Boot Camp

Web Authoring Boot Camp
Hidden
Hidden inputs are not visible in the rendered page, but allow a designer to maintain a
copy of data that needs to be submitted to the server as part of the form. This may, for
example, be data that this web visitor entered or selected on a previous form that needs to
be processed in conjunction with the current form.
Planning Forms
Using forms on your website can be useful for several reasons. You can have a form act
as your email contact, so that you can get information from your visitor in an organized
fashion. You can use a simple form as a poll or survey. Web forms can be used to enter
shipping or credit card data to order a product or can be used to retrieve data.
HTML forms are fairly simple to build and use. For more complex forms , you can combine
HTML with various scripting languages to allow developers to create dynamic websites.
This includes both client-side and/or server-side languages. We will focus on simple
HTML forms here.
Use forms only when you feel they are necessary or useful – to the visitor, not just the client.
Decide form information that is needed in order to successfully craft the questions.
Determine if the form will post or get data, and if the form needs to work with a database.
For database-related forms, you’ll want more extensive tools. For simple forms, you can
aim for:
• Contact information: first name, last name, email address.
• Demographic information: gender, location.
• Choices information: visitor needs, preferences, actions needed.
• Comment information: for items not queried about in the form.
Form Redirect Pages
When your visitor submits a form, it is common practice for you to redirect them to a
page that informs him/her that the form was submitted. This can be a thank-you page, or
a redirect to a page on your site that offers more contact information or useful information.
If there is no redirect, you visitor might not know if the form was submitted, which
is poor usability and accessibility practice.
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