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<form>: The Form element

The <form> HTML element represents a document section containing interactive controls for submitting information.

Try it

It is possible to use the :valid and :invalid CSS pseudo-classes to style a <form> element based on whether or not the elements inside the form are valid.

Content categories Flow content, palpable content
Permitted content Flow content, but not containing <form> elements
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that accepts flow content
Implicit ARIA role form if the form has an accessible name, otherwise no corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles search, none or presentation
DOM interface HTMLFormElement

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

accept

Comma-separated content types the server accepts.

Note: This attribute has been deprecated and should not be used. Instead, use the accept attribute on <input type=file> elements.

accept-charset

Space-separated character encodings the server accepts. The browser uses them in the order in which they are listed. The default value means the same encoding as the page. (In previous versions of HTML, character encodings could also be delimited by commas.)

autocapitalize

A nonstandard attribute used by iOS Safari that controls how textual form elements should be automatically capitalized. autocapitalize attributes on a form elements override it on <form>. Possible values:

  • none: No automatic capitalization.
  • sentences (default): Capitalize the first letter of each sentence.
  • words: Capitalize the first letter of each word.
  • characters: Capitalize all characters — that is, uppercase.
autocomplete

Indicates whether input elements can by default have their values automatically completed by the browser. autocomplete attributes on form elements override it on <form>. Possible values:

  • off: The browser may not automatically complete entries. (Browsers tend to ignore this for suspected login forms; see The autocomplete attribute and login fields.)
  • on: The browser may automatically complete entries.
name

The name of the form. The value must not be the empty string, and must be unique among the form elements in the forms collection that it is in, if any.

rel

Creates a hyperlink or annotation depending on the value, see the rel attribute for details.

Attributes for form submission

The following attributes control behavior during form submission.

action

The URL that processes the form submission. This value can be overridden by a formaction attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element. This attribute is ignored when method="dialog" is set.

enctype

If the value of the method attribute is post, enctype is the MIME type of the form submission. Possible values:

  • application/x-www-form-urlencoded: The default value.
  • multipart/form-data: Use this if the form contains <input> elements with type=file.
  • text/plain: Useful for debugging purposes.

This value can be overridden by formenctype attributes on <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> elements.

method

The HTTP method to submit the form with. The only allowed methods/values are (case insensitive):

  • post: The POST method; form data sent as the request body.
  • get: The GET method; form data appended to the action URL with a ? separator. Use this method when the form has no side-effects.
  • dialog: When the form is inside a <dialog>, closes the dialog and throws a submit event on submission without submitting data or clearing the form.

This value is overridden by formmethod attributes on <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> elements.

novalidate

This Boolean attribute indicates that the form shouldn't be validated when submitted. If this attribute is not set (and therefore the form is validated), it can be overridden by a formnovalidate attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element belonging to the form.

target

Indicates where to display the response after submitting the form. It is a name/keyword for a browsing context (for example, tab, window, or iframe). The following keywords have special meanings:

  • _self (default): Load into the same browsing context as the current one.
  • _blank: Load into a new unnamed browsing context.
  • _parent: Load into the parent browsing context of the current one. If no parent, behaves the same as _self.
  • _top: Load into the top-level browsing context (i.e., the browsing context that is an ancestor of the current one and has no parent). If no parent, behaves the same as _self.

This value can be overridden by a formtarget attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element.

Note: Setting target="_blank" on <form> elements implicitly provides the same rel behavior as setting rel="noopener" which does not set window.opener.

Examples

HTML

<!-- Form which will send a GET request to the current URL -->
<form method="get">
  <label>Name:
    <input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name">
  </label>
  <button>Save</button>
</form>

<!-- Form which will send a POST request to the current URL -->
<form method="post">
  <label>Name:
    <input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name">
  </label>
  <button>Save</button>
</form>

<!-- Form with fieldset, legend, and label -->
<form method="post">
  <fieldset>
    <legend>Title</legend>
    <label><input type="radio" name="radio"> Select me</label>
  </fieldset>
</form>

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# the-form-element

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
form
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
accept
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
accept-charset
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
action
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
autocapitalize
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
autocomplete
Yes
The Google Chrome UI for auto-complete request varies, depending on whether autocomplete is set to off on <input> elements as well as their form. Specifically, when a form has autocomplete set to off and its <input> element's autocomplete attribute is not set, then if the user asks for autofill suggestions for the <input> element, Chrome might display a message saying 'autocomplete has been disabled for this form.' On the other hand, if both the form and the input element have autocomplete set to off, the browser will not display that message. For this reason, you should set autocomplete to off for each <input> that has custom auto-completion.
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
enctype
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
method
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
name
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
novalidate
10
12
4
10
15
10.1
37
18
4
14
10.3
1.0
target
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/form