Adobe Dreamweaver CC 2014 v.13 User Manual
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c. In the Action box, specify the page or script that will process the form data by typing the path, or clicking the folder icon to navigate to
the appropriate page or script. Example: processorder.php.
d. In the Method pop-up menu, specify the method to transmit the form data to the server. Set any of the following options:
Default Uses the browser’s default setting to send the form data to the server. Typically, the default value is the GET method.
GET Appends the value to the URL requesting the page.
POST Embeds the form data in the HTTP request.
Do not use the GET method to send long forms. URLs are limited to 8192 characters. If the amount of data sent is too large, data will
be truncated, leading to unexpected or failed processing results.
Dynamic pages generated by parameters passed by the GET method can be bookmarked because all the values needed to regenerate
the page are contained in the URL displayed in the browser’s Address box. In contrast, dynamic pages generated by parameters
passed by the POST method cannot be bookmarked.
If you collect confidential user names and passwords, credit card numbers, or other confidential information, the POST method may
appear more secure than the GET method. However, the information sent by the POST method is not encrypted and can easily be
retrieved by a hacker. To ensure security, use a secure connection to a secure server.
e. (Optional) In the Enctype pop-up menu, specify the MIME encoding type of the data submitted to the server for processing.
The default setting of application/x-www-form-urlencode is typically used in conjunction with the POST method. If you are creating a file-
upload field, specify the multipart/form-data MIME type.
f. (Optional) In the Target pop-up menu, specify the window in which to display the data returned by the invoked program.
If the named window is not already open, a new window with that name opens. Set any of the following target values:
_blank Opens the destination document in a new unnamed window.
_parent Opens the destination document in the parent window of the one displaying the current document.
_self Opens the destination document in the same window as the one in which the form was submitted.
_top Opens the destination document in the body of the current window. This value can be used to ensure that the destination
document takes over the full window even if the original document was displayed in a frame.
4. Insert form objects in the page:
a. Place the insertion point where the form object should appear in the form.
b. Select the object in the Insert > Form menu, or in the Forms category of the Insert panel.
c. Complete the Input Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog box. For more information, click the Help button in the dialog box.
Note: If you don’t see the Input Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog box, you might have had the Insertion point in Code view when you
tried to insert the form object. Make sure the Insertion point is in Design view and try again. For more information on this topic, see
David Powers’s article
.
d. Set the properties of the objects.
e. Enter a name for the object in the Property inspector.
Every text field, hidden field, check box, and list/menu object must have a unique name that identifies the object in the form. Form
object names cannot contain spaces or special characters. You can use any combination of alphanumeric characters and an
underscore (_). The label you assign to the object is the variable name that stores the value (the entered data) of the field. This is the
value sent to the server for processing.
Note: All radio buttons in a group must have the same name.
f. To label the text field, check box, or radio button object on the page, click beside the object and type the label.
5. Adjust the layout of the form.
Use line breaks, paragraph breaks, preformatted text, or tables to format your forms. You cannot insert a form in another form (that is, you
cannot overlap tags), but you can include more than one form in a page.
When designing forms, remember to label the form fields with descriptive text to let users know what they’re responding to—for example,
“Type your name” to request name information.
Use tables to provide structure for form objects and field labels. When using tables in forms make sure all the table tags are included
between the form tags.
For a tutorial on creating forms, see
For a tutorial on styling forms with CSS, see
.
Text Field object properties
Select the text field object, and set any of the following options in the Property inspector:
Char Width Specifies the maximum number of characters that can be displayed in the field. This number can be less than Max Chars, which
specifies the maximum number of characters that can be entered in the field. For example, if the Char Width is set to 20 (the default value) and a
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