0% found this document useful (0 votes)

43 views

HTML Forms

HTML forms allow users to enter data into a website. A form contains input elements like text fields and selects data entered by users and sends it to a backend application for processing. Common form elements include text inputs, textareas, checkboxes, radio buttons, select boxes and buttons. The <form> tag defines an HTML form and includes attributes like action and method.

Uploaded by

k1rit0

Available Formats

Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

0% found this document useful (0 votes)

43 views

HTML Forms

Uploaded by

k1rit0

Available Formats

Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 8

HTML Forms

HTML Forms are required when you want to collect some data from the site visitor. For
example during user registration you would like to collect information such as name, email
address, credit card, etc.

A form will take input from the site visitor and then will post it to a back-end application
such as CGI, ASP Script or PHP script etc. The back-end application will perform required
processing on the passed data based on defined business logic inside the application.

There are various form elements available like text fields, textarea fields, drop-down menus,
radio buttons, checkboxes, etc.

The HTML <form> tag is used to create an HTML form and it has following syntax:

<form action="Script URL" method="GET|POST">

form elements like input, textarea etc.
</form>

Form Attributes
Apart from common attributes, following is a list of the most frequently used form attributes:

Attribute Description
action Backend script ready to process your passed data.
Method to be used to upload data. The most frequently used are GET and POST
method
methods.
Specify the target window or frame where the result of the script will be displayed.
target
It takes values like _blank, _self, _parent etc.
You can use the enctype attribute to specify how the browser encodes the data
before it sends it to the server. Possible values are:

 application/x-www-form-urlencoded - This is the standard method most

forms use in simple scenarios.
 mutlipart/form-data - This is used when you want to upload binary data
in the form of files like image, word file etc.

HTML Form Controls

There are different types of form controls that you can use to collect data using
HTML form:

 Text Input Controls

 Checkboxes Controls

 Radio Box Controls

 Select Box Controls

 Checkbox Controls

 Hidden Controls

 Button Controls

Text Input Controls

There are three types of text input used on forms:

 Single-line text input controls - This control is used for items that require
only one line of user input, such as search boxes or names. They are
created using HTML <input> tag.

 Password input controls - This is also a single-line text input but it masks
the character as soon as a user enters it. They are also created using HTMl
<input> tag.

 Multi-line text input controls - This is used when the user is required to
give details that may be longer than a single sentence. Multi-line input
controls are created using HTML <textarea> tag.

Single-line text input controls

This control is used for items that require only one line of user input, such as
search boxes or names. They are created using HTML <input> tag.

Example
Here is a basic example of a single-line text input used to take first name and last
name:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Text Input Control</title>
</head>
<body>
<form >
First name: <input type="text" name="first_name" />
<br>
Last name: <input type="text" name="last_name" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
This will produce following result:

First name:
Last name:

Attributes
Following is the list of attributes for <input> tag for creating text field.

Attribute Description

Indicates the type of input control and for text input control it will be set to
type
text.

Used to give a name to the control which is sent to the server to be

name
recognized and get the value.

value This can be used to provide an initial value inside the control.

size Allows to specify the width of the text-input control in terms of characters.

Allows to specify the maximum number of characters a user can enter into
maxlength
the text box.

Password input controls

This is also a single-line text input but it masks the character as soon as a user
enters it. They are also created using HTML <input> tag but type attribute is set to
password.

Example
Here is a basic example of a single-line password input used to take user
password:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Password Input Control</title>
</head>
<body>
<form >
User ID : <input type="text" name="user_id" />
<br>
Password: <input type="password" name="password" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
This will produce following result:

User ID :
Password:

Attributes
Following is the list of attributes for <input> tag for creating password field.
Attribute Description

Indicates the type of input control and for password input control it will be
type
set to password.

Used to give a name to the control which is sent to the server to be

name
recognized and get the value.

value This can be used to provide an initial value inside the control.

size Allows to specify the width of the text-input control in terms of characters.

Allows to specify the maximum number of characters a user can enter into
maxlength
the text box.

Multiple-Line Text Input Controls

This is used when the user is required to give details that may be longer than a
single sentence. Multi-line input controls are created using HTML <textarea> tag.

Example
Here is a basic example of a multi-line text input used to take item description:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Multiple-Line Input Control</title>
</head>
<body>
<form>
Description : <br />
<textarea rows="5" cols="50" name="description">
Enter description here...
</textarea>
</form>
</body>
</html>
This will produce following result:

Description :

Attributes
Following is the list of attributes for <textarea> tag.

Attribute Description

Used to give a name to the control which is sent to the server to be

name
recognized and get the value.

rows Indicates the number of rows of text area box.

cols Indicates the number of columns of text area box

Checkbox Control

Checkboxes are used when more than one option is required to be selected. They
are also created using HTML <input> tag but type attribute is set to checkbox.

Example
Here is an example HTML code for a form with two checkboxes:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Checkbox Control</title>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="checkbox" name="maths" value="on"> Maths
<input type="checkbox" name="physics" value="on"> Physics
</form>
</body>
</html>
This will produce following result:

Maths Physics

Attributes
Following is the list of attributes for <checkbox> tag.

Attribute Description

Indicates the type of input control and for checkbox input control it will be set
type
to checkbox.

Used to give a name to the control which is sent to the server to be

name
recognized and get the value.

value The value that will be used if the checkbox is selected.

checked Set to checked if you want to select it by default.

Radio Button Control

Radio buttons are used when out of many options, just one option is required to be
selected. They are also created using HTML <input> tag but type attribute is set to
radio.

Example
Here is example HTML code for a form with two radio buttons:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Radio Box Control</title>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="radio" name="subject" value="maths"> Maths
<input type="radio" name="subject" value="physics"> Physics
</form>
</body>
</html>
This will produce following result:

Maths Physics

Attributes
Following is the list of attributes for radio button.

Attribute Description

Indicates the type of input control and for checkbox input control it will be set
type
to radio.

Used to give a name to the control which is sent to the server to be

name
recognized and get the value.

value The value that will be used if the radio box is selected.

checked Set to checked if you want to select it by default.

Select Box Control

A select box, also called drop down box which provides option to list down
various options in the form of drop down list, from where a user can select one or
more options.

Example
Here is example HTML code for a form with one drop down box

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Select Box Control</title>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<select name="dropdown">
<option value="Maths" selected>Maths</option>
<option value="Physics">Physics</option>
</select>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Attributes
Following is the list of important attributes of <select> tag:

Attribute Description

Used to give a name to the control which is sent to the server to be

name
recognized and get the value.

size This can be used to present a scrolling list box.

multiple If set to "multiple" then allows a user to select multiple items from the menu.

Following is the list of important attributes of <option> tag:

Attribute Description

value The value that will be used if an option in the select box box is selected.

Specifies that this option should be the initially selected value when the page
selected
loads.

label An alternative way of labeling options

Button Controls

There are various ways in HTML to create clickable buttons. You can also create a
clickable button using <input> tag by setting its type attribute to button. The type
attribute can take the following values:

Type Description

submit This creates a button that automatically submits a form.

This creates a button that automatically resets form controls to their initial
reset
values.

This creates a button that is used to trigger a client-side script when the user
button
clicks that button.

This creates a clickable button but we can use an image as background of the
image
button.

Example
Here is example HTML code for a form with three types of buttons:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>File Upload Box</title>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />
<input type="reset" name="reset" value="Reset" />
<input type="button" name="ok" value="OK" />
<input type="image" name="imagebutton" src="/html/images/logo.png"
/>
</form>
</body>
</html>