Action From An Alert Box

[Slartybartfast]

I have a link that when clicked does something on another machine, and it
all works fine.
<a href=http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier>Do That
Thing</a>

But I thought it might be a good idea to verify the user is wants to do it
(and didn't click on the link by accident), so I added the following
javascript:
<script language="JavaScript">
function doit() {
if(confirm('Do you really want to do that thing?'))
{ decision.value =
'http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier;' submit(); }
}

</script>

<a href="javascript:doit()">Do That Thing</a>

The alert box pops up fine, but I've tried a bunch of different things and I
can't get the link to work when the user clicks on the OK button.

Can someone please give me an idea what's wrong?

[Charles Banas]

i'll try preempting the experts and see how i fare. :)

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 18:08:13 GMT, Slartybartfast <we********@hotmail.com>
wrote:

I have a link that when clicked does something on another machine, and it
all works fine.
<a href=http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier>Do That
Thing</a>

But I thought it might be a good idea to verify the user is wants to do
it
(and didn't click on the link by accident), so I added the following
javascript:
<script language="JavaScript">
function doit() {
if(confirm('Do you really want to do that thing?'))
{ decision.value =
'http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier;' submit(); }
}

</script>

<a href="javascript:doit()">Do That Thing</a>

The alert box pops up fine, but I've tried a bunch of different things
and I
can't get the link to work when the user clicks on the OK button.

Can someone please give me an idea what's wrong?

try doing it this way:

<a href="http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier"
onclick="confirm('Do you really want to do that thing?');">Do That
Thing</a>

since confirm() returns true or false, true will allow the link to continue
and false will abort it.

now. let's see what i did wrong. i know i missed something. :)

--
Charles Banas

[Richard Cornford]

"Charles Banas" <no****@myplace.net> wrote in message
news:op**************@news.cableone.net...
<snip>

<a href="http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier"
onclick="confirm('Do you really want to do that thing?');">Do
That Thing</a>

since confirm() returns true or false, true will allow the link to
continue and false will abort it.

now. let's see what i did wrong. i know i missed something. :)

You forgot to return a value from the onclick handler. With out a return
value the navigation will not be cancelled:-

onclick="return confirm('Do . . . thing?');"

Richard.

[Charles Banas]

On 27 Aug 2003 20:55:30 +0200, Lasse Reichstein Nielsen <lr*@hotpop.com>
wrote:

The experts would add a "return" in front of the call to "confirm" :)

... onclick="return confirm(...)"

pah. i knew it. i always forget something. :)

now. let's see what i did wrong. i know i missed something. :)

To know what it is that you do not know, is a kind of omniscience.
/L

too bad i'm not God, eh.

--
Charles Banas

[Jim Dabell]

Slartybartfast wrote:

I have a link that when clicked does something on another machine,
GET methods are supposed to be "safe". They are not meant to change state
on a server.

<URL:http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec9.html#sec9.1>
<URL:http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/methods.html>

Have you considered using a form with POST?

and it all works fine.
<a href=http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier>Do That
Thing</a>
For some value of "works fine". It's incorrect HTML and can cause problems:

<URL:http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/qattr.html>

Also, somebody owns remotedomain.com - example.com has been reserved for
examples of this nature.

But I thought it might be a good idea to verify the user is wants to do it
(and didn't click on the link by accident), so I added the following
javascript:
<script language="JavaScript">
function doit() {
if(confirm('Do you really want to do that thing?'))
{ decision.value =
What does 'decision' refer to?

'http://www.remotedomain.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier;' submit(); }
What does 'submit()' refer to? And don't you want the preceding ;' to be
';?
[snip] <a href="javascript:doit()">Do That Thing</a>
The FAQ explains why this is a bad idea:

<URL:http://jibbering.com/faq/#FAQ4_24>

The alert box pops up fine, but I've tried a bunch of different things and
I can't get the link to work when the user clicks on the OK button.

You want something like this:

<form action="http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/task.cgi?identifier"
method="post" onsubmit="return confirm('Are you sure?');">
<input type="submit" value="Do that thing">
</form>

If you are concerned about the fact that you have a button instead of a
link, please read this:

<URL:http://tom.me.uk/scripting/submit.asp>
--
Jim Dabell

[Slartybartfast]

Thank you guys. It works like a charm.

As for the POST vs. Get; it makes sense. I'm looking into it. Thanks. I