HTML forms have been, to date, quite simplistic. We’ve had limited options: the text field, the checkbox, the radio button, the textarea and finally the select drop down. Any complex data like phone numbers, email addresses or dates had to be checked by JavaScript. (And you should always and I mean always do server-side validation of the data.)

The input element works overtime by being rendered completely differently based on the type it’s given—be that a text field, password, checkbox, radio button, and others. Considering my readership, this is all terribly old and boring to you now. I understand.

New Types

Under the HTML5 umbrella, however, forms are getting a makeover. The new input types are:

* search
* tel
* url
* email
* datetime, date, month, week, time, and datetime-local
* number
* range
* color

In the example of an email field, validation could be performed by the browser, without JavaScript, to ensure that an email address was correctly entered. Even more powerful, it could allow autocomplete based on your local address book.

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Special Characters in HTML