- From: Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
- Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 20:14:33 -0400
- To: Ed Cannon <ed.cannon@bus.utexas.edu>
- CC: www-html-editor@w3.org
Ed Cannon wrote: > > Monday, Oct. 23 > > Hi, > > This is to ask if there might possibly be some sort of mistake > in the HTML 4.01 specification regarding the FORM element: > > http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html#h-17.3 > > Does it really *require* the "action" attribute? The reason I > ask is that someone has told me that when an "onsubmit" > attribute is present, no "action" is necessary. The onsubmit attribute lets authors cause a script to be executed on form submission. This script needn't have anything to do with submitting the form data to a server, and it shouldn't since HTML has a well-defined attribute for doing so: action. > I don't know > enough about it to be sure beyond two facts: (1) the HTML > 4.01 specification *says* that "action" is required Yes. > but (2) > some of our code (which I did not write, as I would not know > how) seems to work just fine without it. The 'action' attribute is required for your document to validate to HTML 4.01. Whether the form "works" (i.e., sends data to a server) is a separate question. It's possible to do about anything with a script, but you shouldn't do everything with a script. You should use appropriate markup. > (The only reason I > have gotten as far as asking about this is due to using online > validators such as the W3C's own to validate our code.) In conclusion, I don't think this a bug in the HTML specification. - Ian -- Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org) http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs Tel: +1 831 457-2842 Cell: +1 917 450-8783
Received on Monday, 23 October 2000 20:16:30 UTC