Validation Toolkit

I see the new form builder mentions spry validation. Will it also have server side validation, perhaps using validation toolkit?

I would sure like to see validation toolkit incorprated into ecart. Having to go in and manually add all the individual validations and error messages when building a cart is tedious.

On another note, validation toolkit has been around for a very long time. Is there anything in the works to replace it? I find form validation one of the most time consuming things I do. A wizard that would allow you to validate the entire form, AND apply the error messages in one wizard would be fantastic.
I guess years of using interakt tools, and addt with their one wizard multiple insert, update and delete, including validation have spoiled me :-)

Thanks.
Tom

FWIW I agree with Tom, I love VTK and I probably use it more than any other WA Tool but it can be a long winded process to get it all set up.

Please do not share any of this information with the general community until it is made public.

CSS Form Builder will build entire forms and include spry and server validation in a single wizard. This will be a great tool for people struggling with forms. It will include features such as adding validation automatically both spry and Webassist Server Validation, CAPTCHA, Obvious question, Date Picker, Same As groups and other neat features.

It will greatly decrease the time it takes to build a form by hand using traditional methods and offer some really nice pure css designs to allow for better looking forms. It will be built with an extensible architecture to allow customization of many of the different components.

The existing Validation Toolkit functionality will be included with CSS Form Builder, but hopefully manual application will become less necessary by use of the CSS Form Builder wizard.

Rather than continuing on a separate line of client-side validation, we will be focusing on using the existing DW spry validation in our wizards and enhancing those libraries. Our client validation tools will be included, but not applied often since spry will be used wherever possible. Our client validation will be used when necessary to enhance spry capabilities.

Ray,
I am glad to hear VTK functionality will be included in the form builder.
I think it is very important to include both client side and server side validation on every form.

The client side validation (spry etc) is nice, because its faster because the form does not need to be submitted for it to show errors.

Server side validation however, I believe is more important. It is too easy to get around client side validation. Granted, for most users, this is not an issue, but server side validation is an extremely important security tool. The tools that bots and script kiddies use to try to penetrate a server, or hijack a mail form do not parse javascript, so client side validation will not stop them. However, SS validation will help greatly.

Anyway, it sounded like you were starting to lean away from server side validation and lean more heavily on client side validation, and I wanted to put my 2 cents in there. If I had a choice of only one of those technologies, I would choose server side every time.

Thanks.

Tom

Server Validation is very important because users can always turn off client validation. We appreciate the fact that server validation is the only real security.

Ray,
I thought as much, but just wanted to ask.
Thanks!

Tom

Ray,

the new from builder sounds excellent, look forward to seeing it released

Agreeing with the others this sounds like a great tool to add to my arsenal.

Would I be right in assuming that it's going to be similar to Data Assist in as much as we build a database and then choose the fields to include in the form?

That we can choose the basic designs and colourings?

Will a database have to be used? That is, can it be used to construct a questionnaire for example, that we would just want emailed but not necessarily inserted into a database?

I was going to construct a form today for a new site but I think I'll wait now... :)

This first version will do form design and validation. It won't have database or email functionality included. You would have to apply the dataassist server behaviors or universal email server behavior on the completed form after it is created, or you should be able to update a DataAssist or Universal Email form you have created previously using form builder.

One of our next projects will be to integrate DataAssist, Form Builder, Universal Email, iRite, and Digital File Pro into a single wizard so that everything can be done at once. The wizard will look like Digital File Pro and will allow you to select a form builder design, check whether you want the form contents emailed and include iRite and Upload fields as possible field types.

That complete architecture isn't finalized, but your point is noted. Perhaps we will integrate Universal Email into Form Builder, then Integrate form builder into DataAssist, that way you could create a custom form not based on a Database table and email it from the form builder wizard and use the DataAssist wizard for database interaction.

It will obvilously take some time to complete the integration, so please do not talk about it publicly until it is formally announced by us.

Thanks Ray,

Ok, so not now but later perhaps. That'll do me.