Help System Forms Processing

There exists basic support for HTML forms. In Xic, HTML forms can be used as input sources for scripts. More information is available in 18.14.

When the form ``Submit'' button is pressed, a temporary file is created which contains the form output data. The file consists of key/value pairs in the following formats:

name=single_token
name="any text''

There is no white space around `=', and text containing white space is double-quoted. Each assignment is on a separate line.

The action string from the ``<form ...>'' tag determines how this file is used. The file is a temporary file, and is deleted immediately after use. If the action string is in the form ``action_local_xxxx'', then the form data are processed internally.

If the full path for the action string begins with ``http://'' or ``ftp://'', then the form data are encoded into a query string and sent to the location (though it is likely an error for ftp). Otherwise, the file will processed locally. This enables the output from the form to be processed by a local shell script or program, which can be very useful. The command given as the action string is given the file contents as standard input. The command standard output will appear in the HTML viewer window. Thus, one can create HTML form front-ends for favorite shell commands and programs.