[html-formfu] FormFu observations

[Octavian Rasnita]

From: <xaos at darksmile.net>
> I have since posted some code and I will be posting much more (soon)  

Can you tell us where you posted them? Or I have missed something?


> Once I got over the initial 2-3 week period, I was ok. Most of the  
> time now I just go directly to the source and see what's going on. I  
> know this is wrong,

No it is not wrong. Not nice at all, but not wrong. :-)

> If you want real good looking forms you MUST use javascript along with formfu!

Yes, if the JS code doesn't eat the whole processor of the page visitor and if the JS code is absolutely needed, for verifying the form fields client side for example, and not just for design purposes, and if the form can be used if the browser has JS disabled, and if the form can be accessed with the keyboard and a few other requirements...

> There is no way around this. Nowdays people expect web pages to be  
> fully interactive not just static HTML.

If you are referring to the "people" as to the millions of users that may like things like iPhone or different tablets, then yes, you are right.
But I prefer to use a site which is very easy to use and very ugly but with very much helpful information, than to use a site which is very hard to load because too much JS on it.

> For instance, I use javascript to fully qualify a form even before the  
> user presses "submit". It just takes too long to actually submit to  
> server and get back any errors. It feels sluggish.

Yes, that is a very good reason for using JS.

> So, since my forms are all pre-processed on the front end, you would  
> think that maybe I should abandon FormFu altgether?
> 
> Well, absolutely not! YAML is much easier to work with than raw HTML.  
> I do not want to give that up.
> 
> And then there is the concept of form re-use. My HTML tree has a form  
> directory which has dirs for every page but also a "Library" dir for  
> shared forms. Without YAML this is not possible.

It is very possible without YAML which is a very ugly format, by using Config::General for example or any other configuration style accepted by HTML::FormFu (actually accepted by Config::Any).

> So, using FormFu, Javascript, jQuery (Absolute MUST. Don't ever code  
> Javascript without it!!!), AJAX, MySQL and Apache I have designed some  
> awsome pages using forms.

Do you care to tell us which are those pages?
They may be good examples for others.

> If you didn't see that it was running under Firefox you would think  
> that my pages are C code native to the playform.

I hope they don't load as bad as some ExtJS widgets just for making the page "look" like a desktop app, because it is just a kind of lie. A web page can never be so featured as a desktop interface, and making it just "look" as a desktop app, it make it be even much worse because it will be much unresponsive.

Octavian