HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
h e
novalidate
attribute is a Boolean used in form submission; it blocks validation of the
user-inputted data during submission. h is can save time, but it can also lead to foul-ups.
Sometimes a simple form or a wide-open (unknown submission data) form does not validate
because setting up traps for validation is unknown as well. If present in the form tag, the
submitted elements will not be validated:
<
form
nonvalidate>
h at ef ectively blocks submission validation.
A better solution lies in the Boolean
formnovalidate
and
required
attributes that can
be placed in individual input elements. For example, the following form has no validation for
a cancel button and the middle name is not required, although the i rst and last names are.
<
form
name
=motherShip
accept-charset
=utf-
8
>
First name:
<
input
type
=
text
name
=fn required>
<
br
>
Middle name:
<
input
type
=
text
name
=mn >
<
br
>
Last name:
<
input
type
=
text
name
=ln required>
<
br
>
<
input
type
=submit
name
=submit
value
=
”Send the info!”
>
<
input
type
=submit formnovalidate
name
=cancel
value
=
”Cancel”
>
</
form
>
287
h e
accept-charset
,
enctype
, and
novalidate
attributes aren't ones you're likely to
use too much. However, the
input
element attributes for requiring data entry and nonvalida-
tion can be quite handy.
Action and method
You're not going to need these two important attributes until Chapter 16, so this section is
going to be brief and to the point. h e
action
attribute is assigned a URL that's launched as
soon as the Submit button is clicked. It sends the form data to the URL (a server-side program
like Perl, PHP, or ASP). h e method attribute is either
POST
or
GET
. When you send data
from your Web page or send and retrieve data, use
POST
. If all you want to do is retrieve data,
use
GET
. h e following shows typical values assigned to the two attributes:
<
form
action
=
”http://www.sandlight.com/treasures.php”
method
=
”post”
>
In Chapter 16, you'll i nd that both of these attributes are always used when dealing with PHP.