1.  What are forms?

• The client-side (visible) component:
  It's up to you to define the form structure people will see on your web page. This form structure may be designed using HTML or one of the many web page design software packages on the market. Forms may incorporate a variety of input mechanisms such as text boxes (where people may type open-ended responses), check boxes, drop-down menus, buttons, etc. But the information entered into a form is not submitted until the respondent clicks on your "submit" button (although it may be called something else). The web page containing these boxes & buttons is the visible (client-side) component of the form process.

• The server-side (invisible) component:
  If you care to see the responses from your form, you must tell your web page what to do with the information entered when someone clicks on your submit button. CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts written in Perl, Python, or some other computer programming language are frequently used to process the data. To function properly, these scripts must be supplied or supported by a web server (either yours or an off-site forms host) and correctly referenced in your web page. Check with your web host to find out if (and how) their web servers support forms.

2.  Does the NPS web server support forms?

3.  May I write my own scripts?

Yes. The NPS web server supports the PHP and Python scripting languages. The NPS web server does not support most other scripting languages (e.g., Perl). Please note that the District Computer Center does not have sufficient staff to offer technical support for web pages or scripts. We offer the forest (web server/space) and a couple of types of saws (scripting languages). It's up to you to turn some trees into a cabin (web site).

4.  Are there other options?

We have a sample of a web form that does not rely on server-side scripts. It attempts to email the output of the form to a specified email account (probably yours) in a simple text format. This is an imperfect and unreliable solution requiring the person who fills out the web form to have an email account configured on that computer. If someone clicks on the form's "submit" button from a computer account that does not have a valid default email configuration, their responses will be lost. Before using the sample form, be sure to read the disclaimer above it and include the disclaimer in your web page. You can view this simple example of an unreliable form here.

Alternatively, you might want to use a public form host that offers more features than the NPS web server. You can locate these services by searching the Internet for "form hosting" (or something similar) using your favorite web search engine (such as Google). In return for their services, some form hosts charge fees or display advertisements (often on a post-form "Thank You" page that appears after people click on your "submit" button). Not all advertisements are appropriate for NPS web pages, so please read the fine print carefully and, if necessary, ask questions before deciding on a host.