This is a very short tutorial on the creation of a HTML form, that used the PHP form processor located in the PHP part of the forum. First, I'd like to explain how forms work, because it's not always as obvious as one would think. Basically, the HTML form is used to store the information into variables, such as name, email address, and comments, etcetera. These variable are then sent to something called a form processor and processed into any format you choose, they are then sent to the address mentioned in the form processor.
Once you read this tutorial you may be able to understand it a little better.
First off, let me show an example of a simply HTML form that asks the person for the name, email, and comments.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Contact Us</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<form action="process.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="name">
<input type="text" name="email">
<textarea cols="20" rows="10"></textarea>
<input type="Submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</BODY>
</HTML>
You'll notice I included some HTML tags to show you were this form would normally be found, even know most of you would already know. Let's break this down a little bit now.
<form action="process.php" method="POST">
This tag begins the form and tells the browser that anything after this is a form, and to recognize it as this. the Action in this form is process.php which can be found in the PHP board of the forum on my website. The action will always be the file that you wish to use to process the information on the form, so that it's readable. The method is used to POST, or place, the information from the form onto the form processor, or in this case process.php.
<input type="text" name="name">
This is a simple text box. The type tells the HTTP that it's a text box, and the name gives the name of the variable to be stored.
<textarea cols="20" rows="10">
This is a very simple text area where you can determine the size using the number of columns and rows.
<input type="Submit" value="Submit">
</form>
Last but not least we have the submit button, you'll notice the type is Submit, and the value is the name you wish to place on the button. Of course, we end most tags in HTML with the exact same tag, in this case </form>.
Good Luck Everyone :)
About the Author
Justin Robinson
http://justincanada.net
