macromedia® Coldfusion® MX 7 Web Application Construction Kit

Chapter 13. Form Data Validation

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding Form Validation 329

Using Server-Side Validation 331

Using Client-Side Validation 343

Putting It All Together 353

Understanding Form Validation

HTML forms are used to collect data from users by using several field types. Forms are used for data entry, as front-end search engines, for filling out orders, for signing guest books, providing user names and passwords to secure applications, and much more. Although forms have become one of the most important features in HTML, these forms provide almost no data validation tools.

This becomes a real problem when developing Web-based applications. As a developer, you need to be able to control what data users can enter into what fields. Without that, ...