Forms are the method used to get information to you in an easy to fill out format. They may also be used to receive information.

Whether you are requesting customer information or having visitors fill out your guest book, forms will do the job.

What's in a FORM?

Forms contain three simple elements:

1. The <FORM> tag
2. The VALUE element
3. The SUBMIT or GO button

More can be added to the FORM such as additional fields, required inputs, etc.

What does a FORM look like?

Here is a simple MAILTO: Form that implements the user's mail program to send the form.

<!--Start of FORM-->
<form method=post action="mailto:editor@coffeecup.com">
What is your age?
<input type="text" name="age" value="" cols="30" size="30">
<input type="submit"  name="submit" value="submit">
</form>
<!--end of FORM-->

On your webpage it would look similar to this:

In this example, no CGI script was used. The ACTION of the form requires the use of the user's e-mail program. The data, or INPUT, that was asked was "AGE". When the user clicked the [SUBMIT] button the data they inserted in the box was then e-mailed to you (or in this example "editor@coffeecup.com").

How would you make this using the FORM DESIGNER?

Form Designer Button
The first box will ask you if the form is a POST or GET form, what MIME POST Method to use, and what ACTION to take when the user clicks the SUBMIT button.

In our example, we are using a simple MAILTO: form that will simply e-mail the data to our e-mail address. The best alternative is to use a CGI Script, such as FormMail, to more clearly present the data that you receive. A CGI Script requires you to have access to the CGI-BIN directory that your webpage is on. Otherwise it will not work properly.

Once the form is inserted, then simply choose the items from the form items menu.

The next step is getting the INPUT box to ask the user what their age is.

In our example, we used the Text Box item to insert this tag:

<input type="text" name="" value="">

In this case, AGE is the name of the value the user is would put in. Another example could be Phone Number, or First Name, whatever you classify the input box to be.

Value is the text that will automatically be in the INPUT box when the user opens the webpage. In this case, we do not want any Default Text so it stays empty.

We then clicked on the Submit Button item to place the HTML needed for a Submit button to appear on the webpage.