HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
EXPLANATION
(
CONTINUED
)
2
The input type is a textbox that will hold up to 50 characters. When the user types
text into the textbox, that text will be stored in the user-defined
name
value,
your_name
. For example, if the user types
Stefan Lundstrom
, the browser will as-
sign to the query string,
your_name=Stefan Lundstrom.
If assigned a
value
attribute,
the text field can display a default text string that appears in the textbox when it
is first displayed by the browser. The
id
attribute can be used by JavaScript to ma-
nipulate the form element.
3
The user is asked for input. The text area is similar to the text field, but will allow
input that scans multiple lines. The
<textarea>
tag will produce a rectangle named
“comments” with dimensions in rows and columns (5 rows × 50 columns) and an
optional default value (
I was born...).
4
The user is asked to pick from a series of menu items. The first input type is a list
of radio buttons. Only one button can be selected at a time. The input type has two
attributes: a
type
and a
name
. The value of the
name
attribute
“choice”
, for example,
will be assigned
“burger”
if the user clicks on the
Hamburger
option.
choice=burger
is passed onto the PHP program. And if the user selects
Fish
,
choice=fish
will be as-
signed to the query string. These name/value pairs are used to build a query string
to pass onto the PHP program after the Submit button is clicked.
5
The input type this time is in the form of checkboxes. More than one checkbox
can be selected. The optional default box is already checked. When the user se-
lects one of the checkboxes, the value of the
name
attribute will be assigned one
of the values from the
value
attribute;
place=LA
if
Los Angeles
is checked.
6
The user is asked for input. The
<select>
tag is used to produce a popup menu
(also called a drop-down list) or a scrollable list. The
name
option is required.
It is used to define the name for the set of options. For a popup menu, the
size
attribute is not necessary; it defaults to 1. The popup menu initially displays one
option and expands to a menu when that option is clicked. Only one selection
can be made from the menu. If a
size
attribute is given, that many items will be
displayed. If the
multiple
attribute is given (as
<select multiple name=“whatev-
er”>
), the menu appears as a scrollable list, displaying all of the options and the
user can select more than one option by holding down the Ctrl key while click-
ing the option.
7
If the user clicks the Submit button, the PHP script listed in the form's
action
at-
tribute will be launched. The form data will be URL encoded and sent to the serv-
er program assigned to the form's
action
attribute.
8
If the reset button (
“Clear”
) is pressed, all input boxes are reset to their defaults.
9
This tag ends the form. The output is shown in Figure 11.8.
