The Web Forms Exercise For MAT 113

The Web form that we will be building on Monday is available here as an un-styled page, and here as a styled page. The HTML is identical.

Web forms typically generate emails containing the form results that might go, for instance, to a sales department. If you fill out the form, then click "Submit," the script will return the text that would appear in the body of an email generated. A representation of that code is here.

The script generator is here.

Here's a little sort-of glitch that I came across constructing this lesson: I have the first name and last name fields set up to be required fields. At the same time, I have values entered--"First name" and "Last name." So, if the user ignores those two fields, the SPRY validation will not betriggered when the user clicks the "Submit" button. If I were hand-coding this, I would write a script that did something like, If the value for fName is "First name," then trigger the SPRY widget thingie to throw an error. However, I can't figure out how to do this with DW. Yet.

This semester, I'm styling the form with CSS to give an indication of how CSS can be used with forms. Of course, if I were making an actual form, I'd do it in Flash, which has magnitudes more functionality and flexibility than a plain old HTML form ever will. Just ask Jill.

See also:

• Creating Forms in Dreamweaver CS4, an EZ-PZ starter-offer, on Best WebDesgnz. Be sure to click over to the next tutorial on form validation.
  
• Dreamweaver CS4 Widgets. A video tutorial from Layers Magazine.
• How to Create a feedback form in Dreamweaver CS4, by Christopher Heng, on thesitewizard.
• Fancy Form Design Using CSS, by Cameron Adams, on Site Point. This is a thorough discussion of the finer points of creating and implementing Web forms, including styling and accessibility issues.
  

Further reading:

• Validate e-mail addresses using PHP--a very thorough procedure, on Soaptray.
• Form Validation--Make Sure Your Forms are Filled In, by Jennifer Kyrnin, on About.com
• All kinds of CSS Stuff for Web forms, from Web Design Reference.
• The Web Forms section of the Curmudgeon's Archives.
• The HTML5 specification for Web forms--just when you thought that you had this all figured out, everything changes.
• The Definitive Guide to GET vs POST, by Fahed Bizzari.
  

Class resources:

• files used in the presentation on Web forms.
• A tutorial on using the script generator, on youTube
• The same tutorial on Screencast-O-Matic
• slices example
• Jaclyn's page.
  
• Web galleries that you can use.
• An invisible button (on the smiley face).
  
• CSS-styled links.