What are forms?
     Forms are a collection of controls such as check boxes, text boxes, and buttons that are embedded within web pages. Forms serve as the friendly user interface between your users and you. It's a means with which your users can communicate back to you instead of the communication always going from the you to them. With forms you can get information from users and store it in a database for use in mailing lists or user accounts. Forms require another piece of the Internet to work though, CGI Scripts.

CGI scripts, the other side
     Forms are processed through the use of CGI, or Common Gateway Interface. This is the nice, fluffy layer that provides a standard way for Internet Browsers and servers to communicate. It's actually a set of external programs on the server made with C/C++ or PERL that translate the data across the board. Some of the things that CGI scripts do include taking the data from a form and e-mailing it to you, managing a user's account on a web site or searching for web pages such as a search engine.

     Keep in mind that use of a CGI script requires access to a CGI-BIN on a server. See webmaster QNA - Can I make my own CGI-BIN? So before you go making your forms expecting feedback from your users, make sure you have CGI script on the other side to drive the process.

How a form is setup
     Forms can be divided into three parts, the form header which includes the <form> tag and information about the CGI script to use, the form fields which includes any number of <input> tags and field descriptions, and the form submission where the form's action buttons are.

Head on to:
How To Make Forms
     Part 1: Forms Introduction
     Part 2: The Form Header
     Part 3: Some Form Fields
     Part 4: More Form Fields
     Part 5: The Form Submission
     Part 6: What Happens After Submission?

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