Forms > Required Fields

[rmb]

Looking for some help on programming required fields into my forms on my sites. I only know html and CSS and a little bit of Javascript.

I've designed a form here - http://www.stereofx.net/promo/promo.htm

I've marked some fields with a * saying that they are required fields, just to kind of fool people for now untill I can actually program it. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. I have searched a bit on the net and found it can be done with C#.net programming - but I wouldn't know where to start....

Thanks.

[jamiemac2005]

Hey, you can make your fields required in JS... Heres the basics:
Imagine this in the HEAD of your page...

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

function validateForm(){
  //if this function returns false to the onsubmit event the form will not submit, if it returns true it will submit.

//so get the fields:
var nameField = document.getElementById("namefield");
//I'm using namefield as an example above, do the same for all the other required fields

//then check that the value isn't "" (and empty string)
if(nameField.value == ""){
  //if it is blank
  //return false to stop the form from submitting
  return false;
  //you could also output some form of error (i use alert here as a basic example, personally i'd set up a div, and make it fixed in the center of the screen and have that contain the error)...
  alert("You have not entered your name");
}

//again do the same for each of the fields
//...
}

</script>

And then your form tag looking like this(This is the crutial bit):

<form action="http://formmail.servage.net/" method="POST" onsubmit="validateForm();">

Right that's the general idea of it... I also suggest you go over some W3 validation, because you're working with an XHTML doctype but using some old style attributes etc...
Anyway: Have a look at this.

Cheers,
Jamey

[rmb]

Thanks Jamey. The JS seems a little hectic but will definitely give it a go. Should take me a few days to come right.

As for the errors on my page, well, dreamweaver is righting the code for me and as long as it works I'm happy. I don't know how to fix (or rather prevent) dreamweaver from putting in old/incorrect code.

Since I'm on the topic of dreamweaver... I have just upgraded to Dreamweaver CS3 from version 8, and I've put in my webpages and now they are showing as if the images are left-aligned, but in fact are programmed as centre aligned. If I preview in browser it's ok, but in the actual program I can't seem to get the images to show centre or right aligned. This is really starting to agrevate me.

Screenshot - http://www.stereofx.net/images/dw_screenshot.jpg
webpage - http://www.stereofx.net/html/music.htm

On a final note, what is the code I need in order to have a favicon on my site? Would I have to use the code on all my pages in order for it to show on all pages of the site?

Thanks in advance.

[jamiemac2005]

Okay, if you come up against any problems whilst writing the rest of the JS feel free to post for more help because i'm happy to give you a hand on this form.

Ouch, i didn't know dreamweaver was that bad at coding... If i get the time later today i'll take a look over your site and help you validate it.

as long as it works I'm happy.

You'll find that in certain browsers this will not work.

Again with the images problem i believe the problem is how DW8 coded your site. I'll have a look later to give you a hand.

As for the favicon, you can just place a file called "favicon.ico" in your server root in most cases but it's best to add these two meta tags to the HEAD of your page:

<link rel="icon" href="http://www.domain.com/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.domain.com/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> 

Cheers,
Jamey

[rmb]

Point taken, I do need to try make sure everything is perfect. Got the favicon up, thanks...

If you do get a chance to look at the site validation lets start with the home page http://stereofx.net

27 errors here :(