So Webmasters and mistresses, you've already learned how to make nice pretty forms appear on web pages you're authoring, but now you want them to actually do something? And moreover, probably you want them to do something based on the information your visitor spent hours painstakingly filling out on your site. Otherwise, they might be upset that they bothered to accomplish the form filling in the first place, no?

Typically, once a form is filled in the user presses a submit button and is taken to a new page where something related to the information they entered is done. The trick here then is to understand how information is transmitted from the first page with the form on to the second page where they are taken to, and how to use it once it's there. No-one was born knowing this.

Below are a few notes of guidance in case they help any lonely cyberspace wanderers. Uber elite professional web-peeps need not read on. Comments and corrections are welcome.

The following examples will use PHP to illustrate a method that works under typical hosting conditions; for it to work you will have to be putting your files on a server that actually runs PHP scripts. Most likely, your own computer will not have PHP on it, so be sure to test your files by uploading them to a webserver that does. Many, many web hosting packages allow you to do this (not so much the free ones) so just ask your hosting provider if you're unsure.

There are two clear parts to this. Firstly you need to construct your form in an adequate manner such that it will forward the filled in information to another page. Secondly you need to have a page that understands the information transmitted to it by the first page. We will assume here that you have enough HTML knowledge that you are aware how to build basic webpages and display the components of a form.

1. Setting up the form
2. Using the form's information