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I need to time how long it takes a user to fill in a form. Basically, I would like a message to be displayed after a certain time has elapsed while a user is filling in the form, telling the user to start again. Is that possible?

Hi quantum_leap,

How do you define 'starts filling'? I guess that you could start a JavaScript timer running on page load, or first click.

Bob

Yeah, I mean starts filling when user clicks on the first field, I guess. Should I google for a javascript timer script, then? I am sorry I'm not a hardcore developer just a designer using Joomla. How could I import such a script and return some values so that a notification can be displayed on the page where the form resides?

Hi quantum_leap,

I found a MooTools timer at Google Groups here. That requires a sing in so I'll copy the post below.

Bob

Timer Class for Mootools

Kevin Hunter
Apr 21 2009, 10:14 pm

I've written a small class to display a timer on the page. It's not
complete, and could be added to, but here goes.

I release it under the GPLv3 license.

http://cs.earlham.edu/~kevin/Mootools.Timer.js

Of note:

- It's a timer. You create it with:

var timer = new Timer();
$('clock').timer = new Timer({length: 5000});  // length is in
milliseconds

- It's updates itself on the page:

...
<p id='clock'></p>
...
var timer = new Timer({length: 10000});
timer.setDisplay( $('clock') );
  ... or ...
var timer = new Timer({length: 10000, display: $('clock')});

Putting the two together:

var clock = $('clock');
clock.timer = new Timer({length: 10000, display: clock});

- It's a timer, not clock, so start it:

clock.startTimer(); // will update itself thanks to display:

Other options:
granularity - how often to update a display, defaults to 250ms.
callback - a function to call when timer hits zero.

Currently, it can display up to tenths, but I haven't finished working
that in. I may not either as the project didn't call for it. If
someone else wants to take up the flag ...