Website Design and Programming – Introduction to Web Forms

Website Design and Programming – Introduction to Web Forms

Word Count:

544

Summary:

This article provides a brief and simple explanation of what a web form is and how to use it.

Keywords:

Web hosting,web design,programming,small business,domain registration,hosting,linux

Article Body:

There is practically no website without at least a form in one of its pages. Forms are useful to collect data from the website visitors and users. Once the user submits the form to the server, a form processing script must get the form data, validate that the user input matches the expected format for each field (e.g: email address field must be a string of text with the format of a valid email address) and process this information as desired. The script may save it into a database, send it by email or just do some processing with it and display the result. Validating the user input is essential to prevent malicious users from damaging your site.

A form definition in html starts with the form tag and ends with the /form tag. This tag can have several attributes like method (GET or POST), and action (the url of the form processing script). If use the GET method, the form data is encoded in the action URL. This method is recommended when the form is a query form. With the POST method, the form data is to appear within a message body. This is the recommended method when the form will be used to update a database, or send email, or make any action other than just retrieve data.

The form fields are used to collect the data. Generally a label is placed by each field, so the user knows what data to input. There are different kind of fields, among them:
· Textboxes
· Textareas
· Drop-downs
· Multi select
· File
· Radio buttons
· Checkboxes
· Buttons
· Hidden

The hidden fields are used to send some data that the user does not need to see, along with the form. An example of this could be a form number, so the form processing script identifies which form has been submitted.

The File field allows users to upload a file. The form processing script will get the file together with the rest of the form data. For this field to work properly, you need to include this attribute in the form tag: enctype=”multipart/form-data”.

Buttons are used to submit or reset the form.

Refer to an HTML guide for full description on the attributes and syntax of each tag. You may find a guide at http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp or at http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ among many other sites.

When the form is complex, it is useful to group fields in areas using the fieldset tag. Just place the fieldset tag, then optionally a legend Section Name /legend tag, then all the pertinent form fields, and the /fieldset tag after them.

It is possible to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or inline styles to change the look of the form controls.

You can bring your forms to a different level by combining them with the usage of scripting language like JavaScript. You can make the form react immediately to certain events, like the user clicking on a control, or a field changing its value. You can highlight the field that has the focus, for example. Or count how many characters have been entered in a text box or a textarea. You can make calculations and display the results automatically. The possibilities are endless.

Basic of PHP and ASP.Net programming Languages

We are defining here two standard website programming language PHP (Hyper text processor) and ASP (Active Server Page) for Website Programming Development. Basically it is database driven website programming languages. Whenever you require huge data connectivity and extra features PHP and ASP are useful. ASP.NET is such type of programming language which providing by Microsoft Product Technology. On other hand PHP is an open source programming language which is derived from many of various languages.




To develop dynamic database oriented websites these both programming languages are used. Microsoft Product mostly comfortable with Active Server Pages (ASP) and is also used IIS Server (Internet Information Server) to run asp application. But PHP can connect with different types of databases and so it is platform independent programming language.




There are some differences between two website programming languages define as per below.




Database Connectivity


IIS Server is required to install on a windows server platform for an ASP.Net to run successfully. But it is required to purchase the package. Other side PHP is free package to run programs on Linux server. In ASP.Net it requires MS SQL Server of Microsoft so that database connectivity is expensive for ASP.Net. And PHP basically uses MY SQL for database connectivity which is freed accessible.




The Simplicity


There is code behind structure of PHP is simple to understand, a fresh programmer can do easily to code it. Other hand ASP.Net codes are not so easy to quick understand for programmers.




Run Time Speed


If we discuss about run time speed of PHP and ASP then PHP should gets the upper hand because of ASP.Net generally uses the code which is require to time. And PHP code has in built memory space to run fast web application.




Security Purpose


ASP.Net is most useful to big Organization which has required more security for its internal process and some security numbers. Because of ASP.Net is so safety protection and PHP has not a security Level Because of it is open source code. So this is mail difference between PHP and ASP.Net.




And finally, we can conclude that both programming languages have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is just depending upon the user’s requirement and budget to afford for any kind of web programming development. Generally we can say that PHP is for small or middle level business websites and ASP.Net is for a real big company or business firm.