[thelist] cgi question

[aardvark]

showing an error page and making the user hit the 'back' button is bad form...

instead, if there is an error, you should re-draw the form page and highlight the fields with 
error... that way the user knows what to fix by looking for highlighted fields, and can continue 
on to the next page...

for example (lo-budget e-commerce site):
http://herdaboutbuffalo.com/merchandise/default.asp

- add something to your cart (don't worry, it doesn't ask for cc info until the end, and you aren't 
going that far)...
- hit the 'next page' button...
- now try to submit the 'Billing Information' page with blank fields...

see what i mean?

the way you describe that you are doing it is very user-unfriendly... never make the user do 
any more than they have to, and they shouldn't have to hit a 'back' button and hunt for fields to 
correct...

no, i didn't check the site, but as a tip, did you include all your HTML4.01 form accessibility 
features?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Meredith Tupper
> 
> I'm working on a form with about 20 required items, and
> everything works except for one problem: if 
> someone submits
> the form without entering all the required info, 
> they get an
> error page and have to return to the form, but 
> once they get
> back to the form, all the info they entered is gone.  Is
> there any way I can cache the data that they enter so they
> don't have to start again?
> 
> Here's the form:
> http://www.monthendrecovery.com/members/onlineform.html.