HTML - Advanced Form Inputs

October 3, 2024

Tags: Form

Overview

To expand on the basic HTML form, we can add text inputs, textarea inputs, checkboxes, and radio buttons to gather user information to be sent to a server for processing.

<form action="forms/processing.php">
    <!-- text and email inputs -->
    <label for="first_name">First name:</label>
    <input type="text" id="first_name" name="first_name">

    <label for="last_name">Last name:</label>
    <input type="text" id="last_name" name="last_name">

    <label for="email">Email:</label>
    <input type="email" id="email" name="email">


    <!-- radio inputs -->
    <input type="radio" id="html" name="languages" value="HTML">
    <label for="html">HTML</label>

    <input type="radio" id="css" name="languages" value="CSS">
    <label for="css">CSS</label>

    <input type="radio" id="javascript" name="languages" value="JavaScript">
    <label for="javascript">JavaScript</label>


    <!-- checkbox inputs-->
    <input type="checkbox" id="vehicle_1" name="vehicle_1" value="Bike">
    <label for="vehicle_1"> I have a Lamborghini</label>

    <input type="checkbox" id="vehicle_2" name="vehicle_2" value="Car">
    <label for="vehicle_2"> I have a Ferrari</label>

    <input type="checkbox" id="vehicle_3" name="vehicle_3" value="Boat">
    <label for="vehicle_3"> I have a Maserati</label>


    <!-- dropdown input -->
    <label for="cars">Choose a car:</label>
    <select id="cars" name="cars">
        <option value="lamborghini">Lamborghini</option>
        <option value="ferrari">Ferrari</option>
        <option value="maserati" selected>Maserati</option>
    </select>


    <!-- textarea input -->
    <textarea name="message" rows="10" cols="30"></textarea>


    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

The code above would give us the unformatted form below.

After the text and email inputs we have a set of radio button inputs. Radio buttons only allow for one selection out of multiple choices. Just like the text and email inputs, each of the radio inputs has a corresponding label that uses the name attribute to refer to the #id of the input it belongs to.

Additionally, each radio input has a value attribute with the information that is to be passed when the form is submitted.

<!-- radio inputs -->
<input type="radio" id="html" name="languages" value="HTML">
<label for="html">HTML</label>

<input type="radio" id="css" name="languages" value="CSS">
<label for="css">CSS</label>

<input type="radio" id="javascript" name="languages" value="JavaScript">
<label for="javascript">JavaScript</label>

Next we have a set of HTML checkboxes which allow the user to select zero or more options from a number of choices. Again, each checkbox input has a corresponding label, and like the radio button has a value that will be send with the rest of the form data.

<!-- checkbox inputs-->
<input type="checkbox" id="vehicle_1" name="vehicle_1" value="Bike">
<label for="vehicle_1"> I have a Lamborghini</label>

<input type="checkbox" id="vehicle_2" name="vehicle_2" value="Car">
<label for="vehicle_2"> I have a Ferrari</label>

<input type="checkbox" id="vehicle_3" name="vehicle_3" value="Boat">
<label for="vehicle_3"> I have a Maserati</label>

Next we have a dropdown list (select element) from which the user can make one or more selections. The label for the select applies to the entire dropdown. By default, the first item in the drop-down list is selected, but in the following we have the “Maserati” preselected for the user by using the selected attribute (it has no value; by just appearing it “selects” that option item).

Each option within the <select> element has a value attached which is what is sent when the form is submitted.

<!-- dropdown input -->
<label for="cars">Choose a car:</label>
<select id="cars" name="cars">
    <option value="lamborghini">Lamborghini</option>
    <option value="ferrari">Ferrari</option>
    <option value="maserati" selected>Maserati</option>
</select>

Finally, we have a textarea input which is a text box where the user can write a message to be sent when the form is submitted. The rows and cols attributes specify how big the form should appear on the page (ten rows in height and 30 columns in width).

<!-- textarea input -->
<textarea name="message" rows="10" cols="30"></textarea>

Attributes

The following attributes can be used within the <form> tag.

Attribute	Value	Description
accept-charset	character_set	Specifies the character encodings that are to be used for the form submission
action	URL	Specifies where to send the form data when a form is submitted
autocomplete	on off	Specifies whether a form should have autocomplete on or off
enctype	application/x-www-form-urlencoded multipart/form-data text/plain	Specifies how the form data should be encoded when submitting it to the server (only for method="post")
method	get post	Specifies the HTTP method to use when sending form data
name	text	Specifies the name of a form
novalidate	novalidate	Specifies that the form should not be validated when submitted
rel	external help license next nofollow noopener noreferrer opener prev search	Specifies the relationship between a linked resource and the current document
target	_blank _self _parent _top	Specifies where to display the response that is received after submitting the form

The following attributes can be used within the <input> tags.

