Forms

An HTML document using forms for database image retrieval as viewed with the NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows client

Prior to the introduction of forms, NCSA Mosaic and the Web provided essentially one-way communication. The use of forms enables the kind of two-way communication that activities such as the following require:

Online sales

Goods and information can be bought and sold over the Internet.

Database queries

Database users can submit tailored information queries.

User feedback

Gather user reaction and bug reports for your new application.

The office basketball pool

Or a Web-wide football pool, for that matter!

Selective information distribution

Information provided via forms can be used to screen recipients of sensitive or proprietary information.

This capability brings the Internet one step closer to being a mature market place.

For the user browsing the Web, using forms is quite simple:

• Press buttons by clicking on them with the mouse cursor.
• Fill in data fields by typing. (Position the cursor with the Tab key or with the mouse.)
• Submit the form by clicking on the Send button (or the equivalent) that usually appears near the bottom of the form (Get me the map! in the weather maps example).

Creating forms is somewhat more complex, and beyond the scope of this document. As this section was being written, the best guidance for creating forms was available online. See Forms from Start to Finish (URL: http://south.ncsa.uiuc.edu/forms.html).