length of time

[mammothman42]

hi everyone

i need some creative input. i'm trying to enable the user to input a
length of time, from one day to about 10 years. ideas i've had have
been:
- 3 pull down boxes, for days, months, years
-an entry box for a value and a pull down box for units (days, weeks,
months, years)
- a scroll bar to slide along to a corresponding time

I'm not sure i should even use javascript, maybe an applet instead. I'd
really appreciated some new ideas or brainstorming.

cheers
dave

 

[McKirahan]

hi everyone

i need some creative input. i'm trying to enable the user to input a
length of time, from one day to about 10 years. ideas i've had have
been:
- 3 pull down boxes, for days, months, years
-an entry box for a value and a pull down box for units (days, weeks,
months, years)
- a scroll bar to slide along to a corresponding time

I'm not sure i should even use javascript, maybe an applet instead. I'd
really appreciated some new ideas or brainstorming.

cheers
dave

How will it be used?

Would a calendar control be applicable?

 

[mammothman42]

just to indicate how long in time a project will take. a calendar can
only really do dates.

cheers
dave

 

[Evertjan.]

wrote on 30 sep 2004 in comp.lang.javascript:

i need some creative input. i'm trying to enable the user to input a
length of time, from one day to about 10 years. ideas i've had have
been:
- 3 pull down boxes, for days, months, years
-an entry box for a value and a pull down box for units (days, weeks,
months, years)
- a scroll bar to slide along to a corresponding time

It realy depends on your audience.
[corporate, academics, general public, sf-writers, etc?]

For myself, I hate using those long pull-downs.
I would use a parsable string, giving the user a choice:

"3y2m23d"
"3.4y"
"23m2d"
"3y60d"

and I would parse them serverside,
perhaps after 'some' clientside validation.

 

[Philip Ronan]

just to indicate how long in time a project will take. a calendar can
only really do dates.

cheers
dave

If you mean the *estimated* duration, then I assume you don't need time
durations of several years to be stated to the nearest day.

So why not have a single numeric input with a choice of 4 radio buttons (or
a pull-down menu) for "Days", "Weeks", "Months" or "Years"?

(That'll be 2¢ please)

 

[Dr John Stockton]

JRS: In article <[email protected]>
, dated Wed, 29 Sep 2004 20:40:25, seen in (e-mail address removed) posted :

i need some creative input. i'm trying to enable the user to input a
length of time, from one day to about 10 years. ideas i've had have
been:
- 3 pull down boxes, for days, months, years
-an entry box for a value and a pull down box for units (days, weeks,
months, years)
- a scroll bar to slide along to a corresponding time

That depends on the accuracy required, on the type of person entering
the data, and on the conventions of the field.

For a data-entry clerk entering such data frequently, use space-
separated numbers for Y M D; if not all possible sub-fields may be
present, use suffix letters as in 152w or 3y.

For a Boss, stating policy infrequently, you could well use something
slower, to make time to think. If the lengths of time are drawn from a
conventional set such as 1d 2d 3d 1w 2w 1m 2m 3m 6m 1y 2y 5y 10y, then a
slider indexing an array of values might serve.

Pull-down boxes are slow; and there is the question of the number of
days in a month.

If best accuracy of duration is needed, you can use only days and weeks;
years are almost as good.

 

[mammothman42]

lol yeah cheers thanks for that, i think that's what i'll do. It's not
that big an issue, i'm just at that stage of the website where little
difficulties like that start to rear their ugly head.

cheers
dave

 

[Fox]

hi everyone

i need some creative input. i'm trying to enable the user to input a
length of time, from one day to about 10 years. ideas i've had have
been:
- 3 pull down boxes, for days, months, years
-an entry box for a value and a pull down box for units (days, weeks,
months, years)
- a scroll bar to slide along to a corresponding time

I'm not sure i should even use javascript, maybe an applet instead. I'd
really appreciated some new ideas or brainstorming.

cheers
dave

http://site-creations.com/demo/timeinput.htm