Using a html form as the model.

I've mentioned this technique before, but I think it is worth repeating more clearly. Without any other code clouding the main message: 'All you need is love html.

A HTML form can describe a model of your data quite well. This lets you go from HTML form design to a working Create Read Update Delete (CRUD) system. A CRUD can be thought of as a nice admin interface to edit your data (or a CMS if you prefer that acronym).

For example:
<form action='savepage' method='post'>
title:<input type='text' name='title'>
<br>textarea:
<textarea name='content'></textarea>
<input type='submit' name='submit'></form>
That's all you need to create a CRUD. Things like validation can be defined in the html easily enough then implemented in your code to be checked server side, and client side. Parse the form to get the model, and go from there.

The benefits are simplicity, and that designers can make a form, and then pretty quickly go to a working system. No need to edit sql, java, php, python, etc - just normal html forms.

Another benefit is more Rapid Application Design (RAD). From the html design you can quickly move to a working app. Especially in a work flow where the designers and clients mock up various forms - this is quicker. It also stops blockages in the production pipeline. Blockages that happen when waiting for a python/php/java programmer to implement the model.

Comments

philhassey said…
I support this method of web development :)
Christopher said…
I completely agree. This has got to be the easiest thing.

Popular posts from this blog

Draft 3 of, ^Let's write a unit test!^

Is PostgreSQL good enough?

post modern C tooling - draft 6