On Fri, Mar 31, 2006 at 05:17:30PM +0200, Pierrick LE GALL wrote:
On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:23:40 -0500 Owen Leonard <oleonard@athenscounty.lib.oh.us> wrote:
[...] But Delete must be a button because it's harmful to have a destructive outcome be the consequence of a GET action.
Why? you can have a confirmation box on link as well as on a button.
Using javascript by itself isn't a safe way to prevent unwanted destructive consequences: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/05/google_web_acce_1.html The only way to combine a link with a delete action safely would be to make an intermediary page with a confirm button.
In that case, I made the decision to make all the controls buttons for the sake of consistency. I was uncomfortable at the time with the idea of styling links to resemble buttons because I was concerned about possible accessibility issues... I'm not sure my concerns were well-founded.
So, what's the official guideline? Paul told me to discuss it with you, so I believe what you say concerning template is the official voice :-)
With prog templates, I guess my "official" recommendation would be to use links wherever appropriate (where user input via form fields isn't necessary), and to use a form button for any action where the direct consequence of the action is destructive (deletion of data). How does that sound? -- Owen