HTML Forms

Content

  1. <form>
  2. <input>
  3. Action
  4. GET?
  5. POST?
  6. Name
  7. <fieldset>
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Forms Elements

<form> Element

The HTML <form> element defines a form that is used to collect user input.

An HTML form contains form elements.

Form elements are different types of input elements, like text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, submit buttons, and more.

<input> Element

The <input> element is the most important form element.

The <input> element can be displayed in several ways, depending on the type attribute.

Action Attribute

The action attribute defines the action to be performed when the form is submitted.

Normally, the form data is sent to a web page on the server when the user clicks on the submit button.

If the action attribute is omitted, the action is set to the current page.

When to Use GET?

The default method when submitting form data is GET.

However, when GET is used, the submitted form data will be visible in the page address field.

Note: GET must NOT be used when sending sensitive information! GET is best suited for short, non-sensitive, amounts of data, because it has size limitations too.

When to Use POST?

Always use POST if the form data contains sensitive or personal information. The POST method does not display the submitted form data in the page address field.

POST has no size limitations, and can be used to send large amounts of data.

Name Attribute

Each input field must have a name attribute to be submitted.

If the name attribute is omitted, the data of that input field will not be sent at all.

HTML Code:

<form action="/action_page.php"> First name:<br> <input type="text" value="Mickey"> <br> Last name:<br> <input type="text" name="lastname" value="Mouse"> <br><br> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </form> <p>If you click the "Submit" button, the form-data will be sent to a page called "/action_page.php".</p> <p>Notice that the value of the "First name" field will not be submitted, because the input element does not have a name attribute.</p>

Result:

First name:

Last name:


If you click the "Submit" button, the form-data will be sent to a page called "/action_page.php".

Notice that the value of the "First name" field will not be submitted, because the input element does not have a name attribute.

<fieldset>

The <fieldset> element is used to group related data in a form.

The <legend> element defines a caption for the <fieldset> element.

HTML Code:

<form action="/action_page.php"> <fieldset> <legend>Personal information:</legend> First name:<br> <input type="text" name="firstname" value="Mickey"> <br> Last name:<br> <input type="text" name="lastname" value="Mouse"> <br><br> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </fieldset> </form>

Result:

Personal information: First name:

Last name:


HTML Index

References

  1. W3Schools

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