> I am working on an app and frustrated with forms.

> Basic site layout is 2  column layout 200px wide left side (menu) , 700px
> wide main right section (page content).

> I have some forms that fill up the page, others are 2 or 3 fields so a full
> page with all that white space looks terrible. I have tried so many
> different ideas and now just looking for thoughts or suggestions.

> I have loaded the forms in a modal box and looks good for the smaller forms
> but larger forms look bad as the modal almost is the entire height of the
> window defeating the purpose.
> Also with the modals error messages increase the size of the modal (using
> colorbox) which then adds scroll bars because the errors increase the
> original loaded height = ugly

> I tried adding edit buttons which then load the form into a div dynamically
> and sumbit ajax on success the form goes away and the content is updated
> directly on the page, only problem with that is on some pages there are
> there are multiple edits of smaller forms so user can then end up with 5 or
> 6 edit forms and if someare in modals and others are not the design
> consistency is thrown off. I would like to keep the methods for editing the
> same thruoght the site.

> I like the look of the modal, but the pricticality of simple vs fancy. But
> I want all the form sumbitted ajax either way.

> So open to suggestions, ideas, other ways to implement clean forms....

> I know I have over thought this but maybe if someone told me what to do
> rather than me making the decision I might just go for it :)

> Thanks

> Dave

> You can pass $this->data from the first section to the next and store them
> in hidden fields, then actually persist the data on the second page (to
> ensure no partial submissions).

> On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 1:11 PM, Dave <make.cake.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >  Just looking for some opinions here.

> > I am working on an app and frustrated with forms.

> > Basic site layout is 2  column layout 200px wide left side (menu) , 700px
> > wide main right section (page content).

> > I have some forms that fill up the page, others are 2 or 3 fields so a full
> > page with all that white space looks terrible. I have tried so many
> > different ideas and now just looking for thoughts or suggestions.

> > I have loaded the forms in a modal box and looks good for the smaller forms
> > but larger forms look bad as the modal almost is the entire height of the
> > window defeating the purpose.
> > Also with the modals error messages increase the size of the modal (using
> > colorbox) which then adds scroll bars because the errors increase the
> > original loaded height = ugly

> > I tried adding edit buttons which then load the form into a div dynamically
> > and sumbit ajax on success the form goes away and the content is updated
> > directly on the page, only problem with that is on some pages there are
> > there are multiple edits of smaller forms so user can then end up with 5 or
> > 6 edit forms and if someare in modals and others are not the design
> > consistency is thrown off. I would like to keep the methods for editing the
> > same thruoght the site.

> > I like the look of the modal, but the pricticality of simple vs fancy. But
> > I want all the form sumbitted ajax either way.

> > So open to suggestions, ideas, other ways to implement clean forms....

> > I know I have over thought this but maybe if someone told me what to do
> > rather than me making the decision I might just go for it :)

> > Thanks

> > Dave

> --
> David C. Roda
> 717-917-2169