input type button Creating Controls | Real World XML (2nd Edition)

<input type = "button"> Creating Controls

You use the <input> element to create controls such as buttons and text fields. Setting the type attribute indicates what kind of control you want to create, and this element supports different attributes based on control type. This element is empty and is supported in XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, and XHTML 1.1. Here are the attributes for <input type="button"> :

accesskey Assigns a keyboard access key to the button. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional.)
class Gives the style class of the element. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
dir Sets the direction of text that doesn't have an inherent direction in which you should read it, called directionally neutral text. You can set this attribute to ltr , for left-to-right text, or rtl , for right-to-left text. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
disabled Indicates that the element should be disabled when first displayed. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
id Refers to the element; set this attribute to a unique identifier. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
lang Specifies the base language used in the element. Applies only when the document is interpreted as HTML. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
name Gives the element a name. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
size Sets the size of the control. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
style Inline style indicating how to render the element. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
tabindex Specifies the tab sequence of hyperlinks in the page for keyboard navigation. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
title Contains the title of the element. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
type Specifies the type of the element. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
value Specifies the caption of the element. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)
xml:lang Specifies the base language for the element when the document is interpreted as an XML document. (XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Frameset, XHTML 1.1.)

This element supports these XHTML events: onclick , ondblclick , onmousedown , onmouseup , onmouseover , onmousemove , onmouseout , onkeypress , onkeydown , onkeyup , onfocus , onblur , onselect , and onchange .

You can create buttons in XHTML with the <input type="button"> element (and also with the <button> element). We saw an example in the previous topic:

 <?xml version="1.0"?>  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/tr/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">     <head>         <title>             Using Forms in XHTML         </title>         <script language = "javascript">             function displayMessage()             {                 document.form1.textfield.value = "Hello from JavaScript."             }         </script>     </head>     <body>          <center>              <h1>                  Using Forms in XHTML              </h1>              <form name = "form1" id = "form1" action = "action">  <input type = "text" name = "textfield" size = "25" />  <br />                  <br />                  <input type = "button" value = "Click Me"                      onclick = "displayMessage()" />              </form>          </center>     </body> </html>

You can create plenty of other controls, of course. I'll take a brief look at creating text fields next .