Forms are the bread and butter (i.e. what you get paid for) of a web developer. It is good for you to know how to create and use forms, and the ability to create custom forms must be part of your expertise. Let’s look at some ways to create forms.
Google Forms (Docs)
If you have a Google account, you have access to Google Forms. Creating a Google Form or simply using one of their templates is simple enough we do not need to discuss it here – go to forms.google.com (be logged into your Google account) and you can easily create a new form or use one of the existing templates.
Forms can be sent to people, embedded into web pages, or made available as a link – all this is pretty easy through the Forms interface. Responses are also viewable to form administrators through the interface and results can be easily viewed in a spreadsheet format.
Survey Software
There is plenty of online software (most require an account) that allows you to build forms, surveys, and quizzes. Probably the best known of these is Survey Monkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/ but there are plenty to choose from. You can Google to find different reviews of software, here is one such site https://www.capterra.com/survey-software/
Custom Forms
Your ability to create custom forms (using html, javascript) will be one of the most valuable skills as a web developer. Forms gather information from the user and allow you to place it in some storage, typically a database. The expectations of the forms you will write are;
- They look good on all platforms
- They easily accept user input without making the user follow convoluted formats.
- They ensure the data being entered has some validity (no letters in zip codes, etc…)
- They give easy to follow steps for correcting input errors
- They work!
To meet these requirements you need to use HTML 5 and Javascript to validate, format, and translate the user input. To do that you need to use these technologies;
- HTML Forms Syntax – https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp
- HTML Form Elements – https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_form_elements.asp
- HTML Input types – https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_form_input_types.asp
- HTML Input Attributes – https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_form_attributes.asp
- Regular Expressions – https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_obj_regexp.asp
- Javascript Libraries that Support Forms
Once you have mastered these skills and can create great-looking and truly functional forms, you will be one step closer to a true web developer.