[Portfolio] Form validation question

Sean Keesler sean.keesler at threecanoes.com
Thu Jan 27 15:32:13 PST 2011


I suppose this is a function of the number of existing forms that need
validation against the new schema....and it takes as long as it takes.
Is this more a function of the browser timing out? or do you think
Sakai or tomcat or apache is the cause?

I think you can tweak Firefox's timeout settings...it may be worth
checking into to help troubleshoot the issue further.

Sean Keesler
130 Academy Street
Manlius, NY 13104
315-682-0830
sean.keesler at threecanoes.com



On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 5:44 PM, David McPherson <dmcphers at vt.edu> wrote:
> Hi Sean,
>
> That is a subtle distinction and one that is noted.  So this may not be the issue I thought it was.
>
> Ok...when we've tried something like this in the past, what we've encountered is timeout's from our servers.  Should something like this take more than 5 minutes?  That's what our current timeout is set to.  If so, is there anything we can do to help with this timeout problem?
>
> Thanks again,
> Dave
> --
> David McPherson
> 2210A Torgersen Hall
> Virginia Tech
> Assistant Director, ePortfolio Initiatives
> 540-231-8993
> http://eportfolio.vt.edu/
>
> On Jan 27, 2011, at 5:15 PM, Sean Keesler wrote:
>
>> Dave,
>>
>> You can edit a published form.
>> You can attach a new schema to it....even after it has been used by
>> others. The trick is (as Noah said) that your new schema can't
>> invalidate existing data.
>> As long as your new form is adding new possible allowed values, you're
>> golden...that won't invalidate anything.
>> It would be the case where you wish to REMOVE a possible choice that
>> has been used in the past that becomes a problem...but that is a
>> different problem than you are trying to solve.
>>
>> Sean Keesler
>> 130 Academy Street
>> Manlius, NY 13104
>> 315-682-0830
>> sean.keesler at threecanoes.com
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 2:29 PM, David McPherson <dmcphers at vt.edu> wrote:
>>> Hi Sean and Noah,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the responses.  I think maybe some background might help.
>>>
>>> We have a form that folks are going to use to create a portfolio.  One of the pages they use will have a drop down list of choices for them to categorize what type of page it is, e.g. under service maybe outreach.  We know that as soon as we publish the form someone will say, oh...can you add <category x> to the list.  Right now the answer would be no, since we can't modify the form after it's published.  My idea was to have the presentation of the form, read an xml file and populate the drop down list from that.  I've got that part working.  What I want to be able to do is validate the choice the person made with the list of valid choices.  Sean you had mentioned changing the default validation.  I wouldn't mind doing that I just was stuck as to where to do that.  Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Dave
>>> --
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> David McPherson
>>> Assistant Director, ePortfolio Initiatives
>>> 2210A Torgersen Hall
>>> Learning Technologies
>>> dmcphers at vt.edu
>>> 540-231-8993
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 25, 2011, at 12:42 PM, Noah Botimer wrote:
>>>
>>>> We have actually done exactly this (including an "other" option for write-ins). The question is...
>>>>
>>>> Dave, do you need to update the valid set of options so that content stays in sync? Or is the drop-down mostly about an appropriate/convenient set of options at creation/editing time?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On the technical side, the upshot is this:
>>>>
>>>> All of the forms of a given type should conform to their schema. If, for example, the field is required and an option that has been used is removed/changed, there would then be invalid forms (which is actually checked and disallowed). Adding options is okay. On the other hand, you can (as Sean suggests) use a text field that isn't validated and support it with a select box (with JavaScript). While not technically being validated, the nominal case is that the user will pick from the list and keep your data clean (enough).
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> -Noah
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 24, 2011, at 4:31 PM, Sean Keesler wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> With the default form renderer, a select box is created when you have
>>>>> a string with enumerated choices as an element.
>>>>> It seems like you could create a custom renderer that would create a
>>>>> select box for just that string field...and not validate it against an
>>>>> enumerated list.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sean Keesler
>>>>> 130 Academy Street
>>>>> Manlius, NY 13104
>>>>> 315-682-0830
>>>>> sean.keesler at threecanoes.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 3:56 PM, David McPherson <dmcphers at vt.edu> wrote:
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm working on a way to dynamically update a drop down list on a portfolio form.  I've got the list to update from an xml file, but when I select one of the options form the dynamically generated list, the validation of the form fails, indicating that the option I chose wasn't a valid choice, i.e. wasn't in the list.  So my question is, does anyone know where the validation takes place?  I'd like to see if I can modify this to also compare against my external list.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Dave
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>>>> David McPherson
>>>>>> Assistant Director, ePortfolio Initiatives
>>>>>> 2210A Torgersen Hall
>>>>>> Learning Technologies
>>>>>> dmcphers at vt.edu
>>>>>> 540-231-8993
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>
>


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