Abstract
Inputs to web forms often contain typos or other errors. However, existing web form design tools require end-user developers to write regular expressions (“regexps”) or even scripts to validate inputs, which is slow and error-prone because of the poor match between common data types and the regexp notation. We present a new technique enabling end-user developers to describe data as a series of constrained parts, and we have incorporated our technique into a prototype tool. Using this tool, end-user developers can create validation code more quickly and accurately than with existing techniques, finding 90% of invalid inputs in a lab study. This study and our evaluation of the technique’s generality have motivated several tool improvements, which we have implemented and now evaluate using the Cognitive Dimensions framework.
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Scaffidi, C., Myers, B., Shaw, M. (2009). Fast, Accurate Creation of Data Validation Formats by End-User Developers. In: Pipek, V., Rosson, M.B., de Ruyter, B., Wulf, V. (eds) End-User Development. IS-EUD 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5435. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00427-8_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00427-8_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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