X-Cart forums

[jb5ep]

Does anyone know the background as to why the default XC themes use images and Jscript actions to submit forms, rather than good ole plain <form> buttons?

Admitedly, i've only looked at one button so far...which is the submit button for the search field in the header. For example, in /customer/search.tpl, i've replaced this:

<TD valign="middle"> 
  <INPUT class="inputfield" type="text" name="posted_data[substring]" size="16" value="{$search_prefilled.substring|escape}">
 </TD>
 <TD valign="middle"> 
  {include file="buttons/search_head.tpl"}
 </TD>

With this..

<TD valign="middle"> 
  <INPUT type="text" name="posted_data[substring]" size="16" value="{$search_prefilled.substring|escape}">
 </TD>
 <TD width="20"><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="{$lng.lbl_search}" class="button"></TD>

If this works site-wide, guess I could just have a single tpl include for a 'Go' button.Is there something glaringly obvious i'm overlooking here (as to why it's better to use images), or is it just a matter of taste?

Cheers,
JB

[balinor]

Personal preference. The buttons are currently designed as three cell tables, which allow the button to auto-stretch based on the text entered for the button. I suspect it was done this way to make it easy for non-html inclined people to edit the buttons.

Personally, I usually replace all the buttons with custom graphics by either creating a new template for each button, or by hard coding the buttons into the templates themselves.

[zilker]

I think they used this method for the visual aspect. There is so much more you can do with images that use JS actions. I know that an eye catching design isn't everything and simplicity is sometimes better but when you're selling in a highly competitive industry, you'd be surprised at how much your design influences your sales.

Like you said, I think a lot of it's personal preference. I guess you already know my preference.

[ETInteractive.com]

using JS also stops ppl from using the back button and getting the pop up message about "post form" and do you want to resubmit the data.

If you use the form button. the browser will track the form action as a page in the history. When you use JS, it does not. If you hit Back it goes directly to the form entry screen and you get no pop up.

[jb5ep]

Thanks for the advice on this... Will have a play, I think...

Cheers,