User confirmation for web application

[Fernie]

Dear forum members:

I'm developing a user application that validates information that the user
entered, such as required fields and proper formatting, etc. on the
webserver. If something in incorrect, I am returning an html response to
the end user. The user must click his browser's back arrow to correct the
form. If the user happens to be an anonymous web user, I go ahead and add a
javascript go back link to make things easier.

I hope that this portion is reasonable and acceptable.

Now one thing that I have not gotten to yet is simple yes/no type
confirmations such as "Are you sure you want to delete this record?". At
the moment, the user clicks a delete button and the form is deleted. Here
is my html snippet:

<INPUT type="submit" name="btnGather" value="Save Changes"></FONT> <INPUT
type="submit" name="btnDelete" value="Delete this record">

For desktop applications, it is customary to obtain confirmation for a
delete action. How about for web apps? I noticed that Yahoo does not
prompt me when I choose to delete any e-mail messages.

Thank you,

Fernie

 

[Noozer]

I'm developing a user application that validates information that the user

entered, such as required fields and proper formatting, etc. on the
webserver. If something in incorrect, I am returning an html response to
the end user. The user must click his browser's back arrow to correct the
form. If the user happens to be an anonymous web user, I go ahead and add a
javascript go back link to make things easier.

I hope that this portion is reasonable and acceptable.

Better to just redisplay the form and highlight the errors or missing
information.

Now one thing that I have not gotten to yet is simple yes/no type
confirmations such as "Are you sure you want to delete this record?". At
the moment, the user clicks a delete button and the form is deleted. Here
is my html snippet:

<INPUT type="submit" name="btnGather" value="Save Changes"></FONT> <INPUT
type="submit" name="btnDelete" value="Delete this record">

For desktop applications, it is customary to obtain confirmation for a
delete action. How about for web apps? I noticed that Yahoo does not
prompt me when I choose to delete any e-mail messages.

Design the interface so 'accidental' deletions won't happen. Then you don't
need to prompt the user to verify the deletion.

 

[Art Sackett]

I'm developing a user application that validates information that the user
entered, such as required fields and proper formatting, etc. on the
webserver. If something in incorrect, I am returning an html response to
the end user. The user must click his browser's back arrow to correct the
form. If the user happens to be an anonymous web user, I go ahead and add a
javascript go back link to make things easier.

My own preference (the one I now always implement) is for the
validation step to reiterate the form with the erroneous values flagged
in some way, and a conspicuous error message. I've yet to hear from a
user, "Hey, I'd rather use my back button!"

For desktop applications, it is customary to obtain confirmation for a
delete action. How about for web apps? I noticed that Yahoo does not
prompt me when I choose to delete any e-mail messages.

I'd decide that based upon how much damage is done by accidental loss
of the data. If it's a minor inconvenience, let the user shoot himself
in the foot. If it's a more costly thing, annoy the user with "Are you
sure you want to do this thing which might be incredibly dumb?".

 

[Augustus]

Dear forum members:

I'm developing a user application that validates information that the user
entered, such as required fields and proper formatting, etc. on the
webserver. If something in incorrect, I am returning an html response to
the end user. The user must click his browser's back arrow to correct the
form. If the user happens to be an anonymous web user, I go ahead and add a
javascript go back link to make things easier.

I hope that this portion is reasonable and acceptable.

Not really... what if they hit "BACK" and the information isn't there? Or
if they need to correct 4 or 5 things and can't remembe them all?

The best way to do this is a "postback"

Say your page is: myform.asp

the page would be set up like this:

Check if the form is posting back to the page
if "yes" then verify and process the information
if data is good, then process it and proceed to next step
if data is bad, display error message(s) and redisplay the
form populating the fields with the user input and highlight
the bad fields
if "no" then display the form

Now one thing that I have not gotten to yet is simple yes/no type
confirmations such as "Are you sure you want to delete this record?". At
the moment, the user clicks a delete button and the form is deleted. Here
is my html snippet:

<INPUT type="submit" name="btnGather" value="Save Changes"></FONT> <INPUT
type="submit" name="btnDelete" value="Delete this record">

For desktop applications, it is customary to obtain confirmation for a
delete action. How about for web apps? I noticed that Yahoo does not
prompt me when I choose to delete any e-mail messages.

Yahoo probably (I don't use yahoo so this is a guess) has you select a
checkbox next to an email message and then click the delete button. That
makes it hard to just accidently delete something.

Something to consider with deleting something is how hard/complex it is to
recreate the item... if its a 20 page form that takes an hour to fill out
then you probably want something in there to confirm the delete (because to
recreate the data will take an hour if its accidently erased) if it was just
a contact record (name, email address and phone number) you might not want
anything more than a "delete" button because it would only take a few
seconds to recreate the entry

 

[Michael Winter]

[snip]

Yahoo probably (I don't use yahoo so this is a guess) has you select a
checkbox next to an email message and then click the delete button.

Indeed it does.

That makes it hard to just accidently delete something.

E-mail is a bad analogy anyway. All mail clients - local and web-based -
that I've ever used don't actually delete messages; they're moved. Undoing
that action is a simple matter of moving the message back.

[snip]

Mike

 

[Fernie]

I'd like to thank everyone who responded with their helpful suggestions.

Regards,

Fernie