I am developing a Form to be used for data input into a database. To
limit errors in fields I want to input some data using "<SELECT
NAME=xxxxx> <OPTIONS VALUE=yyyyy> <OPTIONS VAL........> .......
</SELECT>". The problem is that some of the menu lists to be presented
are very large for a single drop down menu, 400 - 500 entries. I can
break them up into shorter menus according to alphabetical ordering but
can I use several "<SELECT NAME=xxxxx>" with the same names, even if I
am make "MULTIPLE" selections possible. Or is there another way around
this, I am sure other developers had been faced with this problem before.
Suggestions and feed back welcomed. Thanks

Adam Smith <adamsmith@econ.com> writes:[color=blue]
> I am developing a Form to be used for data input into a database. To
> limit errors in fields I want to input some data using "<SELECT
> NAME=xxxxx> <OPTIONS VALUE=yyyyy> <OPTIONS VAL........>
> ....... </SELECT>". The problem is that some of the menu lists to be
> presented are very large for a single drop down menu, 400 - 500
> entries. I can break them up into shorter menus according to
> alphabetical ordering but can I use several "<SELECT NAME=xxxxx>" with
> the same names, even if I am make "MULTIPLE" selections possible. Or[/color]

Yes, but your form parser will have to deal with it carefully. Though
if you're using 'select multiple' you've already got to deal with
that, so you should be fine.
[color=blue]
> is there another way around this, I am sure other developers had been
> faced with this problem before.[/color]

Allow text input, check if it's in the allowed list, if it's not
return to the form with an error and maybe a list of 'close'
alternatives. If it's in the allowed list, proceed with form processing.

You could possibly combine that with optional Javascript to check if
it was in the allowed list *before* submission.

--
Chris

Adam Smith wrote:
[color=blue]
> I am developing a Form to be used for data input into a database. To
> limit errors in fields I want to input some data using "<SELECT
> NAME=xxxxx> <OPTIONS VALUE=yyyyy> <OPTIONS VAL........> .......
> </SELECT>". The problem is that some of the menu lists to be presented
> are very large for a single drop down menu, 400 - 500 entries. I can
> break them up into shorter menus according to alphabetical ordering but
> can I use several "<SELECT NAME=xxxxx>" with the same names, even if I
> am make "MULTIPLE" selections possible. Or is there another way around
> this, I am sure other developers had been faced with this problem before.
> Suggestions and feed back welcomed. Thanks[/color]

You should be able to use several
<select name="selectName">
inside of one form without problems, the user agent simply submits
name=value pairs so it won't make any difference when the form data is
processed.

--

Martin Honnen
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/