Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML, 5th Edition

Attribute Value Usage

action File name or URL of the program or script that

will handle the form data

Specifies the name of the server-side program or

script that will handle the form data.

id Alphanumeric, no spaces; the value must be

unique and not used for other idvalues.

Provides a unique identifier for the form.

method "post" Preferred by the W3C. Sends the form data to the

Web server as a part of the entity body of the HTTP

response. Form data is not visible in the URL.

"get"(default) Sends the form data to the Web server as part of

the URL.

enctype "multipart/form-data" Specifies that the form will accept a file as input

(using an <input type="file" />element).

name Text name, beginning with a letter, no spaces This attribute is optional. It names the form so that

it can be easily accessed by client-side scripting

languages such as JavaScript to edit and verify the

form information before the server-side processing

is invoked. This attribute is deprecated in XHTML

but is used to provide backward compatibility with

browsers that support HTML.

target See Table A.13 Specifies the window used to display the form

response. The default is the current window. See

Table A.13.

Table A.25tag attributes

Attribute Value Usage

type "text", "checkbox", "radio", -

"hidden", "submit", "reset",

"button", "image",

"password","file"

Configures a specific form element (required).

accesskey A character on the keyboard Configures a hot key that immediately places the cursor on the

form element.

checked "checked" Used with type="checkbox" or type="radio".

Indicates that the form element is selected.

disabled "disabled" Prevents the cursor from being placed in the form element.