Extension to hCard parsing to support forms

Hi all,

I had a chat with Tantek on irc about the current
limitations when using
forms with hCard etc.

He suggested I summarise the previous discussions from the
mailing lists
on wiki - see:


http://microformats.org/wiki/hcar
d-brainstorming#Key_Issues.2Fdiscussion_points


I'd appreciate any help anyone can provide in this area as
this has a
reasonable impact on some development I'm currently working
on.

Thanks...



roBman


-- 
Rob Manson
Managing Director
http://paymentz.com.au
e: roBmanpaymentz.com.au
m: 0423 215 731
t: 1300 662 857


Linked In Public Profile:
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On Jul 13, 2007, at 8:30 AM, Rob Manson wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I had a chat with Tantek on irc about the current
limitations when  
> using
> forms with hCard etc.

> I'd appreciate any help anyone can provide in this area
as this has a
> reasonable impact on some development I'm currently
working on.

Interestingly, re-reading what I wrote back then I seem to
now  
completely disagree with myself then.  To clarify what we're
talking  
about, I added examples of the markup proposed.  I'm not
sure I  
captured everything right, so please edit any mistakes you
see and/or  
confirm if it looks right.  After that's clarified, I think
it would  
be good to use this markup to test the various claims made
about how  
these proposals would work in existing parsers.  I suspect
some of  
those claims (most likely those made by me) are demonstrably
false,  
and should therefor be removed from the discussion.

Peace,
Scott
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> Interestingly, re-reading what I wrote back then I seem
to now  
> completely disagree with myself then.  To clarify what
we're talking  
> about, I added examples of the markup proposed.  I'm
not sure I  
> captured everything right, so please edit any mistakes
you see and/or  
> confirm if it looks right.  


Some of my best disagreements are with myself 8)

The markup looks good to me...however I don't think the
second one
should require the class to be in the <form> tag. 
That's also why I
personally prefer the second option.  I think the following
example
could be common too.  I also think we should add the value
explicitly
since that's what we'd parse for.

<form ...>
<div class="vcard">
   <fieldset class="fn">
      <input type="text"
class="given-name" name="first_name"
value="Rob" />
      <input type="text"
class="family-name" name="last_name"
value="Manson" />
   </fieldset>
   ...
</div>
<div class="vcard">
   <fieldset class="fn">
      <input type="text"
class="given-name" name="first_name"
value="Scott" />
      <input type="text"
class="family-name" name="last_name"
value="Reynen" />
   </fieldset>
   ...
</div>
</form>


If there's no major complaints then I'll update the example
markup...


> After that's clarified, I think it would  
> be good to use this markup to test the various claims
made about how  
> these proposals would work in existing parsers.  I
suspect some of  
> those claims (most likely those made by me) are
demonstrably false,  
> and should therefor be removed from the discussion.


There are some other issues with the existing parsers in
this model too
(see my issues list further down that wiki page -
http://microformats.org/wiki/hcar
d-brainstorming#Key_Issues.2Fdiscussion_points )

For example <textarea class="given-name">
style tags already appear to
parse ok.  However the parsers (for example operator) only
ever pickup
the content values at load time.  The same behaviour
limitation is
obvious if you just view source after you've updated a field
but not
submitted the form.  This may not be a major problem
depending upon your
application...but unless the parser dynamically interacts
with the DOM
then it does add a real constraint.

Also, beyond the standard INPUT fields things get a lot
messier.
Personally I'd be happy to work around that with javascript
onChange
functions to update 

<input type="hidden"
class="given-name" name="first_name"
value="NewName" /> 

style fields...but I'm not sure if everyone would be happy
with that.




-- 
Rob Manson
Managing Director
http://paymentz.com.au
e: roBmanpaymentz.com.au
m: 0423 215 731
t: 1300 662 857


Linked In Public Profile:
http://www.link
edin.com/pub/0/b54/328


See me speak at WebDirections South:
http://w
ww.webdirections.org/program/#manson


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