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Re: how to convey that at list one field should bepopulated

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Dec 5, 2006 2:10AM

On Tue, 5 Dec 2006, Shrirang Sahasrabudhe wrote:

> In my application I have a scenario like
> On a form I have 3 text inputs and user must provide value for at list one of them.
> How should I convey it?

By saying that right before them. Example:

<fieldset>
<legend>Contact information</legend>
Please specify <em>at least one</em> of the following:
<div><label for="email">Your email address:</label>
<input id="email" size="30"></div>
<div><label for="phone">Your home phone:</label>
<input id="phone" size="20"></div>
<div><label for="phonew">Your work phone:</label>
<input id="phonew" size="20"></div>
</fieldset>

Optionally, add JavaScript code (scripted events) that checks,
client-side, that at least one of the field is non-empty and non-blank.
In this case, this would probably mean using just onsubmit="..." in the
<form> tag.

The basic accessibility aspect in client-side checking is that by giving
the user feedback about his mistakes as soon as possible, we help people
with short attention span or with memory difficulties to understand what
went wrong and to fix the problem.

> Is there any technique to take care of such scenarios?

There's no special notation that would be generally understood.

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/