Use of Pull Down menu to change contents of web page

#1 July 20th, 2005, 08:12 PM

Hi,

I am trying to create a report page for several teams. Each team runs the
same reports but the reports use different values.

For a while this was getting insane everytime I updated the queries I had to
change them in many places. Then I started using server side includes to
keep me from changing some items in multiple places.

There is still some double (quadruple) updating going on though when I make
some other basic changes so I was hoping to use a pull down menu on the web
page so visitors can select their team and then have the page refresh itself
with the correct queries for that team.

A simplified example of the server side include statement in the file is:
<a href="http://myserver.com/main/gecko/list?"> All types - including enhancements </a>

What I was hoping was to use the pulldown menu such that if they selected
TeamB that the above would change to TeamB from TeamA and refresh the page
to pick up the new definitions. I have each teams definitions defined in
their own .shtml file in hopes that I can include the proper file on the
fly.

If I was not already lost/off base - this is where I know I am lost.

I was trying to play around with a pull down menu to select the team and
then use some server side include to pull in the right include file.

Below was my attempt at trying this but I quickly ran into dead ends and
could not find the right info on the web:

<form>
<SELECT name="team_select">
<OPTION selected VALUE="TeamA">TeamA
<OPTION VALUE="TeamB">TeamB
<OPTION VALUE="TeamC">TeamC
<OPTION VALUE="TeamD">TeamD
</SELECT></p>

<some how need to refresh the page here to pick up the correct server side
include info below >











</form>

I'm not sure if I have explained well enough yet what I am trying to do or
what I tried to do. Does anyone have any suggestions I might try? Do you
need more info?

Thanks for any tips you can point me too.

Glenn

#2 July 20th, 2005, 08:15 PM

In article <cc1gf2$eok$1@fred.mathworks.com>,
"Glenn Mulno" <glenn.mulno@mathworks.com> wrote:

[page navigation through SELECT]
[color=blue]
> Does anyone have any suggestions I might try? Do you
> need more info?[/color]

Please note that search engines do not follow forms. If this is the only
way to reach your content, then this means SE suicide.

Also, if you use the onchange event to make it submit automatically,
visitors who have to rely on keyboard navigation will have a *great*
deal of trouble navigating your site. That adds up to the amount of
regular visitors who have only *a lot* of trouble selecting the option
they intend.

--
Kris
<kristiaan@xs4all.netherlands> (nl)

#3 July 20th, 2005, 08:16 PM

Hi Kris,

Thanks for the reply. The people using the pages I am creating are internal
team members only - about 15 people. They can easily be trained on how to
use the page. This page will not be accessable outside the company.

Glenn

"Kris" <kristiaan@xs4all.netherlands> wrote in message
news:kristiaan-8B91C7.18594002072004@news1.news.xs4all.nl...[color=blue]
> In article <cc1gf2$eok$1@fred.mathworks.com>,
> "Glenn Mulno" <glenn.mulno@mathworks.com> wrote:
>
> [page navigation through SELECT]
>[color=green]
> > Does anyone have any suggestions I might try? Do you
> > need more info?[/color]
>
> Please note that search engines do not follow forms. If this is the only
> way to reach your content, then this means SE suicide.
>
> Also, if you use the onchange event to make it submit automatically,
> visitors who have to rely on keyboard navigation will have a *great*
> deal of trouble navigating your site. That adds up to the amount of
> regular visitors who have only *a lot* of trouble selecting the option
> they intend.[/color]

