Re: Submitting input-form data to server

Marc Andreessen (marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu)
Sun, 5 Sep 93 16:38:51 -0500

"Tony Johnson (415) 926 2278" writes:
> Marc writes:
> >Pei Y. Wei writes:
> >> * What syntax do we choose for marking up a property list? SGML or MIME?
> >
> >How 'bout neither? Furms submit queries; why not stick with the
> >current query syntax? That is, 'url?query' ... with 'query' looking
> >something like:
> >
> > name=value&name=value&name=value
> >
> >...with the '=' and '&' characters used as reserved characters
> >(escaped as %xx in any of the name or value
>
> In the sub-group that discussed this issue
> 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 uses of forms.
>
> 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?

That sounds good -- fits in with current scheme of things and allows
flexibility into the future. I'm game...

Marc