CATCHING INTERACTIVE DATA - HTML5 - page 335

< meta http-equiv = ”Content-Type” content = ”text/html; charset=UTF-8” >
< title > Simple E-Mail </ title >
</ head >
< body >
<article>
<header>
< h2 > Mailer </ h2 >
</header>
<section>
<header>
< h3 > Fill in the form and send us your questions, ideas, and rants. </ h3 >
</header>
< form action = ”mailer1.php” method = ”post” >
< input name =userName>
&nbsp;Please enter your name. < br >
< input name =mailNow type =email onInvalid= ”MailMaster.eMess()” >
&nbsp; Enter e-mail address to send reply. < br >
< input name =subject> &nbsp; What subject would you like to address? < br >
< fieldset >
< legend > Comments </ legend >
< textarea name =talk cols = 70 rows = 15 ></ textarea >
</ fieldset >
< input type =submit name =sender value = ”Send email” >
</ form >
</section>
</article>
</ body >
</ html >

339

One of the key lines in the HTML5 script is the action in the form that sends the information
to PHP for processing:

< form action = ”mailer1.php” method = ”post” >

h e form was not given a name because, for this application, we didn't need one. However,
adding a name to the form is generally a good practice, and if it's needed, it should be
available.

All the name attributes in the input elements are crucial. Each name in the input element tags
is passed to PHP as an array element in the $_POST array. h e element is then passed to a
variable that is used in the e-mail that is sent to a recipient — typically, the Web site owner. In
this case, that's you. Figure 16-5 shows the input page and the form data that will be sent to
the PHP program for server-side processing.

As soon as the user clicks the Send E-Mail button, he receives a notice:

Your e-mail has been sent to [e-mail]. Thank you for your interest in Wazoo
Web Site Design and Development.

To see how that happened, we'll have to look at the PHP portion of the application.