Figure 13-5: The Gmail interface is powered by JavaScript in Java

Printing PDF 417 in Java Figure 13-5: The Gmail interface is powered by JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language that runs inside the browser, but there are other scripting languages that run on the server side, such as Perl, ASP (Active Server Pages), PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor, an (X)HTML embedded scripting language), Python, NET, and others Programs written in these languages reside on the server and are called by the Web page, usually in response to a form filled out by the user People who write these Web pages may include snippets of code that pass bits of information from the HTML page to the program on the server When called, the program runs and then returns a result of some sort to the user Amazon (wwwamazoncom) runs a familiar e-commerce Web application that runs mostly on the server side, using server scripts Web pages displayed by the browser when you visit Amazon result from processing server-side scripts, all of which take place before the page ever hits your browser If you d like more information on JavaScript and what it can do for you, check out JavaScript For Dummies, Quick Reference by Emily A Vander Veer

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Using forms in your Web pages Creating forms Working with form data Designing easy-to-use forms Making forms easy with a form framework

ost of the HTML you write helps you display content and information for your users Sometimes, however, you want a Web page to gather information from users instead of giving static information to them HTML form markup elements give you a healthy collection of tags and attributes for creating forms to collect information from visitors to your site This chapter covers the many different uses for forms It also shows you how to use form markup tags to create just the right form for soliciting information from your users, reviews your options for working with the data you receive, and gives you some tips for creating easy-to-use forms that really help your users provide the information you re looking for

The Web contains millions of forms, but every form is driven by the same set of markup tags Web forms can be short or long, simple or complex, and they have myriad uses But forms all fall into one of two broad categories: Search forms that let users search a site or the entire Web Data collection forms that provide information for online shopping, technical support, site preferences, and personalization Before you create any form markup, you need to determine what kind of data your visitors will search for on your site and/or what kind of data you need to collect from visitors Your data drives the form elements that you use as well as how you put them together on a page

Search forms help you give visitors information The following search forms are from the friendly folks at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) The difference between these search forms is the data the IRS site needs from you for its search: The IRS home page (shown in Figure 14-1) is a simple, multifaceted search form featuring various layout areas to help visitors easily search for tax forms and publications, online services, filing and payment information, task-oriented instructions, and general information This type of page can produce dozens of relevant responses Visitors can both Choose the best option Look at more than one option

A more complicated search form, such as the Get Refund Status page (as shown in Figure 14-2), produces only one specific response: namely, IRS records for the status of your income tax refund Because this page demands detailed information and after all, because the IRS doesn t want you to see anyone else s refund it serves dual purposes: Finding data that visitors need Hiding data that visitors shouldn t see