Level: 2
The
form element is used to delimit a data input
form. There can
be several forms in a single document, but the
form element can't
be nested.
The
action attribute is a URL specifying the location to which the
contents of the form is submitted to elicit a response. If the
action
is missing, the URL for the document itself is assumed. The way
data is submitted varies with the access protocol of the URL, and
with the values of the
method and
enctype attributes. In general:
the
method attribute selects variations in the protocol.
the
enctype attribute specifies the format of the submitted
data in case the protocol does not impose a format itself.
This standard defines and requires support for the http access protocol only.
When
action is an HTTP URL, the
method must be an HTTP
method as defined by the
HTTP method specification in the IETF
draft HTTP standard. The default
method is
get, although for
many applications, the
post method may be preferred. With the
post method, the
enctype attribute is a MIME type specifying the
format of the posted data (by default
application/x-www-form-urlencoded).
Under any protocol, the submitted contents of the form logically
consist of name/value pairs. The names are usually equal to the
name attributes of the various interactive elements in the
form.
names of
form elements
required to be distinct. The values encode the
user's input to the corresponding interactive
elements. Elements capable of displaying a
textual or numerical value return a
name/value pair even when they receive no
explicit user input.