Chapter 2 - Web Application technologies P a g e | 32
The main feature provided by HTML in addition to controlling the format of a document is Hyperlinks , the functionality that help surfer to point and click to move from document to another or inside the same document . Links are normally specified with the tag anchor < a > :
< a href =” http :// www . skcomputerco . com / index . php ? name = sami ”> The Home page </ a >
The tag above defines a link that specifies the resource named ( index . php ) and passes the parameter ( name ) with the value ( sami ). The information is sent in the HTTP header with GET method . In real applications the point and click interaction level becomes unable to fulfil the required functionality arbitrary data entry . HTML provides a special tag ( Form ) as a container and different types of ( input ) tag to allow different entry types .
< form name =” myForm ” action =”” method =” POST ” > User Name < input type =” text ” name =” username ” />< br /> User Password < input type =” password ” name =” userPass ” />< br /> Marital Status < input type =” checkbox ” name =” isMarried ” />< br /> male < input type =” radio ” name =” gender ” value =” male ”/> Female < input type =” radio ” name =” gender ” value =” female ” />< br /> Submit < input name =” submit ” type =” submit ” value =” submit ”/> Reset < input name =” reset ” type =” reset ” /> </ form >
As illustrated in the previous example the markup code above will show the following form
On submit the following request will be sent by the client ( web browser ) POST / main / login . php HTTP / 1.1 Host : skcomputerco . com Content-Type : application / x-www-form-urlencoded Content-Length : nn
username = sami & userPass = samiPass & userPassConfirm = samiPass & isMarried = c hecked & gender = male & submit = submit