The form Element

All forms begin with the form element:

<form>

</form>

The form element has two required attributes you'll need to add to it for the form to function at all:

• method This attribute defines which way the form is going to communicate with your web server. The value options are get and post.

• action The action attribute provides the correct path to where the form script is processed (see Example 5-1).

Example 5-1. Adding method and action attributes and values to a form element

<form method="get" action="http://www.myserver.com/cgi-bin/mailscript/">

</form>

At this point, the markup you've created will not do anything in and of itself. Forms work based on the concept of controls. Controls are the default boxes and buttons that appear as a result of your HTML form markup.