Web by Design: Using Transform to Process Required Field Web Forms

This portion of the tutorial demonstrates how to make specified fields in your web form required entries: when the reader does not complete a required field, it returns an error response. However, having a required field does NOT mean that values are verified, such as making sure that phone numbers have the correct number of digits or are numeric; it simply verifies that the reader supplied data in the required form field.

This is a continuation of the template you previously began. New additions to the sample template file below are shown in RED.

# begin template

# this *email-response* section modifies some E-mail fields to make them
# required by adding a req- to the field name
# notice that only a single iteration of a specific field must be made required
# for it to be required in every instance of the form

*email-response*
To: type your E-mail address here
From: [req-email]
Subject: Question from [req-name]

[name] submitted this Ice Cream survey

Submitted information:
E-mail address: [email]
Phone: [req-phone]
Address: [address]

[name]'s favorite ice cream is [favorite] [other].

[name] has a [entry].

[name] discovered his/her favorite place to each ice cream from one or more of the following:
*[cindy]
*[talk]
*[man]
*[droveby]
*[kid]—identify: [whatkid]

Additional comments:

[suggestion]

# Now let's add a section which describes a successful form submission
# Note the *success-response* section header
# Since this response is being returned to the user's www browser it
# must be a correct html document
*success-response*
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The Ice Cream Survey</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Thank you, [name], for your submission

I have recorded the following survey information:

[name] submitted this Ice Cream survey

Submitted information: 
E-mail address: [email] 
Phone: [phone] 
Address: [address]

[name]'s favorite ice cream is [favorite], [other].

[name] has a [entry].

[name] discovered his/her favorite place to each ice cream from one or more of the following: 
*[cindy] 
*[talk] 
*[man] 
*[droveby] 
*[kid]—identify: [whatkid]

Additional comments:

[suggestion]

</BODY>
</HTML>

# Now let's add an error-response section
# Again, this must be in the form of an html document because it is being
# returned to the user's browser.
# Remember, this section is displayed to the reader when required
# fields, flagged with req-, are not completed by the reader.
*error-response*
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Error in Form Submission</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Sorry, [name], you have attempted to submit an incomplete form.

Make sure you have completed the following fields: 
Your E-mail address: [email] 
Your phone number: [phone] 
Your name: [name]

Use your browser's back button to return to the form and complete the necessary fields.
</BODY>
</HTML>

# end template file

Cynthia D. Hollingsworth
Last update:
URL: http://www.iupui.edu/~webtrain/tutorials/forms_transform_required_fields.html

Using Transform to Process Required Field Web Forms

Creating a Form with Required Fields