HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
An input element with
"text"
as the value of the
type
element accepts any
text string that does not contain a line break. Other
type
attribute values cre-
ate text input ields with restrictions on what the user can enter:
url
he input must be a valid URL, complete with protocol
and hostname parts.
email
he input must represent an email address or a comma-
separated list of email addresses.
password
he input is treated as a text ield, but the user's input is
obscured as it is entered.
number
he input must represent an integer or a real number.
However, the default type for the input element is
text
, so if the
type
ele-
ment is missing or its value is unrecognized, the browser just creates an ordi-
nary text input ield. herefore, although having these nice built-in types is
convenient, you cannot rely on pre-HTML5 browsers to do the input checking
for you.
Example 2.25 shows the use of text input ields in a simple form. he
required
attribute is added to some of the
input
elements to prevent the user
from leaving those ields blank. he
value
attribute is used to initialize the ield
requesting a URL and to indicate to the user that a full web address is being
requested. Most elements within a form permit the use of a
value
attribute to
set an initial value for the ield.
Within the
form
element, there must be some provision for users to submit
their entries. his is usually provided by an input element with the
type
attri-
bute's value set to submit, which creates a button. Likewise, an
input
element
with the
type
attribute's value set to
reset
gives the user a button that clears all
entries from the form's ields and starts over.
Example 2.25: A simple form with
input
elements
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>Example 2.25</title></head>
<body style="padding: 0px 36px;">
continues