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Web Forms 2 Repetition Model

Do you think the HTML spec should do something differently? You can discuss spec feedback here, but you should send it to the WHATWG mailing list or file a bug in the W3C bugzilla for it to be considered.

Web Forms 2 Repetition Model

Postby matthewslyman » Wed Sep 07, 2011 3:07 pm

The Web Forms 2 Repetition Model was removed from the final draft of HTML 5. Does anyone know why?

This is an important and well-publicised feature, that some people were depending on. There are applications (e.g. for security-conscious scientists, engineers and mathematicians with Javascript switched off) involving editable tables of data, where the repetition model is practically essential, at least, if you want your site to look professional and work conveniently. Example page:
http://www.aaabit.com/products/calculation/bin-packing/

Take a look at this test page in Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Then switch off Javascript - I've built a fall-back system using server-side script and plain old HTML. The Javascript is somewhat old and buggy (doesn't work properly in IE or Opera yet). Can we not just have the real feature that was SUPPOSED to be in HTML5? Am I supposed to write custom Javascript for common cases like this? I thought this was the sort of reason why the other Web Forms 2 features (like form validation) were necessary?

Please reinstate this feature ASAP...
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Re: Web Forms 2 Repetition Model

Postby zcorpan » Fri Sep 09, 2011 10:53 am

The rationale if I remember correctly was that there are so many different ways you could implement repetition model or similar features (the spec tried to replace the repetition model with something called "data templates" that also got dropped), that it doesn't make sense for the spec to give one declarative solution to the problem space that might not fit your needs exactly. Instead you should use a javascript library that implements what you want.
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Re: Web Forms 2 Repetition Model

Postby matthewslyman » Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:48 pm

Thanks for explaining this. I did look on the mail archive before posting and couldn't find anything about this.

Did you take a look at my use case? Many of my end-users are going to be based in factories where they have very high security requirements, and accordingly very locked-down OS/ browser installations. Forcing me/ them to use Javascript is NOT a good thing.

The original "repetition model" was just fine. It did a simple and well-defined job, and did it well. Now of course, if you try to replace that with a model that can do every conceivable task (the Swiss army knife approach), then you're going to head into a swamp. Is that what happened with "data templates"?

Can I not have a "repetition model" for the simple common case, and whatever else I care to break my head over, for the unusual and specialist jobs? Please?
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Re: Web Forms 2 Repetition Model

Postby matthewslyman » Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:03 am

Did you get my previous reply? I've been waiting almost a week now for it to be approved for display on the website...
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Re: Web Forms 2 Repetition Model

Postby zcorpan » Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:37 am

matthewslyman wrote:Did you get my previous reply? I've been waiting almost a week now for it to be approved for display on the website...

Sorry about that.

I suggest you bring your use case to the whatwg mailing list or file a bug in W3C bugzilla.
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