Form Processing

On the previous page, you saw the results of filling out the form. The results were on the "action" page of the original form. The action page uses special code to determine the information entered in each form element. The exact process is dependent on the scripting language used to process the forms.

With ASP and VBScript (the technologies used in this particular instance), the information handling was accomplished using a form request. The HTML looks like this

Notice that part of the HTML is inside <% %> signs. This tells the web server to process this information, and send the result to the browser.

The first name text field on the form was called MyTextField. The Request.Form command is used to go to the form on the previous page, and grab the specified form element. The value of that form element is the text that was typed into the text field box on the form. In this case, it was your first name.

The whole results page looks like this (I've removed some of the formatting HTML to make it easier to read, and I've highlighted the sections that use scripting.)

No matter what kind of form element is used (text field, radio button, drop down box, etc), the same Request.Form command is used to retrieve the information.

Continue Learning Even More About Forms