Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms • Hacker News Board

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#11

Post by mryall » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:09 AM UTC

aj700 wrote: post #6

They still exist and I've pressed them just before thumping the desk. Is there a greasemonkey script to get the browser to ignore them; are there extensions for any browser to do this without greasemonkey? or with a user stylesheet? input[.reset]{display:none;} what is the right css? I haven't used it in a while?

The following should work in browsers with decent CSS2 support [1]:

    input[type=reset] { display: none; }

You might need a !important in there immediately before the semicolon if your user stylesheets aren't getting priority otherwise.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/selector.html#attribute-selectors

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#12

Post by y0ghur7_xxx » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:12 AM UTC

xd wrote: post #9

I have a form that can be populated with records from a grid. "reset" allows the user to clear the selected record and input new data.

Wouldn't that better be served by a "new" button?

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#13

Post by wickedOne » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:13 AM UTC

though quite useful for 'advanced search' forms

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#14

Post by allbutlost » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:13 AM UTC

aj700 wrote: post #6

They still exist and I've pressed them just before thumping the desk. Is there a greasemonkey script to get the browser to ignore them; are there extensions for any browser to do this without greasemonkey? or with a user stylesheet? input[.reset]{display:none;} what is the right css? I haven't used it in a while?

input[type="reset"] { display: none }

Should do it on most browsers.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#15

Post by almost » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:16 AM UTC

Here's a quick User Script to get rid of them all:

http://almostobsolete.net/noresetbuttons.html

It should work as an extension in Chrome or with Firefox if you have Greasemonkey installed.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#16

Post by robin_reala » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:17 AM UTC

bendtheblock wrote: post #3

Good example of implementing a feature because it's easy to do, rather than because it has real utility. Why it's part of the HTML form spec I don't know. Was it ever useful?

The actual button isn’t particularly useful but the DOM interface is. Firefox (and other browsers?) cache DOM entries in certain situations. This is useful if you refresh the page accidentally with a half completed comment in a text box, but less useful if you’re building a complicated webapp that assumes an initial state. A simple document.forms[0].reset() at the top of your code works wonders.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#17

Post by xd » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:17 AM UTC

y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #12

xd wrote: post #9

I have a form that can be populated with records from a grid. "reset" allows the user to clear the selected record and input new data.

Wouldn't that better be served by a "new" button?

From user acceptance testing we done, that gives the impression it would create a new record from the populated data.

Edit: we use the wording "Clear" not "Reset" btw.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#18

Post by socillion » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:19 AM UTC

A similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired.

Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#19

Post by natabbotts » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:19 AM UTC

Why not add the following rule to your user stylesheet? input[type=reset] {display: none; visibility:hidden;}

That hides them all from view.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#20

Post by wladimir » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 11:22 AM UTC

Even better, get rid of your forms entirely, especially long forms with all kind of questions that you really don't need the answer to. Or have fields that are ambigious and improperly validated. Or multipage forms that have no way of going back without losing your filled in data.