Why not allow/define the use of MIME multipart messages for such applications?
That is, rather than using the SUBMIT attribute as above to retreive a
customized version of the form, why not include named sections of a document
section and define EXPAND/COLLAPSE attributes to control display? For instance,
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=unique-boundary-1
--unique-boundary-1
Content-Type: application/html-form
[some stuff here]
<INPUT NAME="single" TYPE=checkbox EXPAND=single_form COLLAPSE=couple_form>
[more stuff here]
--unique-boundary-1
Content-Type: application/html-form
Part-Name: single_form
[ single-specific stuff goes here ]
--unique-boundary-1--
Content-Type: application/html-form
Part-Name: couple_form
[ couple-specific stuff goes here ]
--unique-boundary-1--
Note that one could also use only one of EXPAND or COLLAPSE to toggle display
of a document section as opposed to selecting between alternate sections.
Another example:
<SELECT SEVERAL NAME="what-to-do">
<LI EXPAND=book_selection_form> Read A Book
<LI EXPAND=walking_trail_map> Take a Walk
<LI EXPAND=bagelry_menu> Buy a Bagel
<LI EXPAND=tv_guide> Watch TV
</SELECT>
This model would work well for those applications where the overhead of
transferring possibly irrelevant sections of a document was low relative to
the overhead of performng multiple GETs.
Chris
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher McRae mail: mcrae@ckm.ucsf.edu
UCSF Center for Knowledge Management at&t: 415/476-3577
530 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0840 fax: 415/476-4653
San Francisco, California 94143