HTML forms, Free online HTML Tutorial, Learn HTML online for free...

When we convert simple HTML pages into interactive applications, we need to get user input to be processed at the server side. A particular example is gmail, where user inputs its ID and password to access the gmail mail system.

Forms:

The data to a server-side program from a web page is supplied using an HTML form. The idea behind an HTML form is the same as that of a normal paper form. User is presented with a number of fields to input data.

A form contains many different types of input elements that allow the user to enter information. These input elements contain text fields, text area, drop-downs, radio buttons and check boxes etc. They are combined together inside <form> and </form> tags. The values of all the input elements are submitted to the server-side program whose URL is given in the action attribute of the <form> tag..

<form action="ServerSideProgram">Form elements go here

</form>

When submitted, the browser will direct the user data to ServerSideProgram. A single web page can have any number of forms on it.

In the coming lessons you will learn about differnt form elements.

Next >>> Lesson No. 31: Text Box and Text Area