<form>: The Form element
The <form>
HTML element represents a document section containing interactive controls for submitting information.
It is possible to use the :valid
and :invalid
CSS pseudo-classes to style a <form>
element based on whether or not the elements
inside the form are valid.
Content categories | Flow content, palpable content |
---|---|
Permitted content | Flow content, but not containing <form> elements |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | Any element that accepts flow content |
Implicit ARIA role |
form if the form has an
accessible name, otherwise
no corresponding role
|
Permitted ARIA roles | search , none or presentation |
DOM interface | HTMLFormElement |
Attributes
This element includes the global attributes.
accept
-
Comma-separated content types the server accepts.
Note: This attribute was removed in HTML5 and should not be used. Instead, use the
accept
attribute on<input type=file>
elements. accept-charset
-
Space-separated character encodings the server accepts. The browser uses them in the order in which they are listed. The default value means the same encoding as the page. (In previous versions of HTML, character encodings could also be delimited by commas.)
autocapitalize
-
A nonstandard attribute used by iOS Safari that controls how textual form elements should be automatically capitalized.
autocapitalize
attributes on a form elements override it on<form>
. Possible values:none
: No automatic capitalization.sentences
(default): Capitalize the first letter of each sentence.words
: Capitalize the first letter of each word.characters
: Capitalize all characters — that is, uppercase.
autocomplete
-
Indicates whether input elements can by default have their values automatically completed by the browser.
autocomplete
attributes on form elements override it on<form>
. Possible values:off
: The browser may not automatically complete entries. (Browsers tend to ignore this for suspected login forms; see The autocomplete attribute and login fields.)on
: The browser may automatically complete entries.
name
-
The name of the form. The value must not be the empty string, and must be unique among the
form
elements in the forms collection that it is in, if any. rel
-
Creates a hyperlink or annotation depending on the value, see the
rel
attribute for details.
Attributes for form submission
The following attributes control behavior during form submission.
action
-
The URL that processes the form submission. This value can be overridden by a
formaction
attribute on a<button>
,<input type="submit">
, or<input type="image">
element. This attribute is ignored whenmethod="dialog"
is set. enctype
-
If the value of the
method
attribute ispost
,enctype
is the MIME type of the form submission. Possible values:application/x-www-form-urlencoded
: The default value.multipart/form-data
: Use this if the form contains<input>
elements withtype=file
.text/plain
: Introduced by HTML5 for debugging purposes.
This value can be overridden by
formenctype
attributes on<button>
,<input type="submit">
, or<input type="image">
elements. method
-
The HTTP method to submit the form with. Possible (case insensitive) values:
post
: The POST method; form data sent as the request body.get
: The GET method; form data appended to theaction
URL with a?
separator. Use this method when the form has no side-effects.dialog
: When the form is inside a<dialog>
, closes the dialog and throws a submit event on submission without submitting data or clearing the form.
This value is overridden by
formmethod
attributes on<button>
,<input type="submit">
, or<input type="image">
elements. novalidate
-
This Boolean attribute indicates that the form shouldn't be validated when submitted. If this attribute is not set (and therefore the form is validated), it can be overridden by a
formnovalidate
attribute on a<button>
,<input type="submit">
, or<input type="image">
element belonging to the form. target
-
Indicates where to display the response after submitting the form. In HTML 4, this is the name/keyword for a frame. In HTML5, it is a name/keyword for a browsing context (for example, tab, window, or iframe). The following keywords have special meanings:
_self
(default): Load into the same browsing context as the current one._blank
: Load into a new unnamed browsing context._parent
: Load into the parent browsing context of the current one. If no parent, behaves the same as_self
._top
: Load into the top-level browsing context (i.e., the browsing context that is an ancestor of the current one and has no parent). If no parent, behaves the same as_self
.
This value can be overridden by a
formtarget
attribute on a<button>
,<input type="submit">
, or<input type="image">
element.Note: Setting
target="_blank"
on<form>
elements implicitly provides the samerel
behavior as settingrel="noopener"
which does not setwindow.opener
.
Examples
HTML
<!-- Form which will send a GET request to the current URL -->
<form method="get">
<label>Name:
<input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name">
</label>
<button>Save</button>
</form>
<!-- Form which will send a POST request to the current URL -->
<form method="post">
<label>Name:
<input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name">
</label>
<button>Save</button>
</form>
<!-- Form with fieldset, legend, and label -->
<form method="post">
<fieldset>
<legend>Title</legend>
<label><input type="radio" name="radio"> Select me</label>
</fieldset>
</form>
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # the-form-element |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
- HTML forms guide
- Other elements that are used when creating forms:
<button>
,<datalist>
,<fieldset>
,<input>
,<label>
,<legend>
,<meter>
,<optgroup>
,<option>
,<output>
,<progress>
,<select>
,<textarea>
. - Getting a list of the elements in the form:
HTMLFormElement.elements
- ARIA: Form role
- ARIA: Search role