Every web form needs a way to submit it, and the standard simple method is to drop in a
submit button. There are other ways, like using ajax or using an image instead of a button, but the submit button is a standard interface element that people have come to expect. Creating a submit button is as simple as calling CGI.pm's
submit function:
print $cgi->submit();
Which will output:
<input type="submit" name=".submit" />
There are some optional attributes you can pass in, all of which are detailed in
the general form attributes section. Let's look at the most common one - what's printed on the button itself. This is handled through the
-value attribute. So say, for example, you want your button to say 'Save Changes':
print $cgi->submit(
-value => 'Save Changes'
);
That will print:
<input type="submit" name=".submit" value="Save Changes" />
You can also pass in the optional
-name attribute if you want to give it something other than the default name value of .submit:
print $cgi->submit(
-value => 'Save Changes',
-name => 'submit_button'
);
Which will output:
<input type="submit" name="submit_button" value="Save Changes" />
Finally, the less used, but still fun reset button works in the same manner. Just call it with the
reset function like so:
print $cgi->reset();
And you end up with:
<input type="reset" name=".reset" />
