HTML Forms for Web Site Interaction

Forms add the dimension of interactivity, that bring the Web to life. HTML pages can be glitzy and glamorous, but without forms, they are "read-only". Forms let the user write back to you with comments, or specify database search criteria, or select from a host of alternates.

• A form is a graphical user interface with text entry fields and areas, buttons, checkboxes, pull-down menus, scrolling lists, etc. When you write a form, each of your input items has a NAME tag. When the user places data in these items in the form, that information is encoded into the form data.

• When a user presses a button indicating the form should be "submitted," the information in the form is normally sent to a server for processing via a CGI program. However, if you don't have CGI capability or you simply want to have the data emailed to you, you may use the mailto action.

• The FORM tag is the container for all other form elements:

  <FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/web-exe">
  	Form elements and other HTML 
  </FORM>
  

• Check out these annotated examples:
  1. The INPUT tag: text entry for The URL-Minder. This is the most important of the form elements; with it you can allow the user to input text or passwords and submit them to the server for CGI processing.

  2. The SELECT tag: Navigation Menus for CGI or JavaScript processing.

  3. The TEXTAREA tag: Comments Feedback to let your visitors send their comments to an email distribution list.

• Now visit and bookmark the Forms Quick Reference.

• HTML 4.0 - Forms Example
• Changes between HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.0 - Forms