Text box...?

Anon

Can I span input over multiple lines in a text box? For instance Troy tells me I can use <input type="text" name="textfield" maxlength="3">, but does a text box allow wrap? Probably not....but I'm desperate!

Marcel.

Anon

Oh well...I guess the java script answer is my only choice. Yuck.

Marcel.

Anon

Try a textarea instead of a text box

Anon

Actually Chris already been down that road. What I wanted was a way to limit user input in a textarea, but only way appears to be through java-script. Oh well...gotta do what I gotta do.

Thanks,
Marcel.

Anon

One thing to remember is that client-side javascripting can be altered by a client with a program such as proxomitron (available free at zdnet and other places).

So if your script counts on that input being in a certain format, make sure to have a server-side plan to fall back on.

Anon

I'll have to check that out...do you have a suggested solution?

Marcel.

Anon

I just realised...no problem with the java-script issue as this is an authorised area of the site and only paying customers have access. 🙂 No worries.

Marcel.

Anon

Even though it won't be a problem for you, sure 😉

One for instance is on a Bulletin Board that uses "signatures". Text that's entered at the end of each of your posts.

Using one system you could enter your sig line, but it's sized was limited with the maxspace part of the textbox.

To get a multi-line signature line only required upping that maxspace to a higher number.

In the next implementation of the weboard the creators added a little piece of script that when you posted, it examine the size of your signature line before it added it to your post.

If it was too long, instead of your sig it would add:

My signature line is toooo long so now I don't have one.

You can do the same sort of thing.

While buffer overflows aren't as much of a problem with PHP, it can really kill some languages.

So those languages need to check and make sure the input wasn't 66000 bytes long, overflowing the allotted memory space and causing all sorts of trouble.

Of course, no one would ever do such a thing, but I'm crazy like that 🙂

So you can simply refer to your string as an array then check the index count on it to make sure it isn't too long, or evaluate it for invalid data.

Javascript is great so they don't have to refill out a signup form (for instance), but it's always nice to have a feature to fallback on. Even if you never use it 🙂

Anon

Excellent idea...darn more work! hehe..oh well...great way to expand my knowledge! Thanks for the suggestions.

I also had a chance to check out that Proxomitron...interesting little program. Any exploits with its use I should know about? Seems like it could be a devious little monster, in the wrong hands...? hehehe....

Thanks again and cya around....ciao

Marcel.

Anon

The thing that's so interesting about the proxomitron is the fact that any piece of client-side data can be manipulated.

So you can replace a sites cascading style sheet with one of your own, were you to not like their choice in colors or fonts.

On the negative side, javascript games or authentication processes are wide open to the user, even moreso than before.

Thus saying "I'm authorized!" in java has never been so easy.

Thus why you should never ever used client-side scripting for user athentication, no matter how you handle redirections.

A really fun use is just altering a site, and see what it does.

For instance, ever wondered how POST actually works?

Just find an online form, have proxomitron change the location of the form action method to your own page (I just added a "print STDIN;" line to one of my perl cgi environment variable checkers) and see how it does work.

Using the data I got from that I figured out that you can simulate use of a form button on another site, using only fopen() in one of your own PHP scripts.

So technically you could then do an AltaVista search on keywords the user selects, read the data into your own program, alter it to make it look like you created the data, then post up the results.

Of course that would violate various ethical beliefs, but there are plenty of nifty uses like rearranging another site to make it look like YOU think it should look.

Software should run like you want it to, and so should internet sites 😉

So thusly, you could automatically change all banners from some of the well known banner servers to a blank picture, of even a picture of yourself 🙂

Decrease load time and make yourself happy, hehe.

Plus you can manipulate outgoing headers to make your browser version what you want it to be (for sites that misuse browsercap.inis), disable those friggin' java popup windows that people like to use constantly (like on geocities or hypermart...for your viewing pleasure), and you can even disable that Yahoo! adsquare (what masacistic bastard came up with that one?).

If it's in the source code, you can change it!

For instance, sites that use the "private" option to remove your browsers toolbar and menus? Don't you hate that? You can change that too 😉

Bookmark the previously unbookmarkable, and view it's source too. (and kill those stupid right-click killing java scripts while your at it)

Yes, this is the kind of thing I spend my time on. Rather than find sites that do a good job of design, I force them to bend to my will.

One of the many reasons Bill Gate's is my hero, and why I'm at home on a saturday night without a woman.

...

...I should probably have proxomitron edit out that last part. Or backspace would work too...

Anon

hahahaha...roflmao...very well said! Kudos to all you said and more! Time for me to play! hehehe...very cool tool! I'm also using it to test my own sites integrity...but I see I need to explore more of what this baby can do!

hmmmmm...from what you said, I guess virtual woman is not one of the options? hahahahaha...

Take care and thanks, you made my night!

Marcel...