RE: [IUG] buttons vs. check boxes to mark records

["Zhou, Don" <don dot zhou at wmitchell dot edu>]

I think Innovative was on the right track to make it a button, but just
did not quite get it done. Why?


With button, each click saves that bib for export. So if you go to the
next page, the clicked bib has been saved to be exported or viewed.
With check box, after you check them and then move on to the next page,
those check marks are not saved.  You almost have to provide a warning
tag saying: save your marked records before you move to the next page.  

This could be a good enhancement request to ask Innovative: button yes,
but to remember the postion of the last click.

We stay with the check box for now.


Don Zhou
William Mitchell College of Law


-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org
[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Bob Duncan
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 12:23 PM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: Re: [IUG] buttons vs. check boxes to mark records

At 12:49 PM 02/13/2007 -0800, Sue wrote:
>Our redesign team has come up against a problem we are hoping someone
>has a solution for. The Pro example set has buttons to mark records for
>export in browse display. We've noticed that when you click the "save
>record" button you are sent back to the top of the browse list rather
>than back to where you were when you clicked the button. This does not
>happen in our live system which uses check boxes. We've explored other
>Pro libraries' catalogs and observed the same behavior. Is there any
way
>to fix this? I'm sure it has to do with the onClick=return
>replace_or_redraw" but I don't know enough about onClick options to
>figure out how to make it change the gif with the "clear item" button
>and return to the same spot.


I think it's the old "there's no there there" problem.  When you mark an

individual record by clicking the button, you're saving the record and 
generating a new URL, hence a new page, and it's standard browser
behavior 
to start at the top of a page.  (Essentially, the "same spot" does not 
exist on the new page.)  To land the user somewhere other than the top
of 
the new page would require targets in the code and the ability to
re-write 
on the fly the URL that results from marking a record.  Someone who's 
really clever with Javascript might be able to figure out a workaround,
but 
since the button is generated via a token in conjunction with a
wwwoption, 
if it's possible to do so I think it would take some fancy footwork.

The difference with the checkboxes is that nothing actually happens when

you check a box---the records aren't saved until you click the "Save
marked 
records" button.   If you click the button at the top of the screen you 
will remain at the top of the display (albeit the top of a different 
display), but if you click the version of the "save marked" button that 
appears at the bottom of the screen, you will indeed be placed back at
the 
top of the (new) display.

It would be nice if the new "marked" class that's added to the
browseEntry 
row in index browses had been incorporated into briefcit marking so
users 
could be given visual clue for where they left off in browsing the list,

but that didn't happen.  (I'm guessing the "clear" button that replaces
the 
"save" button is supposed to provide that clue.)  What would be nice is
a 
built-in mechanism that places users at the same place in the list of 
entries that they were when they clicked the save record button,
especially 
in light of the R2006 ability to provide users a list of 50 instead of
12 
entries.  (Might be a good reason to stick with 12?)

Bob Duncan


~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Robert E. Duncan
Systems Librarian
Editor of IT Communications
Lafayette College
Easton, PA  18042
duncanr at lafayette dot edu
http://www.library.lafayette.edu/ 


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