Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

ACTION — NN all IE all HTML all

Synopsis

ACTION=”URL"

Optional

Specifies the URL to be accessed when the form is being submitted. When the form is submitted to a server for further processing, the URL may be to a CGI program or to an HTML page that includes server-side scripts. (Those scripts execute on the server before the HTML page is downloaded to the client.) As a result of the submission, the server returns an HTML page for display in the client. If the returned display is to be delivered to a different frame or window, the TARGET attribute must be specified accordingly.

You may also substitute a mailto: URL for the ACTION attribute value. Navigator turns the name/value pairs of the form into a document for attachment to an email message (or as the message body with the ENCTYPE attribute set to "text/plain"). For privacy reasons, client users are notified of the impending email transmission and have the chance to cancel the message. Internet Explorer through Version 4 does not automatically include form element data inside an email message begun with a mailto: URL.

If you omit the ACTION attribute and the form is submitted, the current page reloads itself, returning all form elements to their default values.

Example

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://www.giantco.com/orders/order.html">

Value

A complete or relative URL.

Default

None.

Object Model Reference

NN

[window.]document.forms[i].action

[window.]document.formName.action

IE

[window.]document.forms[i].action

[window.]document.formName ...