[SOLVED] forward slashes in form fields ie. <input type="text" name="name" />

[eMonk]

since i have started learning php.. i have noticed in their form fields they add a forward slash before ending their input fields, for example, <input type="text" name="name" />

 

is the forward slash "/" needed at the end when passing form values to php? if so, why?

 

i believe i have excluded these in the past without any noticable problems.

 

also.. would the forward slash be needed here?

 

<select name="select1">

<option>PHP</option>

<option>MySQL</option>

</select>

 

thanks in advance to anyone that can shed some light on this issue!

[JasonLewis]

That actually doesn't have anything to do with PHP. It's simply valid XHTML. The forward slash on some HTML elements, such as <input>, <link> and <img> tags are self closing. They don't affect anything to do with the PHP.

[eMonk]

oh i see... thx for clearing that up!

 

i use dreamweaver as my html editor & it doesn't add those forward slashes so seeing them in php examples is new to me.

[TheFilmGod]

oh i see... thanks for clearing that up!

 

i use dreamweaver as my html editor & it doesn't add those forward slashes so seeing them in php examples is new to me.

 

Dreamweaver does not add them since your using the html 4.01 doctype. If you changed your settings to xhtml and xhtml 1.1, dreamweaver would add in the forward slashes and self close the tags.

[eMonk]

interesting... should i be coding vaild xhtml? is xhtml the future?

[JasonLewis]

Yes, I would suggest you code to the standards. You can upload your website and validate it for errors at http://validator.w3.org

[haku]

interesting... should i be coding vaild xhtml? is xhtml the future?

 

It's a personal choice. I use XHTML mainly because most everyone else does too, so it's a little more widespread. But HTML is fine as well. You just have to make sure that you live up to the coding standards of whichever one you decide to use.

 

As for XHTML - I'd say it's the current more than the future. Most current sites are using XHTML (or at least seem to be. I don't know if there are any stats on that). But when HTML 5.0 comes out, it may be that people will switch back to HTML from XHTML.

[eMonk]

why did people switch to xhtml? whats better about it?

[TheFilmGod]

why did people switch to xhtml? whats better about it?

 

xhtml is pretty much "strict html standards" html. - if that makes any sense.

 

In xhtml, you have to self close your tags, and must use all lowercase.

 

I personally believe, xhtml is far superior. It requires you to conform to a standard.

[eMonk]

would a xhtml page be ranked higher on search engines then a html page?

 

so far i don't see any good reason to switch to xhtml myself. there's got to be more then just self closing tags.

[TheFilmGod]

would a xhtml page be ranked higher on search engines then a html page?

 

so far i don't see any good reason to switch to xhtml myself. there's got to be more then just self closing tags.

 

It always comes down to personal preference.

[xtopolis]

Also, a common standard is nice when programming.  Adhering to more strict rules for 'proper' way to do things is never that bad of an idea.

 

Is there anything special about HTML 5 besides the <video> tag?  I haven't taken the time to read the w3c spec.. but will it not be following XHTML standards anyways?  lowercase tags, self closing etc..?

[haku]

HTML has a set of rules as well, and the code needs to conform to them. It's just that it is a little looser with what it will accept than XHTML is. But as long as the HTML code is written within the rules that define HTML, it will behave the way it is supposed to.

 

And search engines don't care which one you use.

 

That being said, I prefer XHTML, because I like the level of standardization the rules have, such as requiring all tags be closed and not allowing capital letters in the tags. It makes people's code so much easier to read, which makes it easier to find errors, and easier to understand what is going on.