Operation Manual

629
USING DREAMWEAVER
Building forms
Last updated 3/28/2012
d In the Method pop-up menu, specify the method to transmit the form data to the server. Set any of the following
options:
Default Uses the browser’s default setting to send the form data to the server. Typically, the default value is the GET
method.
GET Appends the value to the URL requesting the page.
POST Embeds the form data in the HTTP request.
Do not use the GET method to send long forms. URLs are limited to 8192 characters. If the amount of data sent is too
large, data will be truncated, leading to unexpected or failed processing results.
Dynamic pages generated by parameters passed by the GET method can be bookmarked because all the values needed
to regenerate the page are contained in the URL displayed in the browser’s Address box. In contrast, dynamic pages
generated by parameters passed by the
POST method cannot be bookmarked.
If you collect confidential user names and passwords, credit card numbers, or other confidential information, the POST
method may appear more secure than the
GET method. However, the information sent by the POST method is not
encrypted and can easily be retrieved by a hacker. To ensure security, use a secure connection to a secure server.
e (Optional) In the Enctype pop-up menu, specify the MIME encoding type of the data submitted to the server for
processing.
The default setting of application/x-www-form-urlencode is typically used in conjunction with the POST method.
If you are creating a file-upload field, specify the
multipart/form-data MIME type.
f (Optional) In the Target pop-up menu, specify the window in which to display the data returned by the invoked
program.
If the named window is not already open, a new window with that name opens. Set any of the following target values:
_blank Opens the destination document in a new unnamed window.
_parent Opens the destination document in the parent window of the one displaying the current document.
_self Opens the destination document in the same window as the one in which the form was submitted.
_top Opens the destination document in the body of the current window. This value can be used to ensure that the
destination document takes over the full window even if the original document was displayed in a frame.
4 Insert form objects in the page:
a Place the insertion point where the form object should appear in the form.
b Select the object in the Insert > Form menu, or in the Forms category of the Insert panel.
c Complete the Input Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog box. For more information, click the Help button in the
dialog box.
Note: If you don’t see the Input Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog box, you might have had the Insertion point in Code
view when you tried to insert the form object. Make sure the Insertion point is in Design view and try again. For more
information on this topic, see David Powers’s article
Creating HTML forms in Dreamweaver.
d Set the properties of the objects.
e Enter a name for the object in the Property inspector.
Every text field, hidden field, check box, and list/menu object must have a unique name that identifies the object in the
form. Form object names cannot contain spaces or special characters. You can use any combination of alphanumeric
characters and an underscore (_). The label you assign to the object is the variable name that stores the value (the
entered data) of the field. This is the value sent to the server for processing.