Question

I have a questionnaire-style paper based form that I want to convert to TWiki so that it can be filled in collaboratively and updated if necessary.

I set it up as the default template for new topics in a web. All one has to do is edit the new topic and type in answers after the questions. The completed document can be printed and looks just like the original document.

The problem is that once the answers are added it is likely to exceed the 32K limit that some browsers place on the text in an edit box (see AreThereSizeLimitations). The documents might become uneditable, because of their size.

I'm struggling to find a way around this problem. Elsewhere someone was discussing a method I could adopt using INCLUDE for each answer, with each answer in its own topic. But if I did it that way, it could be difficult for users to add and edit answers. The questions don't have consistent numbering or unique meaningful names, though I could work on that, and I don't want to be printing out a document that's got web links all over it.

Is there a better way I could set up these documents in TWiki to avoid hitting the browser's size limitation?

• TWiki version: December 2001
• Web server: Apache
• Server OS: FreeBSD
• Web browser: Lynx/Netscape
• Client OS: FreeBSD/Microsoft

-- SueBlake - 11 Aug 2002

Answer

I've not had a problem with the size of TWiki pages, at least on IE5.5, Mozilla 0.9.x/1.0 and Opera 5.x/6.x.

Lynx has some problems in being able to attach files, you might want to try links to see if that's better. Which Netscape version are you using? If it's 4.x, I think that has the problem, whereas 6.x and 7.x are Mozilla based and are OK.

For other info, see BrowserIssues and please comment there with any limitations and specifics on the browser and OS versions.

-- RichardDonkin - 11 Aug 2002

Thanks Richard. In this particular case I don't have control over which browser is used in any office, so I'm trying to avoid problems. Many do use netscape 4.x, but they could use anything, and putting 50K into an edit window is not nice to deal with, anyway. Being only in the exploration stage of TWiki, I need to find out whether I'm using the best method of making these topics smaller to edit.

-- SueBlake - 11 Aug 2002

I'd use the toplevel page INCLUDEing all the questions, one per topic. The trick would be to add links labelled "edit/add answer" at each end of include, linking towards not the subtopic, but directly the edit view of the subtopic, that could be the best way...

-- ColasNahaboo - 11 Aug 2002