Topic:

<FORM> Form

Definition:

HTML fill-out forms can be used for questionaires, hotel reservations, order forms, data entry and a wide variety of other applications. The form is specified as part of an HTML document. The user fills in the form and then submits it. The user agent then sends the form's contents as designated by the FORM element.

HTML 3.0 supports the following kinds of fields:

• Simple text fields
• Multi-line text fields
• Radio buttons
• Checkboxes
• Range controls (sliders, or knobs)
• Single/multiple choice menus
• Scribble on image
• File widgets for attaching files to forms.
• Submit buttons for sending form contents
• Reset buttons for resetting fields to their initial values
• Hidden fields for book keeping information

Attributes:

ACTION
The ACTION attribute is a URL specifying the location to which the contents of the form is submitted to elicit a response. If the ACTION is missing, the URL for the document itself is assumed. The way data is submitted varies with the access protocol of the URL, and with the values of the METHOD and ENCTYPE attributes.

METHOD
This specifies variations in the protocol used to send the form contents. It is currently restricted to GET (the default) or POST. The attribute was introduced to inform user agents which HTTP methods the server supports.

ENCTYPE
This attribute specifies the MIME content type to be used to encode the form contents. It defaults to the string: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

SCRIPT
This can be used to give a URI for a script. The scripting language and the interface with the user agent is not part of the HTML 3.0 specification.

Context:

<FORM> is legal within:
<BANNER>, <BODYTEXT>, <DD>, <DIV>, <FIGTEXT>, <FN>, <LI>, <NOTE>, <TD>, <TH>

The following markup can be used within <FORM>
<A>, <ABBREV>, <ACRONYM>, <ADDRESS>, <AU>, <B>, <BIG>, <BLOCKQUOTE>, <BQ>, <BR>, <CITE>, <CODE>, <DEL>, <DFN>, <DIR>, <DIV>, <DL>, <EM>, <FIG>, <FN>, <FORM>, <H1>, <H2>, <H3>, <H4>, <H5>, <H6>, <HR>, <I>, <IMG>, <INPUT>, <INS>, <ISINDEX>, <KBD>, <LANG>, <MATH>, <MENU>, <NOTE>, <OL>, <P>, <PERSON>, <PRE>, <Q>, <S>, <SAMP>, <SELECT>, <SMALL>, <STRONG>, <SUB>, <SUP>, <TAB>, <TABLE>, <TEXTAREA>, <TT>, <U>, <UL>, <VAR>

Suggested style/usage:

Close Tag: REQUIRED

Example:

Please see the Fill In Forms tutorial for examples.