HTML Form Element | How Does an HTML Form Work?

HTML Form – Input Type and Submit Button Example

Forms are one of the most important parts of the web. Without them, there wouldn't be an easy way to collect data, search for resources, or sign up to receive valuable information.

You can embed forms on websites with the HTML form element. Inside the form element, several inputs are nested. These inputs are also known as form controls.

In this tutorial, we will explore the HTML form element, the various input types it takes, and how to create a submit button with which data is submitted.

By the end, you will know how forms work and you'll be able to make them with confidence.

Basic HTML Form Syntax

<form action="mywebsite.com" method="POST">
    <!--Input of any type and textareas goes in here-->
</form>

HTML Form Input Types

You use the <input> tag to create various form controls in HTML. It is an inline element and takes attributes such as type, name, minlength, maxlength, placeholder, and so on. Each of these has specific values they take.

The placeholder attribute is important as it helps the user understand the purpose of the input field before they type anything in.

There are 20 different input types, and we will look at them one by one.

Type Text

This type of input takes a value of “text”, so it creates a single line of text input.

<input type="text" placeholder="Enter name" />

An input with the type of text looks like the screenshot below:

Type Password

As the name implies, an input with a type of password creates a password. It is automatically invisible to the user, unless it is manipulated by JavaScript.

<input type="password" placeholder="Enter your password" />

Type Email

Any input with the type of email defines a field for entering an email address.

<input type="email" placeholder="Enter your email" />

Type Number

This type of input lets the user insert numbers only.

<input type="number" placeholder="Enter a number" />

Type Radio

Sometimes, users will need to pick one out of numerous options. An input field with its type attributes set to “radio” lets you do this.

 <input type="radio" />

Type Checkbox

So, with an input type of radio, users will be allowed to pick one out of numerous options. What if you want them to pick as many options as possible? That’s what an input with a type attribute set to checkbox does.

<input type="checkbox" />

Type Submit

You use this type to add a submit button to forms. When a user clicks it, it automatically submits the form. It takes a value attribute, which defines the text that appears inside the button.

<input type="submit" value="Enter to Win" />

Type Button

An input with a type set to button creates a button, which can be manipulated by JavaScript's onClick event listener type. It creates a button just like an input type of submit, but with the exception that the value is empty by default, so it has to be specified.

<input type="button" value="Submit" />

Type File

This defines a field for file submission. When a user clicks it, they are prompted to insert the desired file type, which might be an image, PDF, document file, and so on.

<input type="file" />

The result of an input type of file looks like this:

Type Color

This is a fancy input type introduced by HTML5. With it, the user can submit their favourite color for example. Black (#000000) is the default value, but can be overridden by setting the value to a desired color.

Many developers have used it as a trick to get to select different color shades available in RGB, HSL and alphanumeric formats.

<input type="color" />

This is the result of an input type of color:

Type Search

Input with the type of search defines a text field just like an input type of text. But this time it has the sole purpose of searching for info. It is different from type text in that, a cancel button appears once the user starts typing.

<input type="search" />

Type URL

When the type attribute of an input tag is set to URL, it displays a field where users can enter a URL.

<input type="url" />

Type Tel

An input type of tel lets you collect telephone numbers from users.

<input type="tel" />

Type Date

You might have registered on a website where you requested the date of a certain event. The site probably used an input with the type value set to date to acheive this.

<input type="date" />

This is what an input with type date looks like:

Type Datetime-local

This works like the input type date, but it also lets the user pick a date with a particular time.

<input type="datetime-local" />

Type Week

The input type of week lets a user select a specific week.

<input type="week" />

Type Month

The input with the type of month populates months for the user to pick from when clicked.

<input type="month" />

Textarea

There are times when a user will need to fill in multiple lines of text which wouldn't be suitable in an input type of text (as it specifies a one-line text field).

textarea lets the user do this as it defines multiple lines of text input. It takes its own attributes such as cols – for the number of columns, and rows for the number of rows.

<textarea cols="50" rows="20"></textarea>

Multiple Select Box

This is like a radio button and checkbox in one package. It is embedded in the page with two elements – a select element and an option, which is always nested inside select.

By default, the user can only pick one of the options. But with multiple attributes, you can let the user select more than one of the options.

<select>
      <option value="HTML">Select a Language</option>
      <option value="HTML">HTML</option>
      <option value="CSS">CSS</option>
      <option value="JavaScript">JavaScript</option>
      <option value="React">React</option>
</select>

How to Label HTML Inputs

Assigning labels to form controls is important. When they're properly connected to the input field through their for attribute and the input’s id attribute, it's easier for the user to use as they can just click the label itself to access the input.

<label for="name">Name</label>
<input type="text" id="name" /> <br />
<label for="check">Agree with terms</label>
<input type="checkbox" id="check" />

How HTML Forms Work

When a user fills in a form and submits it with the submit button, the data in the form controls are sent to the server through GET or POST HTTP request methods.

So how is the server indicated? The form element takes an action attribute, which must have its value specified to the URL of the server. It also takes a method attribute, where the HTTP method it uses to convey the values to the server is specified.

This method could be GET or POST. With the GET method, the values entered by the user are visible in the URL when the data is submitted. But with POST, the values are sent in HTTP headers, so those values are not visible in the URL.

If a method attribute is not used in the form, it is automatically assumed that the user wants to use the GET method, because it’s the default.

So when should you use the GET or POST method? Use the GET method for submitting non-sensitive data or retrieving data from a server (for example, during searches). Use the POST request when submitting files or sensitive data.

Mini Project: Build a Basic Contact Form

Let’s take what we’ve learned about forms and use it to make a simple contact form. I will also introduce a few new concepts as we go to round it all out.

Here's the HTML:

<form action=example-server.com">
      <fieldset>
        <legend>Contact me</legend>
        <div class="form-control">
          <label for="name">Name</label>
          <input type="name" id="name" placeholder="Enter your name" required />
        </div>

        <div class="form-control">
          <label for="email">Email</label>
          <input
            type="email"
            id="email"
            placeholder="Enter your email"
            required
          />
        </div>

        <div class="form-control">
          <label for="message">Message</label>
          <textarea
            id="message"
            cols="30"
            rows="10"
            placeholder="Enter your message"
            required
          ></textarea>
        </div>
        <input type="submit" value="Send" class="submit-btn" />
      </fieldset>
</form>

What’s going on in this HTML code?

First, a form element is wrapping every other element. It has an action set to “example-server.com”, a dummy server where the form data will be received.

After the form element, every other element is also surrounded by a fieldset element with a legend tag right under it.

We use the fieldset element to group related inputs together, and the legend tag contains a caption conveying what the form is about.

The inputs name, email, and textarea are all in a div with a class of form-control. So they behave like a block element, in order to make styling easier with CSS.

They are also validated with the required attribute, so the form fails to submit when those fields are empty or when the user fails to type in the values in the appropriate format.

After all that, we'll have the result in the screenshot below:

How ugly is that? We need to apply some styling!

Here's the CSS:

body {
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
    height: 100vh;
    font-family: cursive;
  }

 input,
    textarea {
    width: 100%;
    padding: 5px;
    outline: none;
  }

  label {
    line-height: 1.9rem;
  }

  input[type="submit"] {
   transform: translate(2.2%);
   padding: 3px;
   margin-top: 0.6rem;
   font-family: cursive;
   font-weight: bold;
  }

 fieldset {
   padding: 20px 40px;
 }

What’s the CSS code doing here?

We center everything in the body horizontally with Flexbox, and vertically with a 100% viewport height. We used a font-family of cursive.

We gave the inputs and textarea a width of 100% so they go all the way across. The labels got a minimal line-height of 1.9rem (30.4px), so they don’t stay too close to their respective inputs.

We specifically styled the button (input type button) with the transform property to push it to the center as it was off center a bit. We gave it a padding of 3px for more spacing around it. We then selected a cursive font-family for it with a weight of bold.

Because the button was too close to the textarea, we set a margin-top of 0.6rem to push it down a little bit.

We gave our fieldset element a padding of 20px at the top and bottom, with 40px at the left and right to push apart the border it creates around the form elements it is wrapped in.

At the end of it all, we have the beautiful form below:

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial has helped you understand how forms work. Now you should have the knowledge you need to integrate forms into your websites so you can start collecting data.

Thank you for reading, and keep coding.

Original article source at https://www.freecodecamp.org

#html #html5 #programming #developer #webdev 

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Buddha Community

All You Need To Know About HTML Forms

Forms are ways of providing information, and so is an HTML form, but rather on a web page, using a browser. As much as a normal paper form contains fields to fill in your details, and after that, you can submit to someone in charge, so HTML forms also provide inputs fields, which serve as fields that allow you to fill in your data and submit to the server for some processing and back to the person-in-charge (the developer).

The above things are however not new to a web developer, as millions of forms are being filled on websites daily. But whether you are new to the game or a professional. This tutorial tells all that you need to know about HTML Forms, including HTML form action, form methods, HTML form encoding types, and form processing.

Let’s dive into the details!

HTML Form Action

HTML Form actions point to where the form should be submitted. This is done with the action attribute. The value of the action attribute is typically a URL to an external or internal page.

Example

<form action="https://example.com" method="GET"> ... </form>

HTML Form Methods

Form methods tell the browser to send the users’ data, and in other ways tells the server how to process the provided information by your user. This is possible in HTML form by using the method attribute. This attribute can either be "GET" or "POST" depending on the purpose of the form.

The GET Method

The GET method tells the browser to include all the form data in the URL after submitting. Each piece of data appears by sending the URL in the action attribute, followed by ? followed by key=value. This method should be used for processing less-sensitive data, such as name search or getting content per user (/?username=Bob), and should not be used for processing sensitive information such as passwords. We will discuss a method suitable for processing sensitive data in the next section. Let’s use a live example.

Example: GET Method

<form method="GET" action="search.php">  
<input type="search" name="key" /> <input type="submit" value="Search" name="submit" /> </form>   

When this form is submitted, the processed URL will result in something like /search.php?key=hello&submit=Search. You can see that all users’ information is displayed on the URL in the format of key=value. The example stands as a good reason for you to know why it is bad and not advisable to include sensitive information on a GET form. Let’s look into a bad way of using GET method.

Note

The key is the value provided in the attribute of each form field, therefore the name attribute is important in HTML form processing.

Wrong Example: POST Method

Take a look at the example above, so for example, assuming user enters the username ola and password and clicks on login, this will result to a URL: /login.php?username=ola&password=password&submit=Login, revealing sensitive information on the browser’s URL, this can be used by hackers to get vital information, and get access to personal accounts.

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Know Everything About HTML With HTML Experts

HTML stands for a hypertext markup language. For the designs to be displayed in web browser HTML is the markup language. Technologies like Cascading style sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript assist HTML. With the help of HTML websites and the web, designs are created. Html has a wide range of academic applications. HTML has a series of elements. HTML helps to display web content. Its elements tell the web how to display the contents.

The document component of HTML is known as an HTML element. HTML element helps in displaying the web pages. An HTML document is a mixture of text nodes and HTML elements.

Basics of HTML are-

The simple fundamental components oh HTML is

1. Head- the setup information for the program and web pages is carried in the head
2. Body- the actual substance that is to be shown on the web page is carried in the body
3. HTML- information starts and ends with and labels.
4. Comments- come up in between

Html versions timeline

1. HTML was created in 1990. Html is a program that is updated regularly. the timeline for the HTML versions is
2. HTML 2- November, 1995
3. HTML 3- January, 1997
4. HTML 4- December, 1997; April, 1998; December, 1999; May, 2000
5. HTML 5- October, 2014; November, 2016; December, 2017

HTML draft version timelines are

1. October 1991
2. June 1992
3. November 1992
4. June 1993
5. November 1993
6. November 1994
7. April 1995
8. January 2008
9. HTML 5-
   2011, last call
   2012 candidate recommendation
   2014 proposed recommendation and recommendation

HTML helps in creating web pages. In web pages, there are texts, pictures, colouring schemes, tables, and a variety of other things. HTML allows all these on a web page.
There are a lot of attributes in HTML. It may get difficult to memorize these attributes. HTML is a tricky concept. Sometimes it gets difficult to find a single mistake that doesn’t let the web page function properly.

Many minor things are to be kept in mind in HTML. To complete an HTML assignment, it is always advisable to seek help from online experts. These experts are well trained and acknowledged with the subject. They provide quality content within the prescribed deadline. With several positive reviews, the online expert help for HTML assignment is highly recommended.

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HTML Tutorial For Beginners

The prospect of learning HTML can seem confusing at first: where to begin, what to learn, the best ways to learn — it can be difficult to get started. In this article, we’ll explore the best ways for learning HTML to assist you on your programming journey.

What is HTML?

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents meant to be displayed in a web browser. Along with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript, HTML completes the trio of essential tools used in creating modern web documents.

HTML provides the structure of a webpage, from the header and footer sections to paragraphs of text, videos, and images. CSS allows you to set the visual properties of different HTML elements, like changing colors, setting the order of blocks on the screen, and defining which elements to display. JavaScript automates changes to HTML and CSS, for example, making the font larger in a paragraph when a user clicks a button on the page.

#html #html-css #html-fundamentals #learning-html #html-css-basics #html-templates

HTML - A Complete Guide to Master the Top Programming Language

In this era of technology, anything digital holds a prime significance in our day-to-day life. Hence, developers have submerged themselves to create a major impact using programming languages.According to Statista, HTML/CSS holds the second position (the first being Javascript), in the list of most widely-used programming languages globally (2020).Interested to learn this language? Then head on to this tutorial and get to know all about HTML! Plus we have added numerous examples such that you can learn better! So happy learning!
html for beginners

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Types, Effects and Attributes

HTML Button Tag – Types, Effects and Attributes

In this article, we are going to learn HTML Button Tags. So let’s start!!!

HTML Button

The tag of HTML is used to create a clickable button. The button can contain text and other tags such as , ,
, , etc. Such provisions are not given by a button created using the element. The appearance of the button can be changed and manipulated using the CSS3 properties. A button consists of various attributes that tell the browser about its course of action, right from clicking.

Syntax- <button type= “ ”>Content

Output-

HTML Button Attributes

AttributeValueDescriptionautofocusautofocusSpecifies that a button should automatically get focus as soon as the page loads.disableddisabledSpecifies that a button should be disabled.formform_idSpecifies the form to which the button belongs.formactionURLSpecifies where to send the data of the form when it is submitted. Only for type=”submit”.formenctypeapplication/x-www-form-urlencodedmultipart/form-data

text/plain

Specifies how form-data should be encoded, before sending it to a server. (Only for type=”submit”)formmethodgetpost

Specifies how to send the form-data i.e. HTTP method, only for type=”submit”formnovalidateformnovalidateSpecifies that the form-data should not be validated, on submission. Only for type=”submit”formtarget_blank_self

_parent

_top

framename

Specifies where to display the response after the submission of the form.namenameSpecifies a name for the button.typebuttonreset

submit

Specifies the type of button.valuetextSpecifies an initial value for the button that will be displayed.

HTML buttons also support global and event attributes.

Styling of Buttons in HTML

We can use CSS3 to style the button. The following are some examples.

Output-

Here is another example where we will display the hovering effect on the button.

Output-

Use of Border-Radius Property

We can use the border-radius property to create round buttons.

Output-

HTML Shadow Buttons

We can enhance the buttons using the shadow effect

Output-

HTML Disabled Buttons

We can also create disabled buttons.

Output-

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