| Depr. | Version |
|---|---|
| No | HTML 2 |
| IE5.5+ | FF1+ | SA1.3+ | OP9.2+ | CH2+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
Syntax
Description
The form’s
method attribute instructs the browser to send data
on to the page or script (identified in the action
attribute) either as information appended in the URL, using
"get" (which is useful for form submissions for which
you subsequently want to bookmark the results), or packaged as an HTTP
post transaction, using "post".
The
"get" method has a couple of shortfalls that you should
be aware of. Firstly, there’s a limit to how much data you can place in a
URL (it varies between browsers, and also between servers), and as a
result, you can’t rely on the information to be correctly transferred or
processed. Secondly, passing sensitive information in this way is a
security issue, yet passwords are all too often passed in this way (a
crazy practice—anyone could look over the user’s shoulder and read the
password).
The "post" method may require a little
more processing on the server, and form submissions
made in this way can’t be bookmarked. However, the
"post" method is a more robust solution, and doesn’t
suffer the size limitations that "get"
does.
Example
Here, we use themethod attribute to tell the browser to append data
to the URL via the "get" method: <form action="address.php" method="get">
<div>
<label for="txtname">Full Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="txtname" id="txtname"/></span>
</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 personal details"/>
</div>
</form>
Value
This attribute accepts
"get" and "post" values
only.
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.
