How would I go about creating a form with live updates in iWeb?

Question

I'm using iWeb to create a webpage. I'm trying to create a feature where the user can type something in a field, like a comment, and it would display without refreshing the page. Below the area where the comment is typed up by the user, the comment as well as other comments would display. I believe I'd store each comment in a text file for each comment, with any replies to that comment being in the same text file.

I believe this can be done with Ajax (not that I know a lot about Ajax), but I don't know if this can be done in iWeb, or how I'd accomplish it. If live updating would be too much to ask, I could see doing it with PHP possibly. Although I have very little experience with web development, so it's hard to be certain as to how to do this.

Answer 1

Greg - Before jumping to AJAX or PHP as a solution, it would be nice to know a little bit more about the problem you're trying to solve (beyond "type something in a field, like a comment") and whether you're publishing to MobileMe.

Two quick free solutions for forms that only rely on the HTML Snippet object within iWeb are GoogleDocs or Wufoo. Both will allow you to create and embed forms, display results, and receive notifications when the form is submitted. Aesthetically they might not integrate as seamlessly as you want, but this might be a good place to start knowing that you have "very little experience with web development".

Let us know if your website concept requires something a little more robust.

Thanks

Answer 2

So far I've ended up going with a solution using a form without a submit button and JavaScript. I've yet to integrate Ajax into the mix, but I'm fairly certain it will work.

It's a bit difficult because you have to work with the HTML snippet, as opposed to the full page. So far I've found workarounds for all the problems this has imposed but I may have to ditch iWeb in the future for better flexibility.

iWeb really needs to offer more controls over the underlying code.