Form post

Hello and thanks in advance for your help.
I have code below that posts form data to a cgi scripted shopping cart
and it works great on my mac/firefox browser, but it doesn't work on
ibm/netscape machines. what gives? apparently the data isn't being
recognized and so the cart defaults to it's home page.
<form name='submit3' action='http://my.com/cart.cgi' method='post'>
<input type='hidden' name='user' value='bighouse'>
<input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='My Product'>
<input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='001'>
<input type='hidden' name='item_price' value='3.95'>
<input type='hidden' name='item_weight' value='0'>
<input type='hidden' name='NOTAX' value=''>
<input type='hidden' name='DOWNLOAD' value='1001.zip'>
<input type='image' src='advertisement.gif' value='Buy and Download
Now' name='add_to_cart'>
</form>

zoomcart.com wrote:

Hello and thanks in advance for your help.
I have code below that posts form data to a cgi scripted shopping cart
and it works great on my mac/firefox browser, but it doesn't work on
ibm/netscape machines. what gives? apparently the data isn't being
recognized and so the cart defaults to it's home page.
form name='submit3' action='http://my.com/cart.cgi' method='post'
input type='hidden' name='user' value='bighouse'
input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='My Product'
input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='001'
input type='hidden' name='item_price' value='3.95'
input type='hidden' name='item_weight' value='0'
input type='hidden' name='NOTAX' value=''
input type='hidden' name='DOWNLOAD' value='1001.zip'
input type='image' src='advertisement.gif' value='Buy and Download
Now' name='add_to_cart'
/form

And the submit but is where? Which version Netscape, since currently RIP...

Also URL far better than your snippet, most likely the problem is in
something you have left out.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:43:26 -0400, "Jonathan N. Little"
<lws4art (AT) central (DOT) net> wrote:

zoomcart.com wrote:
form name='submit3' action='http://my.com/cart.cgi' method='post'
input type='image' src='advertisement.gif' value='Buy and Download
Now' name='add_to_cart'
/form

And the submit but is where? Which version Netscape, since currently RIP...

I thought 'image' functioned as a submit button. Perhaps it isn't
widely supported.
--
Steven

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:27:25 +1000, Steven Saunderson <phelum (AT) Syd (DOT) au>
wrote:

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:43:26 -0400, "Jonathan N. Little"
lws4art (AT) central (DOT) net> wrote:

zoomcart.com wrote:
form name='submit3' action='http://my.com/cart.cgi' method='post'
input type='image' src='advertisement.gif' value='Buy and Download
Now' name='add_to_cart'
/form

And the submit but is where? Which version Netscape, since currently RIP...

I thought 'image' functioned as a submit button. Perhaps it isn't
widely supported.

I've just tested using Opera and for the 'image' above it would include
'&add_to_cart.x=0&add_to_cart.y=0' in the GET array (presumably the same
for POST). But there is no '&add_to_cart=whatever' and this makes it
different from a submit button.
--
Steven

Scripsit Steven Saunderson:

form name='submit3' action='http://my.com/cart.cgi' method='post'
input type='image' src='advertisement.gif' value='Buy and Download
Now' name='add_to_cart'
/form
...
I thought 'image' functioned as a submit button. Perhaps it isn't
widely supported.

It's widely supported - widely inconsistently, with different quirks and
oddities. See
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/imagebutton.html
which is very dusty but perhaps suitable in a context where someone
worries about Netscape.

I've just tested using Opera and for the 'image' above it would
include '&add_to_cart.x=0&add_to_cart.y=0' in the GET array
(presumably the same for POST). But there is no
'&add_to_cart=whatever' and this makes it different from a submit
button.

That's the "classical" browser behavior. Newer implementations include
the name=value pair, too. The specifications are, as usual, fairly
obscure.

There's the simple solution
<input type="submit" value="Buy">
and this should at least be used in prototypes and debugging, to
distinguish all the problems caused by image submit buttons from other
problems.

Regarding the name=value pair from a submit button (normal or image),
don't count on it. Mostly, a single form should only contain one submit
button to avoid confusion or, in some cases, two or more _equivalent_
submit buttons. The choice between different actions should be made in
some other way, e.g. radio buttons.

The idea of having different buttons for different actions in the same
form, like "Buy" and "Get info", sounds nice, but it fails to work in
general, due to implementation faults. For example, what happens when
the user types text in a text input field and hits Enter, using a
browser where that causes form submission?

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/