running a script

[elvis_impersonating_penguin]

<a href="FMPro?-DB=db.fp3&-Format=rslt.htm&-Script=My+Script&-FindAll">Run script</a>

i am using a link similar to this to run a script from my page.. how do i make it so the script runs without trying to leave the page as well.. i just want the script to run after i click on the link.. i don't want to leave the current page i am on.

Thanks in advance for any help

Rick

[This message has been edited by bman (edited October 25, 2000).]

[Vaughan]

You cannot. After performing the form or URL, Web Companion returns the web page specified by the -Format CDML tag. It cannot stay on the same page -- unless you specify the same current format page to be then next format page too, but I don't think that's a good thing.

What you are asking for is bad interface design. If you push a button or click a link you expect/need some sort of feedback that something has happened. Making a link that goes nowhere is going to confuse the users. They'll need confirmation that the process was successful, otherwise they'll keep clicking the link or button and eventually give up in frustration thinking that it's not working.

You could also create a format file that looked exactly the same as the previous page and send the users to that. Either way I think that the concept of a link or button that seems to have no effect (when it actually is doing something) is bad interface design.

[This message has been edited by Vaughan (edited October 25, 2000).]

[elvis_impersonating_penguin]

with this script if they arent sent to another page it shouldn't confuse them.. what it does is bring up and e-mail window. i could get the same effect with a :mailto hyperlink, but i can't put alot of information in the body of the e-mail automatically with the :mailto hyperlink. Which is what the script does.

Any suggestions on how i might find a better way to do this would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks

Rick

[This message has been edited by bman (edited October 26, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by bman (edited October 26, 2000).]

[Vaughan]

OK. Just remember that if the user clicks on the mailto: link on the page then an email message will be sent from *their* computer; but if the user clicks a link that runs a script, the script will run one the *server* and the message will be sent from the server.

The mailto link is actually quite flexible. There was a previous post that explained how to include subject and message information in a Mailto link as well as the address.

Ah! I just found it.. the Forum's search facility really does work! Take a look at

http://www.fmforums.com/ubb/Forum22/HTML/000079.html

Regarding interface, if a user clicks on a link and another window opens (like a mail message) then that's quite kosher. It cases where nothing appears to happen that cause problems. The more I think about he issue the more the fancy mailto link looks like a good solution .

[soulrider]

just frame your page an put in the link the target name of the frame. (make the frame 1 pixel big)

[elvis_impersonating_penguin]

thank guys, but we worked somethig else out, were not using a script or a mailto link anymore.

neither one worked for what we needed to do. so we worked out something else.

thanks anyway