From: thunk <gmkoller@...>
Date: 2010-12-09T18:10:27+09:00
Subject: Sinatra for Interactive Forms?   HTML5/JQuery


Good Evening,

I am an experienced programmer, but new to web programming.   We have
a number of interactive forms which, as I understand, will require
HTML5 or JQuery.

A good demonstration of what we need to do is to be found here:
http://remysharp.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/select-chain.php

I am investigating using Sinatra, as it seems very concise to move our
GUI App. to being on-line.

As I study Sinatra it is very clear how and where to write blocks of
code that service various "requests" from the form.

What is not clear to me is how this "request" (modified URL - right?)
is "set" on the client side in a situation where the user has
selected,  for example,  an item in one list and the form needs the
information to fill out another list.

But more fundamental than not understanding how to do this it has not
become clear what tools to use most consistent with Ruby, with minimal
complexity (please don't make me use Java again;;;), and with minimal
maintenance into the future.

Note,  we feel we can reasonably require our limited client base to
use the latest HTML5 browsers if they will do what we need such as the
above example.

Perhaps there are plug-ins coming to do this with Sinatra?

Or perhaps there is a "Form Generator" for HTML5 that we can use
(mostly) directly?

Thanks for any thoughts/recommendations on this!


George