Forms Introduction by Charles Carroll

Forms are the primary way that a user feeds information into ASP. A form is a web page that contains tags that cause the browser to show fields that the user can fill in.

• Forms can be HTML files. They only need to be ASP if ASPy type capabilities are needed (session variables, includes).
• The form must pass the variables onto a .asp file to process the form.
• An excellent form tutorial can be found at:
  http://www.mountaindragon.com/html/forms.htm

Form with GET

<form action="x.asp" name="whatever" method=get>
   ....
   <input type=submit>
   <input type=reset>
</form>

• there is a limit on the number of characters (approximately 4,000 but varies depending on server and browsers involved. 
• The form will show it's parameter in the browser address window, for example:
  testform.asp?state=md&city=Germantown
  would be the URL in the browser, if the state and city field were populated.

• An ASP script picks up a form field with:
  <%whatever=request.querystring("whichfield")%>

Form with POST

<form action="x.asp" name="whatever" method="post">
   ....
   <input type=submit>
   <input type=reset>
</form>

• It supports many more characters than get (megabytes of data in case of file uploads)
• The form will not show it's parameter in the browser address window, for example:
  http://whatever.com/testform.asp
  would be the only URL in the browser, regardless of how many fields and how much data is passed.
• An ASP script picks up the form field with:
  <%whatever=request.form("whichfield")%>

Tips:

Tip #1: If using response.redirect to simulate a GET don't forget to encode:
/freebook/asp/encode.aspx

Tip #2: A  text link can be used intead of a button to post above form would look like this:
<a href="javascript:document.yourformname.submit();">
send data</a>

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