"Glenn Mulno" <glenn.mulno@mathworks.com> wrote in message
news:<cc1gf2$eok$1@fred.mathworks.com>...[color=blue]
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to create a report page for several teams. Each team runs
> the same reports but the reports use different values.
>
> For a while this was getting insane everytime I updated the queries I
> had to change them in many places. Then I started using server side
> includes to keep me from changing some items in multiple places.
>
> There is still some double (quadruple) updating going on though when I
> make some other basic changes so I was hoping to use a pull down menu
> on the web page so visitors can select their team and then have the
> page refresh itself with the correct queries for that team.
>
> A simplified example of the server side include statement in the file
> is: <a href="http://myserver.com/main/gecko/list?"> All types - including enhancements </a>
>
> What I was hoping was to use the pulldown menu such that if they
> selected TeamB that the above would change to TeamB from TeamA and
> refresh the page to pick up the new definitions. I have each teams
> definitions defined in their own .shtml file in hopes that I can
> include the proper file on the fly.
>
> If I was not already lost/off base - this is where I know I am lost.
>
> I was trying to play around with a pull down menu to select the team
> and then use some server side include to pull in the right include
> file.
>
> Below was my attempt at trying this but I quickly ran into dead ends
> and could not find the right info on the web:
>
> <form>
> <SELECT name="team_select">
> <OPTION selected VALUE="TeamA">TeamA
> <OPTION VALUE="TeamB">TeamB
> <OPTION VALUE="TeamC">TeamC
> <OPTION VALUE="TeamD">TeamD
> </SELECT></p>
>
> <some how need to refresh the page here to pick up the correct server
> side include info below >
>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
> </form>
>
> I'm not sure if I have explained well enough yet what I am trying to
> do or what I tried to do. Does anyone have any suggestions I might
> try? Do you need more info?
>
> Thanks for any tips you can point me too.
>
> Glenn
>
>[/color]

#4 July 20th, 2005, 08:17 PM

"Glenn Mulno" <glenn.mulno@mathworks.com> wrote in message news:<cce0as$kpo$1@fred.mathworks.com>...[color=blue]
> Thanks for the reply. The people using the pages I am creating are internal
> team members only - about 15 people. They can easily be trained on how to
> use the page. This page will not be accessable outside the company.[/color]

There's still always the possibility that, at some time in the future,
you'll have an employee with special needs which must be accomodated
due to the Americans with Disabilities Act (or similar legislation in
other countries) which might be made more difficult by the
accessibility problems introduced by your code.

P.S.: Top-posting is strongly disliked here, especially when
accompanied by wasteful fullquoting, something you seem to have gone
out of your way to do (to the point of re-quoting your original
message which had been snipped by the previous poster).

More info:
http://mailformat.dan.info/quoting/bottom-posting.html
http://mailformat.dan.info/quoting/top-posting.html

--
Dan

#5 July 20th, 2005, 08:17 PM

dan@tobias.name (Daniel R. Tobias) wrote in message news:<aab17256.0407070854.490eddef@posting.google. com>...
[color=blue]
> There's still always the possibility that, at some time in the future,
> you'll have an employee with special needs which must be accomodated
> due to the Americans with Disabilities Act[/color]

Why does the legal position become so much worse for employees ? Most
of this stuff applies to any public web site (public has a specific
legal meaning here), no matter who is accesssing it. I don't think
there's much of a case for your duty of care to employees being a
boundary of how far you have to extend web accessibiity.

Here's a discussion of case law (just about the only accessibility
case law there is) on the Olympics site, specifically about navigation
issues to team results
http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/seri...AppendixA.html

Incidentally, it's well worth reading the whole book.

IANAL, so shove the flames over detail inaccuracies in this post. I'm
busy - go do your own research.

#6 July 20th, 2005, 08:17 PM

dingbat@codesmiths.com (Andy Dingley) writes:[color=blue]
> dan@tobias.name (Daniel R. Tobias) wrote[color=green]
> > There's still always the possibility that, at some time in the future,
> > you'll have an employee with special needs which must be accomodated
> > due to the Americans with Disabilities Act[/color]
>
> Why does the legal position become so much worse for employees ? Most[/color]

UK: Employees are covered by one part of the DDA, Service provision
another part. Arguably employees are less ambiguously covered, though
the DRC has released guidance saying that websites *are* service
provision.
[color=blue]
> of this stuff applies to any public web site (public has a specific
> legal meaning here), no matter who is accesssing it. I don't think
> there's much of a case for your duty of care to employees being a
> boundary of how far you have to extend web accessibiity.[/color]

Well, except that if you are a small business with no dedicated web
design team, you might be able to 'get away with' (say) approximately
WAI-A for your external website (as to do more would be more than
'reasonable adjustments'), but if you hired someone with a disability,
it might be considered necessary to meet parts of WAI-AA(A) for the
intranet as this would be a 'reasonable adjustment' as necessary to do
their job.

Depends on the court, obviously.

--
Chris
IANAL, as usual.

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