Proper Field Validation Methods and other annoyances...

[Len Morgan]

Hello all!

I've having a few "issues" that I hope someone can answer for me:

1) Why does  put "4" is a date return true?  If this function doesn't 
actually work, why is it still available?  I'd like to be able to have 
users enter a date without any kind of punctuation (i.e., 08142007) and 
be able to validate it as a valid date.  The same applies to entering 
1315 as a time (no colon).

2) This is the "biggie."  What is the proper way to validate the 
contents of a field.  I tried writing a "closeField" script that would 
do the validation, put up a message box if the format/contents are 
wrong, then set the focus back to the field for correction by the user. 
I end up getting two insertion point cursors (one in the "bad" field and 
one in the next field.  The keyboard does go to the bad field but having 
more than one insertion point is confusing to me let alone my end 
users.  By the way, I have tried not passing the closeField message but 
I'm not sure if the "tab to next field" takes place anyway.

3) Related to #2 above, I frequently get vertical lines (insertion point 
cursors) in a field as I move the mouse across it.  Once they start 
showing up, (and they stay so I end up with vertical bars between every 
letter in the field!), I can get them to appear by moving the mouse 
ABOVE the field (not in it) like I have a vertical line that runs the 
height of the entire screen.  Is this something I'm doing or is it a 
known problem?

It should be noted that I'm using Galaxy.  I'd try switching back to the 
Rev IDE except that I can't seem to remove Galaxy (even following their 
instructions.  It's like a bad rash - it just keeps coming back!), I'm 
afraid of the "script eating tendency" of Galaxy if you dare to attempt 
to use another editor.  I've lost countless days of work to this "feature."

#2 is the most important and probably of use to the most people.  #1 
should have never seen the light of day I could write my own routine if 
I had to.

Thanks in advance for listening to my whining. (sp?)

Len Morgan