HTML5: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Building Better Web Forms

HTML forms are simple HTML controls you use to collect information from website visitors. They include text boxes people can type into, list boxes they can pick from, checkboxes they can switch on or off, and so on. On the Web, forms let people do everything from getting stock quotes to buying concert tickets.

HTML forms have existed almost since the dawn of HTML, and they haven’t changed a wink since last century, despite some serious efforts. Web standards-makers spent years cooking up a successor called XForms, which fell as flat as XHTML 2 (see XHTML 1.0: Getting Strict). Although XForms solved some problems easily and elegantly, it also had its own headaches—for example, XForms code was verbose and assumed that web designers were intimately familiar with XML. But the biggest hurdle was the fact that XForms wasn’t compatible with HTML forms in any way, meaning that developers would need to close their eyes and jump to a new model with nothing but a whole lot of nerve and hope. But because mainstream web browsers never bothered to implement XForms—it was too complex and little used—web developers never ended up taking that leap.

HTML5 takes a different approach. It adds refinements to the existing HTML forms model, which means HTML5-enhanced forms can keep working on older browsers, just without all the bells and whistles. (This is a good thing, because Internet Explorer doesn’t support any new form features in versions before IE 10.) HTML5 ...