HTML Forms are essentially the
client side of
CGI. They present
a nice interface for the user to enter text and select options, embedded
right in an
HTML page.
At the top of this page, you should see the
Everything Search.
The text area is an
<input type=text>. The checkable
options with it are both
<input type=checkbox>. The "Search"
button is actually an image:
<input type=image>
If you are a user, you will see a
<textarea> type field below this
node. If you have votes, you can see
<input type=radio>
at the top of my node, which let you pick between different options.
Each tag also takes other parameters, such as
name=,
so that they are differentiated.
There are five other types that may or may not be on your page:
- <input type=password>
Like the text type of input, except characters are shown as *
so people can't see what you're typing.
- <input type=submit>
This is just a normal submit button. The image type does the same thing.
If you have the Other Users nodelet enabled, you can see the "go" button, which
is of this type. The "vote!" button is the same.
- <input type=reset>
This is stylized the same way as a submit button, except it clears all the fields in the
form instead. It can be rather aggrivating to click this and lose all the information
you just entered.
- <select>
If you have the Other Users nodelet enabled, you can see a drop-down list at its top. That's
what select is. It lets you pick a value from a predefined list.
It can be specified to allow multiple selections, which may be implemented as a list
of checkboxes.
There is an excellent tutorial on making HTML forms at the following
URL:
http://www.
ncsa.
uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/
Mosaic/Docs/fill-out-forms/overview.html