How good is FRONTPAGE at data validation

How good is FRONTPAGE at data validation

I have a FRONTPAGE application with a fair amount of internal data validation.

I've not used this application very much. But validation is a topic you might not find out about until its too late. If someone here has words for FRONTPAGE.

Any ideas on the following:

1 Do all the data validation routines in FRONTPAGE work, like string length testing, string substitution?

2 Does it work equally on all Microsoft OS platforms, like WIN 95 to WIN XP?

3 Sounds a dumb question, but is there any UNIX/LINUX implementation of the application?

4 Being a Microsoft product, does it have any special interaction with either the OS or Windows Explorer?

5 Any bottlenecks, that would drive an end user completing a form, crazy?

Thanks for any answers

Codecutter

 

I think I may make a fool of myself here, but FrontPage is used to create web pages. That is applications that run in a web browser. It is not in itself a data validation tool, so I am not quite sure what you are asking.

Front page is OK for creating web pages (haven't seen the latest versions that are said to be improvements over earlier versions) and personally I found it a great platform to start writing HTML. It is easy to use and you can get good results very quickly.

It installs and works just like the other applications within Office and has the same cross Windows functionality. There is not a Linux/Unix version of Front Page, but you can run it under Linux via CrossOver Office. However, most people running Linux would probably use a Linux App to write web content.

On the downside - and I stopped using FrontPage at the 2000 version - the HTML it creates is bloated and the way it handles styles is horrible - Cascading Style Sheets is a much better way to go. Saying that I've yet to find an application that is as easy to use for creating image mappings.

My personal choice is to use Javascript for client side data validation and back that up with server side validation. For example, dates are much easier to validate server side within ASP VBScript but ensuring data exisits is easier and faster with client side JavaScript.

 

Reggie, you're right of course. Front page produces the most **** ornery code and some of the stuff I've seen since I started this project is awful.

Yr criticism on css, or the lack of it, is right on the mark and I'm grateful to you for making it.

However, Frontpage has a very simple, procedure for vetting data input to Web Pages, via what it calls a "Webbot ", which I think creates Javascript on the fly. Is the simple procedure also sound? One of the prime objectives of modern programming is to create re-usable and maintainable code. I take yr point the original HTML by Frontpage is limited but the data vetting is certainly easy to maintain.

My concern was just how good this script is.

Maintaining Javascripts for things like field vetting can be a pain in the butt. Why not let something like Frontpage do it? Is the downside in using Frontpage worth the ease of its data vetting routines? I'm all ears.

 

Yes - you are demonstrating my limited knowledge of the details of Frontpage.

My hunch is that Frontpage will use JScript, VBScript or even ActiveX to do the validation, in which case cross platform functionality may well be an issue.

Why not test it! Mozilla and Opera are going to be the main two alternatives to Internet Explorer. Install one (or both) on your system and test your forms with them as well as IE.

I'm relatively new to dynamic web scripting. Wrote my first HTML about ten years ago, but only got into the dynamic stuff 12 month ago. I've written most of my scripts in VBScript using ASP server side, and only fairly recently started using JavaScript. Therefore I understand what you mean by JavaScript being a pain in the butt. It is hard work after VB and VBScript.

However, I am sure that some functions work better client side (data validation, dynamic graphics, dynamic drop down menus. The last is a personal bugbear. I hate web forms where the page has to be refreshed from the server when you select an item from a drop down menu. I can almost imagine the author of that page, sitting of a PC on the same network as the server, writting the page in Visual Studio going "Hey this is really cool" and not realising how annoying it will be over the internet.) and I am yet to find anything as good as JavaScript (and CSS) for doing this client side dynamic across most browsers.

So if you find a better way of doing it! please tell me!

And there's nothing to stop you building a Javascript function library in an external *.js file.

Finally, I found the JavaScript-FX site fairly recently, and when I saw what was being demonstrated there I knew I had to learn more JavaScript.

 

ReggieB

Thanks very much for yr thoughtful input on this. My own background is with C and my original thinking was, "why not do this job with FrontPage and have it over & done with and be dammed the detail ", you know what I mean.

Yet, this approach would come back & bite me on the butt, I'm sure. So, I decided the best result would be in straight HTML with extensive use of style sheets and I'll write a general purpose Javascript routine to handle the data entry validation.

My thoughts are with you that data validation should usually be done client side, let the response rate be determined by the user's workstation, which he's probably adjusted his response to, rather than the vagaries of response times involved in server side. Though as you say, some validation like date is perhaps best done with Perl or PHP, server side.

Thanks again for yr input.

 

No problem - I enjoyed the conversation. By the way, if you have a C background, does that mean you are familiar with Regular Expresions. If so Javascript validation can get very powerful I think.

All the best