XHTML based editor on a servlet based application?

[Karthik Kottur]

Hi Javaranch Gurus,

I happened a see a webapplication at a place and was pretty impressed with the presentation. The application allowed the user to click on a table cell and as soon as the user clicks on the cell, it becomes a TEXT BOX and allows the user to enter the data and when the focus is lost from the text box, the data became static. This was possible for any cell on the table and the table had facility to have dynamic number of rows depending on the previous search screen.

The developer didn't tell me how it was built except saying, the presentation is manipulated using an XHTML - based editor. I am aware that the webapplication is based on STRUTS/JSP/Servlets platform.

I did some google search on XHTML based editor but couldn't find any concrete design pattern that would allow me to simulate that on my web application. I would appreciate if someone can light up the candle here... :roll:

[Ben Souther]

I think that being xhtml had little to do with it.
Are you sure he didn't say DHTML (D for Dynamic).

In either case the HTML/Javascript forum as most of this functionality would be written in Javascript.

Moved to HTML/Javascript

[Eric Pascarello]

Was it a rich text area or a plain text box/area?

Eric

[Sanjiv Jivan]

Here's an example of what you seem to be looking for

http://www.baekdal.com/x/xmlhttprequest/

Download and disect the Javascript source. Its fairly easy to follow.

Sanjiv
[ December 05, 2005: Message edited by: Sanjiv Jivan ]

[Karthik Kottur]

Was it a rich text area or a plain text box/area?

Eric

I believe it was rich text area for all the TABLE cells that were editable. It looked pretty neat and useful because the user was supposed to do some analysis by changing some of the values on the table presented to him and he didn't get a row/column of text boxes to do that analysis.

Thanks,
Karthik

[Eric Pascarello]

If it was a rich text area, then you would have to find a third party component to do it since a rich text area is not part of the HTML elements. (Good free ones are hard to find!)

There are multiple ways of doing it. I actually have an application that is a grid that looks like an excel sheet. It is all textboxes that take up a table cells width with a border width of zero. On page post back I read all of the values in the form and save it to the database.

Eric

[Karthik Kottur]

If it was a rich text area, then you would have to find a third party component to do it since a rich text area is not part of the HTML elements. (Good free ones are hard to find!)

There are multiple ways of doing it. I actually have an application that is a grid that looks like an excel sheet. It is all textboxes that take up a table cells width with a border width of zero. On page post back I read all of the values in the form and save it to the database.

Eric

Thanks Eric. Does your application have the textboxes VISIBLE to users? If yes, then doesn't it look cluttered with 10 textboxes(say) per row? Can I get a sneak peek into a sample UI screen?

Thanks,
Karthik