Retrieving arguments from a form

When the maintenance management system URL does not provide useful arguments, the place to retrieve them from is the maintenance management system page itself. The maintenance management system will probably display object identifiers and properties in a form or table. Using the DOMDocument API available in the browser, the values of form fields can be extracted and then used to construct a URL to the Meridian Explorer home page.

For example, if the maintenance management system page has a form field with the name EqNum that displays the number of the selected equipment, then the Meridian Explorer home page can be opened with the documents for the selected equipment using the following JavaScript function:

<script language=javascript>
function showDocs()
{    sEqNum = document.all ['EqNum'].value;
]    window.open 
(?eqnum=' + sEqNum);
}
</script>
<a onclick ="showDocs ();">Show docs</a>

One advantage of this technique is that the JavaScript runs on the client in the browser, so it cannot interfere with the server-side operation of the maintenance management system application.