[Zope] - ANN: AutoMessageDialog patch

[John Mitchell]

On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Jim Fulton wrote:

> Some other ideas to kick around:
> 
>   - Some additional change buttons:
> 
>     "Change and View" - saves changes and shows results.
>         This should work nicely with the browsers back
>         button I think.
> 
>     "Change and Edit" - Returns immediately to the edit
>         screen wo dialog.
> 
>     "Change and Done" - Saves and displays folder contents.

Hmm.  I believe the best way to accomplish this functionality is to
*ignore* it!  That is, *dont* add more buttons onto each editable screen.  
If you want a view, then have a 2nd browser open to reload it.  Else
things get hairy way too fast...

Others: comments?


>   - A status area that gives some feedback on the previous
>     action.  The rule that we've followed is that we
>     don't have to show the message dialog if the screen
>     is different after an operation.  This is why there's
>     no dialog when adding and deleting items in a folder.
> 
>     A status line could be blank normally and show something
>     like: "Changes saved at <time>" after a change.
> 
> Jim

A policy I've used successfully is to have virtually all apps be
one-pagers.  That is, the "Fill out Form" and "Oops: please type zipcode
again" pages are *the same*; except for a bit of code in the header that
says "if there was a status message, show it; otherwise continue."

For example, check out this app:
	http://www.mayohealth.org/cgi-bin/apps/list_mailer2?list=alzupdate

Hit the form, type "haha" in the Name form, then press Subscribe.  You'll
get the same page back with a warning in the top part of the page.  All
fields remain filled-in, so you the user can just edit his information and
continue.


Another take:
	Netscape's Calendar product allows you to create tasks, meeting
arrangements, etc.  The web version uses a two-step procedure to show you
that it accepts what you told it.  Click "Create", it shows a small-font,
one-line message: "Your note has been successfully created", then sends
you to your main Calendar page again.  This is more resource-intensive,
but for intranet-type apps like this one it's very effective.


- j