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Manual page for working(with)

Working with HTML forms

One of QUISP's main strengths is HTML forms work. This document assumes that you already know how to code HTML forms. Two QUISP pages must be set up to implement a form. The first is the form page; it contains the form. The second is called the target page; it is invoked when the user "submits" the form, and has all of the user responses available as variables. The target page may build SQL statements to save submitted data. Or, it may just issue a query based on the submitted parameters. Sometimes with the latter, the form and target pages are actually the same page, invoked cyclically.

A basic example using form <INPUT> fields is shown below.

QUISP also provides additional support (documented separately) for:

Working examples

Located here (also in your ./qexamples directory).


A basic form and target page

Suppose we have the following HTML form with several <INPUT> fields. The form method is GET but POST can also be used.
   <form action="@CGIPROG" method=GET>
   #formtarget mytarget
   Enter your first name: 
   <input name=firstname value="" size=20 maxlen=20> <br>
   Enter your last name: 
   <input name=lastname value="" size=20 maxlen=20> <br>
   <input type=submit>
   </form>
The target page for the above form should be in a file in the ./pages directory named mytarget, and might look something like this:
   #cgivar firstname, lastname
   <h1>Hello, @firstname @lastname!!</h1>

A more elaborate data entry form example that includes database access is shown at the bottom of this page. Here are the descriptions for the basic HTML form QUISP directives:


#formtarget

This directive should be used within the <form> construct. It specifies the name of the page that will be used to capture submitted responses and do something with them, such as save them to a database. The page name is relative to the ./pages directory. This directive works by generating a "hidden" form input field called rtn.
Example: #formtarget saver


#pass

May be used to pass variable(s) from the form page to the target page. Useful when information is needed by the target page in addition to that provided by the submitted form fields. Note that variable names should not be specified with a leading at-sign (@). This directive works by generating "hidden" form input fields.
Usage: #pass varname1 .. varnameN
Example: #pass parm1, parm2


A data entry form example

Located here


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Copyright Steve Grubb    


Markup created by unroff 1.0,    April 13, 2004.