RW_START_HTML_FORM


Purpose

Defines the start of an HTML form, with its ACTION attribute set to the URLClosed Uniform Resource Locator - a web address contained in ActionSub. Data from objects on the submitted form, such as edit boxes, can then be processed in ActionSub by making calls to RW_GET_PARAM for each of the objects.

Syntax

RW_START_HTML_FORM(ActionSub, Name, aClass)

Parameters

ActionSub The URLClosed Uniform Resource Locator - a web address of the subroutine to be run when the user clicks the form's Submit button.

Name The name of the form.

aClass A dynamic arrayClosed A multi-element string variable in which data is divided into elements by attribute marks, value marks and subvalue marks, matching the structure of a Reality file item. The entire array is referenced and stored as a single variable. For more information, refer to the Reality DataBasic Reference Manual that can contain the following elements:

Element No.

Attribute

Description

1

CLASS

The name of a tag class defined in a CSSClosed Cascading Style Sheet - a mechanism by which the presentation of an HTML page can be separated from the content. A style sheet can be used to determine the appearance of one or more HTML pages.  stylesheet.

2

TARGET

Name of the target frame where the form is to be presented.

3

METHOD

The method by which the browser will send the form's data to the server for processing. This attribute can be set to "GET" or "POST"; the default is "POST".

  • With the POST method, the browser sends the form's data in two steps: it first contacts the server specified in ActionSub and, once contact has been made, sends the data in a separate transmission.
  • The GET method contacts the server and sends the form's data in a single transmission: data is appended to the URLClosed Uniform Resource Locator - a web address in ActionSub, separated by a question mark.

In general, use POST if the form has many fields or has long text fields, or if security is an issue. Use GET for forms that have only a few short fields.

4

ENCTYPE

Specifies the encoding to be used to send the data back to the server. Can be optionally set to 'multipart/form-data' or 'text/plain'.

If you do not set this attribute, the standard encoding format is used.

You should specify 'text/plain' if the form is to be sent to an email address rather than to a server (the mailto URLClosed Uniform Resource Locator - a web address would be specified in ActionSub).

Attributes defined in the aClass parameter are applied to the FORM tag.

For information about using aClass, see The aClass Parameter

For further information on using forms, including encoding the data and the use of GET or POST, refer to the Recommended Reading section.

Dependencies

Requires a subsequent call to RW_END_FORM.