Technique H32:Providing submit buttons

Applicability

Content that includes form controls.

This technique relates to 3.2.2: On Input (Sufficient when used with G80: Providing a submit button to initiate a change of context).

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a mechanism that allows users to explicitly request changes of context. The intended use of a submit button is to generate an HTTP request that submits data entered in a form, so it is an appropriate control to use for causing a change of context.

Examples

Example 1

This is a basic example of a form with a submit button.

<form action="http://www.example.com/cgi/subscribe/" method="post"><br /> 
 <p>Enter your e-mail address to subscribe to our mailing list.</p><br /> 
 <label for="address">Enter email address:</label><input type="text" 
 id="address" name="address" /> 
 <input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><br /> 
</form>

Example 2

The following example uses a server-side script (specified in the action attribute) that redirects the user to the requested page.

 <form action="http://www.example.com/cgi/redirect/" method="get"><br /> 
    <p>Navigate the site.</p><br /> 
    <select name="dest"><br /> 
      <option value="/index.html">Home</option/><br /> 
      <option value="/blog/index.html">My blog</option/><br /> 
      <option value="/tutorials/index.html">Tutorials</option/><br /> 
      <option value="/search.html">Search</option/><br /> 
    </select><br /> 
  <input type="submit" value="Go to Page" /><br /> 
  </form>

Other sources

No endorsement implied.

Navigational pulldown menus in HTML by Jukka Korpela discusses a few techniques that work or do not work.

Tests

Procedure

Find all forms in the content
For each form, check that it has a submit button (input type="submit", input type="image", or button type="submit")

Expected Results

#2 is true