Re: Submitting input-form data to server

ebina@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Mon, 06 Sep 93 00:22:04 -0500


>
> In the sub-group that discussed this issue at W5 we had concluded that the
> method of sending the form response as part of the URL would not really
> scale elegantly in the future. Consider the form:
>
> Your name:<INPUT name="address"><p>
> 5000 word essay describing why you should win the free trip to Australia:
> <input name="essay" size = 80x500>
>
> This would clearly result in monstrous URL's, yet it is not
> unrepresentative of some potential

Burn me for a heretic, but there is no significant difference scaling-wise
between GET <url>?essay=<5000 words> and SUBMITFORM <package including 5000
word essay>. Both send a command, and then 5000 words over the net.

It is not a monstrous URL, because the URL is only everything up to the
'?', everything else is the form data.

If you want a separate command like SUBMITFORM because it is more logical
than overloading GET, thats fine, but lets use real reasons.
>
> Since HTTP/1.0 would support new methods in addition to GET, a
> reasonable possibility seemed the addition of a new method (say SUBMITFORM)
> for submitting completed forms. Maybe the reply method should be something
> that can be specified ACTION modifier of the <FORM> tag, with the possibilities
> being
>
> mailto:<e-mail address> Form sent as e-mail to specified recipient
> http:<address> Indicates to return form data as a query string
> submitform:<address> Indicates to submit the form using the SUBMITFORM
> method.
>
> Comments?

All that said, I fully agree that ACTION will need to be extended to allow
multiple methods of form submission.

>
> Tony
>
>
>

Eric