Short answer: Multiple submit buttons are a standard feature
of HTML 2.0.
Long answer...
>I have recently come across multiple submit buttons within a
>single <FORM> in an HTML page. I had read somewhere that this
>was *not* allowed (not supported, not recommended) with HTML 3.0.
I think folks expect it to be allowed in HTML 3.0, when that
spec is published.
In particular, it's allowed in HTML 2.0, as far as I know. Let's
see what the spec has to say...
Err... not much, actually. The relevant section is:
Submit Button: INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_8.html#SEC8.1.2.7
It doesn't say explicitly one way or the other. I suppose this should
be fixed in the six-month update.
There's a subtle clue in:
===========
Form Submission
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_8.html#SEC8.2
When the user indicates that the form should be submitted (using a
submit button or image input),
===========
Note that it say "a submit button," not "the submit button."
>I have run tests with Netscape 1.1, Netscape 2.0 Beta 1, Mosaic 2.0.1
>and MacWeb 1.1.1E (all on a Mac), and Netscape Navigator 1.2N on a
>PC, and Netscape Navigator 1.1N on a Sparcstation. All succeeded
>parsing multiple submits.
>
>Am I wrong about this being unsupported by the HTML standard?
If you ask me, yes. If you look at the standard itself, unfortunately,
you might be left wondering.
>Is anyone aware whether it *will* be supported in the near future?
Whether it will be supported in implementations is up to the
implementors. Whether it will be made more clear in future HTML spec
document, I'd say yes.
Dan