Chapter 6 - XHTML Forms

Forms are used for many purposes all over the Web. They are used by search engines to accept keywords and by online stores to process e-commerce shopping carts.

Web sites use forms to help with a variety of functions ranging from accepting visitor feedback, encouraging visitors to send a news story to a friend or colleague, collecting email addresses for a newsletter, and accepting order information.

This chapter introduces a very powerful tool for web developers - using forms on web pages to accept information from your visitors.

Textbook Links

• Yahoo!
• Amazon
• eBay
• Better Business Bureau Online Sample Privacy Policy
• MyMoney.gov Privacy Notice
• National Park Service Privacy Notice
• WC3 CGI Resource Guide

CGI Resources

Server-Side Technologies

If you are using an outside service to process a shopping cart (more on shopping carts in Chapter 12) but want to preserve the look and feel of your site, consider using a frameset with separate frames for banner/logo, navigation, and content.

Configure the content frame to use the shopping cart. That way if the outsourced shopping cart does not display any logo or navigation -- your site will still be usable and look very "put together".

Chapter Updates

Chapter Materials :

• Page 225 - The value of the id attribute in the first code sample is incorrect. Correction: id="sendto"
• Page 228 - In Table 6.4 The value for the checked attribute is incorrect. The correct value for the checked attribute is "checked".

JavaJam Case Study:

• Page 258 -- Second bullet point in #2:
  "Modify the text links at the bottom of the page." should be "Modify the text links."
• Page 260 -- value - "Yes" should be value="Yes"

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