Introduction to Forms
As you recall from first semester forms give you the ability to receive information from the person viewing your web pages. It provides a means of receiving input from your web pages. Whether you are selling a product, conducting a survey, soliciting subscriptions forms allow your viewers to send you information directly from your web pages.
The other thing to remember about forms is that they require some kind of server side technology in order to process this information. Forms submit the data the user entered in the web page to the server and the server requires a script to process the information. These server side scripts are usually written in a programming language such as Perl, VBScript, JavaScript, Java or C++. The scripts reside and run on the server. Some common server-side technologies are ColdFusion, ASP, ASP.NET, PHP and JSP. Some type of database is usually part of this same server setup.
CGI or Common Gateway Interface scripts process form data. As you recall there are two methods of getting the information from the form to the server, the GET method and the POST method. Research these two methods and explain the differences. Also give an example of when you would want to use each method.
Exploring Form Elements in Dreamweaver
1. Create a new folder in your Dreamweaver folder called forms.2. Open a new page and save it as forms_quiz in your forms folder.
3. Create a quiz about forms using a form of course. Give this page an appropriate title.
4. To create a form move the cursor to the location where you want the form inserted and then from the menu bar select Insert > Form. What appears on the design page and what new tag is added to the code?
5. Another way to insert a form is through the Insert panel and the Forms tab. Click on this tab in the Insert panel. List the buttons shown on this panel, yes all of them.
6. Insert a text field on your page by placing the cursor where you want the field and then click on the text field button on the Insert panel. Select the field and look at the properties. What are the three different types of text fields? Label this text field Name:
7. Now use the rest of the field objects to create a short quiz about forms. As you use each form element look at the properties provided. Remember that every form element will have a name and a value. The name is what identifies the field (such as name for the name text box) and the value is the information that is processed by the server (the value for name would be whatever value the user enters).
8. Create a multiple answer (requires more than one right answer to the question) question using checkboxes. Be sure that the name/value pairs of each check box are different.
9. Create a multiple choice question where only one answer is correct. What type of form object will you use for this type of question?
10. Repeat step 9 but this time use the radio group button to save yourself some work.
11. Insert a List/Menu box. Include at least 4 different values.
12. Now that your form is finished what are the final two buttons every form should have? Insert this pair of buttons into your page.
13. Show your page to your instructor for teacher check.