Re: php processing name vs. id field

On 2 July 2010 15:01, Ashley Sheridan <ash@ashleysheridan.co.uk> wrote: > On Fri, 2010-07-02 at 08:49 -0400, Bob McConnell wrote: > >> From: Ashley Sheridan >> >> > Not sure if my other email got through earlier. Replacing the name >> > attribute on form fields with the id one is not feasible at all. They >> > don't even behave the same. What would happen if you had two forms on >> a >> > page that both had an element with the same name? Using the name >> > attribute, everything is fine, but not so if you were using the id >> > instead. >> >> These conditions sound like a bugs to me. I can't imagine any reason why >> different forms could have the same name or id. That applies to any set >> of elements on a page. Each one must have a unique moniker, no matter >> which attribute you use. Even the simple validations I use will complain >> about your duplicates, as they should. Making them all unique also makes >> it much simpler to use tools like Selenium or Silk Test to automate the >> testing process. >> >> Looking at the HTML 4.01 references given earlier in this thread, I see >> that id is now a core attribute, i.e. it is available for all but a >> handful of tags, while name is only available for the tags where it is >> explicitly included. So it still appears to me that id is the preferred >> attribute, as it is more generally available. >> >> Bob McConnell >> > > > It's not a bug in the code. Imagine this scenario: > > <form name="product_filter"> >    <input type="submit" name="action" value="By Product > Name"/> >    <input type="submit" name="action" value="By Product > ID"/> > </form> > > A valid form with two input elements given the same name, which sends a > different value to the server depending on which button was triggered. > Seems valid enough to me. Only one value is ever sent, so why do I need > to give them unique names and further complicate my server-side code? > > Imagine further that there is another form on the page containing the > product listings, and each one has a delete button. Now we all know the > folly of putting things like delete code into an <a> tag, so a button > will do the job: > > <button type="submit" name="action" value="pid_1">Delete > Product</button> > <button type="submit" name="action" value="pid_2">Delete > Product</button> > <button type="submit" name="action" value="pid_3">Delete > Product</button> > > Perfectly valid, and something that is done a lot on apps I've seen and > built. Giving each a unique name just gets in the way, as you need to > use some sort of loop and pattern matching on the server just to get the > data you need. > > ID is not a substitute for name on form elements. The reason name is > only available for a few elements is because it has a specific use-case, > which is not the same as the ID attribute at all. > > I never said the forms themselves would have the same name or id, but > elements within them might have the same name, and two forms might have > elements with the same name. If the ID were to be a substitute for the > name attribute, then this could never happen, our scripts would become > more complex, and all for no gain. > Let's also not forget radio buttons that *by design* should have the same name - if they don't, they don't work properly. Regards Peter -- <hype> WWW: http://plphp.dk / http://plind.dk LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/plind BeWelcome/Couchsurfing: Fake51 Twitter: http://twitter.com/kafe15 </hype>