Lecture 2011 10 17

Forms

The form element groups together input elements; the data the user enters is passed to the server (or can be 'passed' to Javascript code).

Between the <form> and </form>, you can place html tags (p, img, h1, etc).

Form tags:

• <form> Defines an HTML form for user input
• <input /> Defines an input control
• <textarea> Defines a multi-line text input control
• <label> Defines a label for an input element
• <fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form
• <legend> Defines a caption for a fieldset element
• <select> Defines a select list (drop-down list)
• <optgroup> Defines a group of related options in a select list
• <option> Defines an option in a select list
• <button> Defines a push button

<form>

Attributes:

• using action to specify URL of form handling code on client or on server
  action = "my_action.php"
• using action mail the content TO YOURSELF ONLY UNTIL THOROUGHLY DEBUGGED
  action="mailto:me@me.me"
  This requires that the email client on the local machine be set up properly.
• nowhere -- just use the element ids to pass the data directly to your javascript code.
  action="#"

• onsubmit: Javascript code that is run before the code is submitted, with a submit button
• onreset: Javascript code that is run before the form's data is erased with a reset button

Getting user data

• Go through the input tag at w3schools
  • button This is a good way to invoke Javascript
  • checkbox
  • text
  • radio
  • file
  • submit (a button)
  • reset (a button>
  • image (another way to submit)
  • password
• textarea
• label
• fieldset and legend
• select and optgroup
• button (versus the input type="button")
  note, <button> does not have to go 'inside' a form

Take a quick look at Bannerocity

Regular Expressions