Do I need javascript to pre-populate a form field?

[Richard Rosser]

Greetings.
I know not one word of Javascript and wondered if there was
an easy way to pre-populate a form field in a similar manner to
populating an eMail 'subject' field? -
The following populates the subject field in an eMail:
a href="mailto:[e-mail]?subject=USER ID 12345

How can I populate the first field of a form (or can I?) with the
same information - i.e. the USER ID located on the HTML page
calling the form?

Any help appreciated

[Laurent Bugnion]

Hi,

Richard Rosser wrote:

Greetings.
I know not one word of Javascript and wondered if there was
an easy way to pre-populate a form field in a similar manner to
populating an eMail 'subject' field? -
The following populates the subject field in an eMail:
a href="mailto:[e-mail]?subject=USER ID 12345

This is not standard, and you have no guarantee that it will work
correctly...

How can I populate the first field of a form (or can I?) with the
same information - i.e. the USER ID located on the HTML page
calling the form?

Any help appreciated

Using HTML:

<input type="text" id="tfUserId" name="tfUserId" value="USERID" />

Using javascript:

document.getElementById( "tfUserId" ).value = "USERID";
This code will throw an error if tfUserId doesn't exist, so a better
code would be:

if ( document.getElementById ) // This checks if the feature exists
{
var nField = document.getElementById( "tfUserId" );
if ( nField != null
&& nField.value != null )
{
nField.value = "USERID";
}
else
{
// No such field, handle error
}
}
else
{
// Browser doesn't support document.getElementById
}

HTH,
Laurent
--
Laurent Bugnion, GalaSoft
Software engineering: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
Private/Malaysia: http://mypage.bluewin.ch/lbugnion
Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch

[Richard Cornford]

Laurent Bugnion wrote:
<snip>

Using HTML:

<input type="text" id="tfUserId" name="tfUserId" value="USERID" />

^

If this is HTML what is that slash doing at the end of the INPUT tag?

Richard.

[Tom Cole]

Richard Cornford wrote:

Laurent Bugnion wrote:
<snip>

Using HTML:

<input type="text" id="tfUserId" name="tfUserId" value="USERID" />

^

If this is HTML what is that slash doing at the end of the INPUT tag?

Stop it. You're going to confuse the newbies.

>
Richard.

[Richard Cornford]

Tom Cole wrote:

Richard Cornford wrote:

>Laurent Bugnion wrote:
<snip>

>>Using HTML:

<input type="text" id="tfUserId" name="tfUserId" value="USERID" />

^

If this is HTML what is that slash doing at the end of the INPUT tag?

Stop it. You're going to confuse the newbies.

I am not the one posting XHTML mark-up and labelling it HTML.

Richard.

[Laurent Bugnion]

Hi,

Richard Cornford wrote:

Laurent Bugnion wrote:
<snip>

>Using HTML:

<input type="text" id="tfUserId" name="tfUserId" value="USERID" />

^

If this is HTML what is that slash doing at the end of the INPUT tag?

Richard.

Do you eat a validator for breakfast every morning? ;-)

Laurent
--
Laurent Bugnion, GalaSoft
Software engineering: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
Private/Malaysia: http://mypage.bluewin.ch/lbugnion
Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch