Create a form inside a document. A form consists of one or more input-capable fields. The form can include GUI-elements such as radio-buttons, checkboxes, buttons and textfields.

Using a form you can send information to the Web-server which will invoke the supplied program and pass the information to that program. So with forms you can allow the user to pass data to the server. Forms can be used for things such as order-entry, supplying search criteria or subscribing to a mailing list.

The fields of a form are defined using the INPUT, SELECT and TEXTAREA elements.

The FIELDSET element can group fields within the form logically.

<!ELEMENT FORM - - (%block;|SCRIPT)+ -(FORM) -- interactive form -->
<!ATTLIST FORM
  %attrs;                              -- %coreattrs, %i18n, %events --
  action      %URI;          #REQUIRED -- server-side form handler --
  method      (GET|POST)     GET       -- HTTP method used to submit the form--
  enctype     %ContentType;  "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
  onsubmit    %Script;       #IMPLIED  -- the form was submitted --
  onreset     %Script;       #IMPLIED  -- the form was reset --
  accept-charset %Charsets;  #IMPLIED  -- list of supported charsets --
  >

Core attributes: class id style title
Internationalization attributes: dir lang
Events: onclick ondblclick onmousedown onmouseup onmouseover onmousemove onmouseout onkeypress onkeydown onkeyup

The default value is "UNKNOWN", a reserved value. The browser handles this as the same character encoding that is used for the page that contains the FORM.

The mailto: address is not supported by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Netscape introduced the type multipart/form-data which is used to implement <INPUT type="file">.

Value	Description
GET	The data is appended to the URL of the program. The result is that the data is not passed directly to the program but made available in an environment variable called QUERY_STRING.
POST	This sends the input information in a data body that is available on stdin with the data length set in the environment variable CONTENT_LENGTH.

The default method is GET.

Magic TARGET names
These names all begin with the underscore character. Any targeted window name beginning with underscore which is not one of these names, will be ignored.

Value	Description
_blank	This target will cause the link to always be loaded in a new blank window. This window is not named.
_self	This target causes the link to always load in the same window the anchor was clicked in. This is useful for overriding a globally assigned BASE target.
_parent	This target makes the link load in the immediate FRAMESET parent of this document. This defaults to acting like _self if the document has no parent.
_top	This target makes the link load in the full body of the window. This defaults to acting like _self if the document is already at the top. It is useful for breaking out of an arbitrarily deep FRAME nesting.

<FORM method="post" action="_URL_" onreset="alert('The form is reset')"> <TABLE> <TR><TD>Name </TD><TD><INPUT type="text" name="name"></TD></TR> <TR><TD>E-mail</TD><TD><INPUT type="text" name="email"></TD></TR> <TR><TD colspan="2">How did you find these pages <SELECT name="findout"> <OPTION>Newsgroup <OPTION>Link on another page <OPTION>Search engine </SELECT></TD></TR> <TR><TD colspan="2" align="center"><INPUT type="submit" value="Send values"> <INPUT type="reset" value="Reset form"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> </FORM>

Name E-mail How did you find these pages Newsgroup Link on another page Search engine

<FORM action="_URL_" enctype="multipart/form-data" onsubmit="alert('Submitting the form')"> Send this file: <INPUT name="userfile" type="file"> <INPUT type="submit" value="Send File"> </FORM>

Send this file:

Please put me on you christmas-card list : <FORM action="mailto:schluter@knoware.nl"> Name <INPUT name="Name">, Email address <INPUT name="Email"> <INPUT type="submit"> </FORM>

Please put me on you christmas-card list : Name , Email address