Simple Forms

Two parts to every forms application: the HTML page that provides the user interface, and the action it invokes. Each has its own URL.

Steps in form processing:

1. User fetches an HTML page containing a form; form contains an "action" to perform, descriptions of fields, and a "submit" button
2. User fills out the form, and clicks on the "submit" button
3. Browser software packages the information entered by the user, and sends it to the action address
4. Information consists of pairs of field names and associated values
5. At the action address, the server accepts the data, processes it, and generates another document to return to the user as the output of the form.

Simple form example