Hidden and Submit

HIDDEN

Forms can also contain hidden fields, ones the user can't change. There are reasons for hidden field, for example..

If you are sending the form to a script, the script might need to know other things like where to send the user once the form has been sent. So in that example you might have a hidden field that looks like this

<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="thankyou.html">

Or, you may have lots of forms on your site and you want to identify which form was used, you could use something like this

<input type="hidden" name="what form" value="General Contact Form">

There's no need for the user to see or change those fields but we might find them useful so we hide them :)

RESET

<input type="reset" value="Start Again">

value : This is the text you want to have displayed on the button.

There are arguments for and against having a reset button. The worst one I heard was "if you have a reset button the visitor might change their mind about sending the form - limit their choices!" - well personally, I think if someone changes their mind they will change it with or without a reset button. By providing a reset button you give the user piece of mind that the info they entered has gone.

Consider your user at all times :)

SUBMIT

<input type="submit" name="" value="Send Form">

name : Optional, some form scripts require the submit to have a name. If it doesn't require a name or you are using the mailto then you can omit the name attribute.
value : This is the text you want to have displayed on the button.

The submit button does exactly what it says - it submits the form using the chosen action defined in the form tag.

Finally we'll look at using forms in tables.

how forms work | the form tag | text input
user options | hidden and submit | forms in tables

Why not discuss this article in our forum?

Other related guides : accessible web forms | webpage basics | lists

[back to top of page]

[

] [

]

Search
	[ Web] [ WebDevTips]