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The FORM tag

This page gives examples and explanations of the only supported uses of the FORM tag with WebCom's Forms Processor. The FORM tag marks the beginning of a form, and can take several different forms depending upon your specific needs.

The most basic use of the FORM tag is the following: 

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://webcom.com/~webcom/cgi-bin/form">

To show the context in which this tag is used, here is a simple HTML file with a simple form contained within it: 

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Sample Form </TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<P>Sample Form</P>

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://webcom.com/~webcom/cgi-bin/form">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=userid VALUE="your_userid">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=form_name VALUE="any_name_you_choose">

Please Enter Your Name:<BR>
<INPUT TYPE=text NAME=your_name><BR>
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Submit">

</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

In the above form, the FORM tag sends the data to the Forms Processor, at http://webcom.com/~webcom/cgi-bin/form. The METHOD should always be set to "POST" in uppercase. Note also the closing </FORM> tag, which is required to mark the end of the form.

One variation on the basic use of the FORM tag shown above occurs when one wants to send the data in the form using the secure server to encrypt the data. To send data as encrypted all you must do is substitute https://... for http:// in the ACTION part of the FORM tag. For example: 

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="https://webcom.com/~webcom/cgi-bin/form">

With this simple change, any browser which supports secure transactions will transmit the form data securely. For complete information regarding doing effective secure transactions see the section regarding this in the Table of Contents for the Form Processor documentation

The third common use of the FORM tag at WebCom is to invoke a Glimpse search. The difference is the substituting glimpse for form in the path. An example of how this looks would be: 

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://webcom.com/~webcom/cgi-bin/glimpse">

You can find complete information about doing Glimpse Indexing in our help section which covers creating searchable indexes.

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