Attribute	Value	Description
accept	file_extension audio/* video/* image/* media_type	Specifies a filter for what file types the user can pick from the file input dialog box (only for type="file")
alt	text	Specifies an alternate text for images (only for type="image")
autocomplete	on off	Specifies whether an <input> element should have autocomplete enabled
autofocus	autofocus	Specifies that an <input> element should automatically get focus when the page loads
checked	checked	Specifies that an <input> element should be pre-selected when the page loads (for type="checkbox" or type="radio")
dirname	inputname.dir	Specifies that the text direction will be submitted
disabled	disabled	Specifies that an <input> element should be disabled
form	form_id	Specifies the form the <input> element belongs to
formaction	URL	Specifies the URL of the file that will process the input control when the form is submitted (for type="submit" and type="image")
formenctype	application/x-www-form-urlencoded multipart/form-data text/plain	Specifies how the form-data should be encoded when submitting it to the server (for type="submit" and type="image")
formmethod	get post	Defines the HTTP method for sending data to the action URL (for type="submit" and type="image")
formnovalidate	formnovalidate	Defines that form elements should not be validated when submitted
formtarget	_blank _self _parent _top framename	Specifies where to display the response that is received after submitting the form (for type="submit" and type="image")
height	pixels	Specifies the height of an <input> element (only for type="image")
list	datalist_id	Refers to a <datalist> element that contains pre-defined options for an <input> element
max	number date	Specifies the maximum value for an <input> element
maxlength	number	Specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in an <input> element
min	number date	Specifies a minimum value for an <input> element
minlength	number	Specifies the minimum number of characters required in an <input> element
multiple	multiple	Specifies that a user can enter more than one value in an <input> element
name	text	Specifies the name of an <input> element
pattern	regexp	Specifies a regular expression that an <input> element's value is checked against
placeholder	text	Specifies a short hint that describes the expected value of an <input> element
readonly	readonly	Specifies that an input field is read-only
required	required	Specifies that an input field must be filled out before submitting the form
size	number	Specifies the width, in characters, of an <input> element
src	URL	Specifies the URL of the image to use as a submit button (only for type="image")
step	number any	Specifies the interval between legal numbers in an input field
type	button checkbox color date datetime-local email file hidden image month number password radio range reset search submit tel text time url week	Specifies the type <input> element to display
value	text	Specifies the value of an <input> element
width	pixels	Specifies the width of an <input> element (only for type="image")

The following attributes can be used within the <select> tag.

Attribute	Value	Description
autofocus	autofocus	Specifies that the drop-down list should automatically get focus when the page loads
disabled	disabled	Specifies that a drop-down list should be disabled
form	form_id	Defines which form the drop-down list belongs to
multiple	multiple	Specifies that multiple options can be selected at once
name	name	Defines a name for the drop-down list
required	required	Specifies that the user is required to select a value before submitting the form
size	number	Defines the number of visible options in a drop-down list

The following attributes can be used within the <textarea> tag.

Attribute	Value	Description
autofocus	autofocus	Specifies that the text area should automatically get focus when the page loads
cols	number	Specifies the visible width of the text area
dirname	textareaname.dir	Specifies that the text direction of the text area will be submitted
disabled	disabled	Specifies that the text area should be disabled
form	form_id	Specifies which form the text area belongs to
maxlength	number	Specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in the text area
name	text	Specifies a name for the text area
placeholder	text	Specifies a short hint that describes the expected value of the text area
readonly	readonly	Specifies that a text area should be read only
required	required	Specifies that the text area is required and must be filled out
rows	number	Specifies the visible number of lines in a text area
wrap	hard soft	Specifies how the text in a text area is to be wrapped when submitted in a form

HTML Notes:

In our HTML section the term “tag” and “element” are often used interchangeably to refer to both the tag used to create a page element and the element created by the tag (<p> tag = <p> element = paragraph on the page)
HTML5 is not case sensitive; so <P> is the same as <p>, <H1> is the same as <h1>
Global attributes can be used with all HTML tags and are therefore not mentioned on every tag page
To write clean, readable HTML code, it is best to use indentation whereas elements within elements are indented (tabbed or spaces) to create something that looks like a project outline
The browser will automatically remove any extra spaces and lines in your HTML code when the page is displayed
Double quotes or single quotes can be used around HTML attribute values, but when the attribute value itself contains one form of quote, it will be necessary to use the other around the attribute

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We’d like to acknowledge that we learned a great deal of our coding from W3Schools and TutorialsPoint, borrowing heavily from their teaching process and excellent code examples. We highly recommend both sites to deepen your experience, and further your coding journey. We’re just hitting the basics here at 1SMARTchicken.