INPUT tag (was: Searching)

Jim Whitescarver (jim@wilbur.njit.edu)
Sat, 16 Jan 93 13:26:25 est


Tony, I'll copy my reply to your query about the INPUT tag specs to www-talk.
We have an old spec for INPUT which was implimented pre web. It will be redone.
There is little agreement on the input tag, except that it will include
attributes for width, name, default, and help.

With this limited definition, the client can impliment default search keys
and get proper resource for help.

We may create a default text to be used with the comment feature, which
will give all input/var field values in rfc822 style for mail based submission.

At issue are:

- handling typed inputs, including texts.
- applying inputs to search defaults. positional? named? override mech?
- applying inputs to go to defaults?
- getting data from users environment, e.g. users mail address.
- how the fields will be substituted into hrefs within the sgml context. scope?
- saving updated input values in bookmarks?
- communicating variables to activity scripts. (our "do" choice)

We need a mechanism to assign arbitrary attributes to anchores and documents.
These may share name space with input variables and VAR tagged data.

If the INPUT and VAR tags could assign an entity value that we can use as
&name; within hrefs, that would serve us well enough. But, is that legal sgml?
It will require a second html parse of hrefs when they are selected.

Our expertise with sgml is limited-- we need a quick and dirty way to pass
data to activity scripts. We are far from being able to make a final
proposal to the web community. The minimal may be:

Tag Attributes

INPUT name, length, default, help
VAR name, timeout

The default search would positionally concatonate inputs into keyword positions.
Documents containg VAR info would not be cached longer than timeout.

It seems that there is interest in fully interactive hypermedia within the web
context. All proposals/feedback is welcomed. Hopefully we can do it together.

jim