The most current information about creating forms using Dreamweaver 8 is found in these ten videos. You need a high speed connection to view the videos. Although recorded with Dreamweaver 8, the procedure would be the same for Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Dreamweaver CS3.

General Comments about Web Forms (5.5 minutes)

Creating a Web Form in Dreamweaver 8 - Part A (13.25 minutes). This looks at text fields and text area fields, adding a submit button on the form, and referencing the FormHandler program.

Creating a Web Form in Dreamweaver 8 - Part B (14.5 minutes). This looks at drop down lists in a form, checkbox fields, and radio buttons. It also talks about the option of using CALSmart to collect credit card payment (for a possible workshop or conference), and how to provide multiple payment options.

The Success and Error Message Files for a Form (9 minutes). This looks at two other HTML documents Formhandler needs: the succcess message and the error message. Since the example form is a registration form, on this success message there is information about payment using a check or purchase order, as well as referencing a page to collect credit card information, if you are providing that as an option.

The Label Coding in a Web Form (15.75 minutes). Label coding is one of the items to make a form accessible to people using screen readers. This video shows how to use the pop-up window in Dreamweaver 8 for label coding and what changes need to be made in the resulting code.

New Getting Email from Your FormHandler Form (7:30 minutes). The most common type of response from a form using FormHandler is an email message. This shows how to create the email template FormHandler needs.

New Setting Up the Files for Data From Your FormHandler Form (10:30 minutes). Another option from a form using FormHandler is to have data from the fields be stored in a comma delimited datafile on the CALS server. This shows setting up the two files needed.

New Referencing the Files Needed by FormHandler (8:00 minutes). There are several hidden input fields that have to be added to a form using FormHandler. This shows these various fields that FormHandler is expecting.

New If You Don't Require Email on Your Form (3:30 minutes). If you don't require email on your form, you have to add some coding to your form. Otherwise, an error will occur when processing the form data.

New Importing Data from Your FormHandler Form (6:30 minutes). If you are going to collect data (not just email with the data) from a form, you will want to import the data into another program. This video shows importing data into an Excel spreadsheet.

Supplemental information about permissions on the CALS server

There is also some other material that illustrates HTML coding for the form and the fields needed by FormHandler. To better understand FormHandler you can look at these written lessons. The screen captures in this material were done with Dreamweaver 4, but the comments related to FormHandler coding would still apply.

Documentation from Networking Lab about the FormHandler script is found at cals.arizona.edu/agnet/web/cgi/formhandler/