Creates forms that the reader can complete to respond to an author's queries.
accept=
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"This attribute specifies a comma-separated list of MIME types that a server processing this form will handle correctly. (Browsers) may use this information to filter out nonconformant files when prompting a user to select files to be sent to the server." (W3C HTML 4.0)
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accept-charset=
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"This is a comma-separated list of character encodings for input data that must be accepted by the server processing this form." (paraphrased from W3C HTML 4.0)
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action=
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this is the address the form will use to carry out the action of the form. If this is not specified, the base URL of the form is used.
Gerald Neufeld sent me this explanation. I cannot improve on it so I include it here for your reference.
Note that you are making use of your ISP's forms processing facility by using a CGI script. The start of the form on your comments page shows that you are using the script "cgiemail" in the cgi-bin directory.
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/cgiemail/~woodall/comments.txt">
In your case the web browser sends the information from the form to your server. The info is processed by the "cgiemail" script and the server sends you the information in a piece of email.
This works for you. However, many people (including all AOL subscribers) do not have helpful ISP and are prohibited from using cgi scripts or there is no documentation available on how to use them. If you do not have CGI support, you can still use forms but you must rely on the web browser doing the mailing for you. You specify this like this:
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="mailto:nor@synapse.net">
This is the type of form that causes the problems I mentioned with Internet Explorer - and with Netscape if you have specified a default mailer other than the Netscape mailer.
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| "http:" |
This is usually used to send a form content to a cgi (or similar) program for processing before being sent to the form author.
Example
<form action="http://www.synapse.net/cgi-bin/forms_process" method="post">form content</form>
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| "mailto:" |
this is used to send the contents of a form to an e-mail address.
Example:"
<form action="mailto:nor@synapse.net" method="post">form content</form>
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class=
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dir=
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| "ltr" |
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enctype=
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"This attribute specifies the Internet Media Type (mimetype) used to submit the form to the server (when the value of "method=" is "post")." (W3C HTML 4.0)
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| "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" |
This is the default value.
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| "multipart/form-data" |
This argument is used when the returned document is to include a submitted file. (paraphrased from W3C HTML 4.0)
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id=
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Warning: there are two possible meanings of this particular use of "id=". There is the normal use of "id=" and follow the link on the attribute name for more information on that use.
The second meaning is used exclusively by WebTV. It is the same as the "name=" attribute below so the explanation is shared. Their description is as follows:
"The name attribute can be used with client functions. However, client functions are not recommended for content developers. These functions are intended for use by WebTV Networks for developing basic WebTV functionality."
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index=
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lang=
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list of language codes
list of country codes
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method=
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this stipulates how the form data should be sent to the server.
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| "get"
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this causes the data to be appended to the arguments to the action URL and open it as if it were an anchor. (Microsoft)
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| "post" |
means send the data via an HTTP post transaction. (Microsoft)
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name=
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Warning: this is not the normal use of the "name=" attribute.
Interesting twist here. WebTV is the only one to use this attribute and recommends it as the same function as id="," above. This is their entire explanation:
"The name attribute can be used with client functions. However, client functions are not recommended for content developers. These functions are intended for use by WebTV Networks for developing basic WebTV functionality."
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onreset=
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"Defines JavaScript code to execute when the user resets the form (by pressing the Reset button)." (WebTV 1.2 DTD) credited to Netscape 2.0.
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onSubmit=
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"Defines JavaScript code to execute when the user submits the form (by pressing the Submit button)." (WebTV 1.2 DTD) credited to Netscape 2.0.
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script=
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"HTML 3.0 doesn't provide direct support for constraining the values entered into text fields, or for derived fields whose values are calculated from the values of other fields. Rather than extending the markup to support these features, HTML 3.0 provides a means for associating the form with a script. Support for scripts is not required, however, and the HTML 3.0 specification doesn't cover the scripting languages or the details of their interface with the user agent
The SCRIPT attribute of the FORM element specifies the script via a URI. The user agent down-loads the script and interprets it locally. Scripts handle a variety of messages for individual fields and the form as a whole. These messages correspond to events such as:
- Enter/Leave Form (for initialization and clean up)
- When a field gains or loses the input focus
- Mouse clicks and drags over a field
- Keyboard events
Scripts can examine and set properties of fields. They can also examine a small set of standard properties of the user agent, for instance the user's name, the time of day, the type of user agent, and so on.
Scripts can't do anything that might jeopardize the user or the host machine. Scripts can't send messages over the network, or read or write files. The library calls that are allowed are restricted to a very small and well defined set. These precautions are necessary for untrusted scripts. It is envisaged that script interpreters will offer a much wider application programming interface to trusted scripts, as determined on the basis of a digital signature by a trusted third party." (HTML 3.0)
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style=
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target=
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"The area tag forces the load of that link into the targeted window." (Netscape)
Please note: WebTV in its 1.2 DTD leaves off the underscored space before the following arguments. All other references appear to have this "_" except for WebTV. It is possible that it is an error.
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| "_blank"
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makes the link to load into a new blank window. This window is not named. (Netscape)
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| "_parent"
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"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." (Netscape)
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| "_self"
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"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." (Netscape)
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| "_top"
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"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." (Netscape)
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title=
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