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Multiple Values/One Field

After MIC 2.1 beta, MIC was able to support the concept of multiple values for one field. The impetus for this enhancement was the need to support select boxes, though it is also properly employed in checkboxes and may, in fact, be employed with any type of HTML control. It is suggested that the MIC coder become familiar with the idea of multiple values for a single parameter within HTML 4.0, as this is the model which drove the design of the MIC interface.

Generally, it is best to think of fields as always containing lists of data-it just so happens that in the common case, these are lists of one. A field may be initialized to contain multiple values, or it may recieve multiple values from an HTML page. Any values received override all previous values. That is, if a field is initialized to contain two values, `A' and `B', then if the page is displayed, user input is received and the HTML parameter associated with the field has only `C' associated with it, then the field will contain only `C' after the processing of that page. If the page were to have two, twenty, or one hundred values associated with the parameter associated with the field, then that is how many values the field will contain.

Note that there is no guarantee on the order in which the HTML parameters or field values will be processed, displayed or returned. This stipulation is without regards to any guarantee that the HTML specification may make.

See E.3.


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Next: Cross Interface Requirements Up: Forms, Fieldspaces, Fields and Previous: Objs, Dummies and Data   Contents