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Main | Next day (Nov 13, 2003) »

Wednesday Nov 12, 2003

Web continuations, breadcrumbs, and picking up where you left off.

Comments[10] by Dave in Java

Often in web applications, a user will be filling in an HTML form on one page and will realize the need to go to a second or even a third page to enter information needed by the first page.

For example, you are writing a weblog entry by typing text into an HTML form on the Edit Weblog Entry page. You type in about half of your entry and then you realize that you need to create a new category for your post. You click the Add Weblog Category button, arrive at the Add Weblog Category page, create your new Category, and click OK. At this point, you are returned to the Edit Weblog Entry page to find that your half-edited weblog entry is still there. You are ready to continue right where you left off.

How do you achieve this type of behavior in your web application? How do you allow users to continue working where they left off? Do you treat each case as a special case or do you have a general solution like a breadcrumb stack or a web continuation to this problem? It can get pretty messy. Do you cache half-completed forms in your HTTP session or in your database? Or, do you avoid the whole issue by carefully designing around it.

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