=getvalue();
</script>
</body>
</html>

These are all very basic instructions. I think you need a javascript
tutorial.

jorabi1 · Jul 18, 2008

These are all very basic instructions. I think you need a javascript
tutorial.

Thank you both for your help. My page is much more complicated than
shown but I narrowed it down to just the problem area. It's all
working fine now!

I agree that I really need to learn javascript from the ground up. As
usual, I was given a task that has to be done today ... no time to
learn!

Bart Van der Donck · Jul 18, 2008

Thomas said:
The <script> tag was closed, with `>'. However, the `script' *element*was
not closed/ended (with the corresponding </script> end tag).

To be precise with W3-compliant terminology, <script> is the Start Tag

And the `language' attribute is deprecated.

I'm not exactly looking forward to a 99th discussion about this issue.

For a better backwards compatibility, one could also use:
document.forms['EmailFound'].elements['CMName'].value
in stead of
document.EmailFound.CMName.value

Click to expand...

Backwards compatibility is _not_ the reason why collections should be used
instead; both approaches are equally backwards-compatible. This is instead
about standards compliance: HTML collections are a specified Web standard
(per W3C DOM Level 2 HTML); shorthand references like these are not.

Not Valid, the required `action' attribute is missing.

Yes, I should've validated the page at validator.w3.org so that I
wouldn't have overlooked it.

Why? TEXT is the default value for the `type' attribute of the HTML INPUT
element, and `text' is the default value of the XHTML `input' element.

We discussed this before and my position has remained unchanged.
Adding 'type="text"' has only benefits and helps to make the code
clearer and self-explanatory.

I know of no non-obsolete user agent that requires this default value to be
set explicitly for the element to be considered a text input control. Do you?

Netscape 4. Your choice to decide if that's obsolete enough for you.

Strange, I thought SGML keywords are case-sensitive, i.e. "DOCTYPE". Is
this a (W3C) Validator bug not recognizing the error, or has there been a
(W3C) Validator bug before, that is now fixed, which marked the lowercase
version as such?

I'm not aware of that. But DOCTYPE is recommended, yes.

[...]
<body
onLoad="document.EmailFound.CMName.value='Fanny';">

Click to expand...

Have you not just suggested the standards-compliant solution?

onload="document.forms['EmailFound'].elements['CMName'].value='Fanny';">

<form method="POST" name="EmailFound">
<input type="text" name="CMName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Click to expand...

This is, again, _not_ Valid HTML 4.01 Strict. The required `action'
attribute is missing

Yes, you already mentioned that in your previous paragraph.

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn · Jul 18, 2008

Bart said:
To be precise with W3-compliant terminology,

I would not be so sure about that. SGML was there before TBL invented HTML
to begin with.

<script> is the Start Tag and </script> the End Tag of the Element.

I think I just said that.

For me that makes sense to state that the Start Tag was thus not closed.

An SGML tag is opened with `<' (STAGO: Start TAG Open delimiter) and closed
with `>' (TAGC: TAG Close delimiter). An SGML element is started with
`<...>' (start tag) and ended with `</...>' (end tag, beginning with the --
at least for script authors -- well-known ETAGO [End TAG Open delimiter]
`</' and ending with a TAGC).

See also <http://xml.coverpages.org/sgmlsyn/sgmlsyn.htm#C7.4>.

But I accept your explanation for the choice of terminology.

I'm not exactly looking forward to a 99th discussion about this issue.

Nevertheless, if you suggest to the OP to use HTML 4.01 *Strict*, it might
be a good idea to mention this fact in at least a line, since the resulting
markup would be invalid then. Deprecation of markup tokens, at least, is
not merely a matter of opinion, but of syntax.

We discussed this before and my position has remained unchanged.
Adding 'type="text"' has only benefits

Such as?

and helps to make the code clearer and self-explanatory.

Text input comes first to my mind when talking about input, so I don't need
the reminder. YMMV.

Netscape 4. Your choice to decide if that's obsolete enough for you.

IIRC I have showed before that it is _not_ an issue with Netscape 4.x.

PointedEars

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Can't get value into html form field

Kelly

Bart Van der Donck

Jorge

jorabi1

jorabi1

Jorge

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn

Bart Van der Donck

jorabi1

Bart Van der Donck

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn

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