George Fox University | Offices and Services | Institutional Technology | The Basics of building a form

<form method="post" action="" name="example1">

</form>

These "form" tags create the shell of every web form you'll create. They don't do anything by themselves, but they are the holders for all the meat of the form. Let's look at three important attributes in the opening form tag.

1. METHOD - you'll always want a method attribute, because this determines the way that the data is transmitted to the script. Use "post" on these forms.
2. ACTION - if you want the data to go somewhere or do something, you'll need a value to the action attribute. This is usually a script. We'll give you the value to use here later.
3. NAME - although a name is not required for the script to work, it's a good idea to include it now, as it will be required if you use JavaScript at a latter date.