| Depr. | Empty | Version |
|---|---|---|
| No | No | HTML 2 |
| IE5.5+ | FF1+ | SA1.3+ | OP9.2+ | CH2+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
Syntax
Description
The
form element is the container that defines the start
and end points for a form that a site visitor can fill in. Any fields that
are located between the opening <form> and closing
</form> tags will be associated with this
form. It’s possible to have multiple
form elements on a page.
form is a block-level element, which means that
it will take up the full width of the page (or the containing element) and
create a break before and after itself. However, without additional CSS
styling, there’s no discernible boundary between it and the surrounding
markup (for example, the form has no border or background
color).
Information can be captured in the form using
many different form-specific elements. These controls include the
input element, as well as textarea, select, and button. There are also labeling and grouping
controls, which include the fieldset, legend, and label
elements.
Example
Here’s a simple booking form:
<form action="form-to-email.php" method="post">
<div>
<label for="txtname">Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="txtname" id="txtname"/>
</div>
<div>
<label for="txtcontacttel">Contact Tel:</label>
<input type="text" name="txtcontacttel" id="txtcontacttel"/>
</div>
<div>
<input type="submit" name="cmdSubmit" id="cmdSubmit"
value="Send booking details"/>
</div>
</form>
Use This For …
This element is
used to capture user information (shipping address details, credit card
information, customer names and titles, and so on).
form may also be used for the purposes of navigation.
Although it’s not the original intent of forms, this application isn’t
unusual. For example, you might use select lists as
navigation menus, and have the user press a Go
button to activate the menu item.
Compatibility
| Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Opera | Chrome | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 9.2 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 2.0 |
| Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
It causes no compatibility issues, and has excellent support across all tested browsers.
In addition to the attributes listed here is
one other that deserves a mention: autocomplete is
an Internet Explorer-only attribute which can be used to enable or prevent
form information from being stored and recalled later using that browser’s
autocomplete facility. The value for autocomplete
can be "on" or
"off".
In this Section
- accept-charset
specifies the character encodings the server must accept - action
tells the browser where to send the captured data for handling - enctype
defines the way form data should be encoded when sent - method
defines how data should be sent (as URL variables or as HTTP post) - name
specifies a name by which the form will be referenced - target
defines the frame (in frameset-based designs) that will process and display form submission results
User-contributed notes
- ID:
- #1
- Date:
- Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:55:14 GMT
I see this problem often when working with forms and Internet Explorer not working when the form is submitted.
Usually the problem lies when the user submits the form without clicking the submit button (I don't know if this is a bug or not) IE will not send the submit button. As most scripts check for the button it will fail. So instead of checking for the button check for a required field or add a hidden field and check for that.
PHP Example:
[code]
<?php
if ( isset( $_GET['email'] ) ) {
// ... Run code ...
}
[/code]
