Quick Guide to Forms

Quick Guide to Forms

Bill Wake, 6-30-95

Tags for Forms

You put a form on a normal HTML page:

<form method="POST" action="script-name">
Put the form components here.
</form>

• Text:

  <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="field-name" VALUE="initial-string" SIZE="nn" MAXLENGTH="nn">
  

  VALUE, SIZE, and MAXLENGTH are optional; default to “”, 20, and
  infinity, respectively.

• Password text:

  <INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="field-name" VALUE="initial-string" SIZE="nn" MAXLENGTH="nn">
  

  VALUE, SIZE, and MAXLENGTH are as for “text”; note that the VALUE
  field can be viewed by the user.

• Hidden text:

  <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="field-name" VALUE="initial-string">
  

  This value doesn’t show up on the screen at all, though it is
  visible via “View Source”, and is returned in the document.

• Multi-line text:

  <TEXTAREA rows="nn-required" cols="nn-required">
  
  Default text
  </TEXTAREA>
  

• Binary selection:

  <INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="box-name" VALUE="value-if-on" CHECKED>
  

  The VALUE option defaults to “on”. The CHECKED option sets the
  initial state.

• Pop-up button:

  <SELECT NAME="button-name">
  <OPTION VALUE="one-word-string" SELECTED>Text of option
  
  <OPTION>Another option
  </SELECT>
  

  The VALUE is really only needed if the text is not one word; if it
  is, the text of the option is sent directly. Only one SELECTED
  should be on an OPTION (defaults to first).

• Radio button:

  <INPUT type="radio" NAME="button-name" VALUE="value" CHECKED>
  

  The NAME option ties pieces of a single button together. VALUE
  should be unique for each option (of a particular button). CHECKED
  should be used for exactly one option.

• Multiple selection scrolling list:

  <SELECT NAME="listname" MULTIPLE SIZE="nn-lines">
  
  <OPTION>As before
  </SELECT>
  

  If MULTIPLE is present, it allows more than one to be selected.
  SIZE tells how many lines scrollbox should have. Multiple selected
  items will be passed back with the same name (so script should
  detect this).

• Image coordinates:

  <INPUT TYPE="image" SRC="gif-location" NAME="prefix">
  

  The NAME prefix is prepended to generate names prefix.X and
  prefix.Y. The upper left corner is (0,0).

Interacting with the server

• Reset button:

  <INPUT type="reset" VALUE="button-name">
  

• Submit button:

  <INPUT type="submit" NAME="name" VALUE="button-name">
  

  NAME is optional and can be used to allow multiple SUBMIT
  buttons.

Other Information

• Information on CGI scripts
• Sample .htaccess file:

  AuthUserFile /dev/null
     AuthGroupFile /dev/null
     AuthName ExampleAllowFromNCSA
     AuthType Basic
  
     <Limit GET>
     order deny,allow
     deny from all
     allow from .ncsa.uiuc.edu
     </Limit>