What Form Method Tells Your Web Browser In HTML: An Easy Tutorial
- Attribute of
- HTML Form Code For Beginners (And When To Use It)
- What does
What Form Method Tells Your Web Browser In HTML: An Easy Tutorial
do? - Tells the browser how to send form data to a web server.
The method
attribute of the form
element tells the browser how to send form data to a web server.
Contents
Example Usage
<form action="fileupload.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <p>Please select the file you would like to upload. <input type="file" name="upload"> <br> <input type="submit" value="Upload File"> </form>
<form method=”GET”>
The method
attribute of the form
element tells the web browser how to send form data to a server. Specifying a value of GET
means the browser will add the form contents to the end of the URL. This offers a number of advantages for simple forms. It allows the browser to cache the results of the form submission, and it also allows the user to bookmark the page once the form has been submitted. As such, GET
is generally used for simple forms where security is not a concern.
Restrictions of GET
GET
results in the entire contents of the submission being visible in the URL. If your form contains sensitive data, you should specify a value of POST
for the method
attribute. Since GET
appends the form data to the current URL, it can only be used where the contents of the submission (including the complete URL) will result in a string that is 2048 characters long, or less. This is the maximum length of a URL. GET
can only be used to send ASCII data.
<form method=”POST”>
The method
attribute of the form
element tells the web browser how to send form data to a server. Specifying a value of POST
means the browser will send the data to the web server to be processed. This is necessary when adding data to a database, or when submitting sensitive information, such as passwords.
Restrictions of POST
When data is sent using POST
, submitting the form twice will result in a duplicated entry. This can be a problem if the form is linked to a membership, purchase, or other one-time action. This is why users cannot bookmark the results of a form submission if the method
is POST
.
Values of the method
Attribute
Value Name | Notes |
---|---|
GET | Sends form data via a URL string |
POST | Sends form data via the server |
All attributes of form
Element
Attribute name | Values | Notes |
---|---|---|
target | _self _blank | Specifies the browser context in which the form’s response should be displayed. |
action | Specifies a URL to which the form’s data is sent when submitted. | |
enctype | ||
method | GET POST | Tells the browser how to send form data to a web server. |
onSubmit | Runs a script when the Submit button is clicked. | |
onReset | Runs a script when the Reset button is clicked. | |
name |
Browser Support for method
All | All | All | All | All | All |