On 17/10/2005 14:48, xscully wrote:
Is there a way to force the user to read a textarea?
No.
Just like those 'agreements' that is used in a few offline
instalation..
You have to scroll all the way down of the textarea and then the I
AGREE button is enabled...
Having to scroll doesn't constitute reading. I know I've just scrolled
through because I knew what the agreement entailed (I do read license
agreements, but I don't read the same 'stock' ones more than once).
is there a way to do that with JS?
No, but I don't think it would be a good idea even if you could.
If you're actually looking for a legally binding form of click-through
agreement, then there are issues you should be aware of. Some of these
have been presented by Andrew Patrick[1]. A few notes on the principles,
as I read them:
"Opportunity to review terms"
It's important that a user can't just use some link to go directly to a
point beyond the agreement. In doing so, they would have access to the
content, but they wouldn't have agreed to the terms of use. To prevent
this, it may be considered necessary to use sessions to track users and
their consent, and eject those visitors without a valid session id to
the agreement page.
"Opportunity to correct errors" and "Ability to reject terms"
An initially unchecked check box with the label, "I have read, and agree
to, the above terms and conditions", should be considered sufficient as
the user would have needed to take an explicit action to give their
consent. However, there should be a paragraph - perhaps after the check
box - that indicates that not agreeing will prevent them from using
whatever it is you're providing. Submitting the form without checking
that box should redirect the user away from the 'protected' area. Note
that all of this checking (and the redirection) /must/ be performed
server-side.
An alternative to a single check box would be two radio buttons. One
would read the same as, or similar to, the check box. The other,
initially chosen, would read something like "I do not agree to the above
terms and conditions, and understand that I may not use <whatever>."
This would render the paragraph that says much the same, unnecessary.
"Ability to print the terms"
It's not usually possible to print the entire contents of a TEXTAREA
element - only the visible portion is shown. It might be better to
mark-up the terms with normal semantic notation (paragraphs, headings,
lists, etc.) and wrap it all in a DIV element. You could then produce a
style sheet that renders a similar effect, and a print media style sheet
that removes that effect.
Don't use a pop-up though, as demonstrated in the image.
Mike
I'm not a lawyer. I'm just presenting my lay opinion.
[1] Patrick, A. (2002) Just-In-Time Click-Through Agreements
<URL:http://www.andrewpatrick.ca/jitcta/jitcta.html>
--
Michael Winter
Prefix subject with [News] before replying by e-mail.