[whatwg] Usability issues with input type=url validation
Ian Hickson
ian at hixie.ch
Wed Oct 17 17:03:26 PDT 2012
On Thu, 18 Oct 2012, Mikey Clarke wrote:
>
> I'd like a little information on the motivation for using absolute URLs
> on <input type="url"> validation.
>
> Currently <input type="url"> is to be validated using absolute URLs.
> Thus, 'http://www.mysite.com' validates but 'www.mysite.com' does not. I
> consider this to be a huge usability issue. An ordinary user when asked
> to provide a URL will be very unlikely to provide the protocol. To an
> ordinary user 'www.mysite.com' is the URL, not 'http://www.mysite.com'.
>
> Since most browsers that support both the new input types and that have
> fully implemented form validation block submission of a form with
> invalid inputs, a user entering 'www.mysite.com' is unable to submit
> their form and is instead given an error. Even assuming that the error
> notice is descriptive enough to alert to the absence of the required
> protocol (this is currently _not_ the case), the user has already been
> disrupted. Such strict validation is hostile and potentially confusing
> to users. As a developer I currently feel compelled to use the
> 'novalidate' attribute on forms containing type=url to protect my users
> from this behaviour.
>
> I feel that if a developer requires the protocol, they are perfectly
> capable of asking the user for it, and doing so in a much clearer way
> than the browser itself. If the validation for URL fields is to remain
> so strict, I really see little point in this input type being validated
> at all; as a developer there is absolutely no way I can use this
> validation as it stands, the potential for a poor user experience is
> just too evident.
The spec expects browsers to convert "www.example.com" to
"http://www.example.com/" automatically so that this kind of issue
doesn't occur.
--
Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
More information about the whatwg
mailing list