What Is a "form" Tag/Element?

A "form" element is a block element that you can use to define an input form with input fields. Here are basic rules about a "form" element:

• "form" elements are block elements.
• A "form" element can have empty content.
• A "form" element can have block elements as sub-elements.
• A "form" element can not have inline elements as sub-elements.
• A "form" element can not have text as content.
• A "form" element can not be nested in another "form" element.
• A "form" element is invisible in browsers.
• A "form" element has a required attribute called "action" specifying the URL of the form processing program.

Here is a simple example of a "form" element:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Simple Form</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <h4>Online Survey</h4>
  <form action=""><p>
   FYIcenter.com is your favorite resource site<br/>
   <input type="submit" value="OK"/>
  </p></form>
 </body>
</html>

If you save the above document as simple_form.html, and view it with Internet Explorer, you will see an OK button which is part of a simple form as shown below:

⇒ HTML 'form' Element Attributes

⇐ HTML Forms and Input Fields

⇑ HTML Forms and Input Fields

⇑⇑ HTML Tutorials