Introduction to the New HTML5 Input Types


Introduction

In the "old" times, much of the user interaction with the web application was limited to plain vanilla controls such as text input boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, lists and the submit button. Almost all current day web applications provide to the user a more sophisticated data entry. Various techniques using client side scripts and/or css and/or third-party add-ons and/or server side validations are used to give more semantics to the user data.

HTML 5 includes in it's standards some new input types that can be used within your web forms. These are commonly used data and provide a useful and standard interface resulting in a unified user experience and reduced errors.

Following are the details on the new input types along with the screen shots on supporting browsers. For using these new input types, do remember to first validate if the input type that you want to use is supported on the user's browser. In the code samples below, I have used the Opera browser (ver 11.51) since it has support for all these new input types. Different browsers may vary in the rendering of the controls.

Details

Dates:

Input Type: date

Description: selects the month, day and year. A calendar type entry is provided.

Syntax: <input type="date" name="payment_date" />

View (in Opera browser):


html5_1Date.jpg

html5_1Date1.jpg

html5_1Date2.jpg

Image: Date input

Input Type: month

Description: selects the month and year. A calendar type entry is provided.

Syntax: <input type="month" name="birth_month" />

View (in Opera browser):


html5_3Month.jpg

html5_3Month1.jpg

Image: Month input

Input Type: week

Description: selects the week within a year. A calendar type entry is provided. The selection indicates the week number that has been selected.

Syntax: <input type="week" name="conference_week" />

View (in Opera browser):

html5_4Week.jpg

html5_4Week1.jpg

Input Type: time

Description: selects the time (hours and minutes). A time selector is provided.

Syntax: <input type="time" name="pickup_time" />

View (in Opera browser):


html5_6Time.jpg

html5_6Time1.jpg

Input Type: datetime

Description: selects the UTC time (hours and minutes), date, month and year. A calendar and a time selector are provided.

Syntax: <input type="datetime" name="departure_time" />

View (in Opera browser):

html5_7DateTime.jpg

Input Type: datetime-local

Description: selects the date, month, year and time (hours and minutes) for local time.

Syntax: <input type="datetime-local" name="pickup_time" />

View (in Opera browser):


html5_8DateTimelocal.jpg

Web

Input Type: email

Description: used for email address input. Value is validated to be of email format when the form is submitted. Some browsers can enable/add the @ and .com options in the input.

Syntax: <input type="email" name="customer_email" />

View (in Opera browser): The opera browser validated the entered email address after the submit button was clicked.


html5_9Email.jpg

Input Type: url

Description: used for URL address input. Value is validated to be of url format when the form is submitted. Some browsers can add the http:// prefix suffix to the input.

Syntax: <input type="url" name="homepage" />

View (in Opera browser):

html5_10Url.jpg

Number

Input Type: number

Description: used for numeric input. Value is validated to be of numeric format when the form is submitted. You can also specify the range of numbers to be accepted.

Syntax: <input type="number" name="age" />

View (in Opera browser):

html5_11Number.jpg

Input Type: range

Description: used for selecting a number from a range of numbers. You can specify the range of numbers to be accepted. A slider bar is provided for the user.

Syntax: <input type="range" name="rating" min="1" max="5" />

View (in Opera browser):

html5_12Range.jpg 

Search

Input Type: search

Description: used for search fields. Behaves like a regular text field.

Syntax: <input type="search" name="catalog_search"  />

  html5_13Search.jpg

Telephone Number

Input Type: tel

Description: used for telephone number input.

Syntax: <input type="tel" name="work_number"  />

  html5_14Tel.jpg

Color

Input Type: color

Description: used for color specification. Some browsers provide a color picker and some user interfaces allow entry of hexadecimal color values.

Syntax: <input type="color" name="user_backcolor"  />

  html5_15Colot.jpg

Source Code

 

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<body>
<form action="." method="get">

Date: <input type="date" name="payment_date" />
Month: <input type="month" name="birth_month" />
Week: <input type="week" name="conference_week" />
Time: <input type="time" name="pickup_time" />
DateTime: <input type="datetime" name="departure_time" />
DateTime-local: <input type="datetime-local" name="pickup_time" />
Email: <input type="email" name="customer_email" />
URL: <input type="url" name="homepage" />
Number: <input type="number" name="age" />
Range: <input type="range" name="rating" min="1" max="5" />
Search: <input type="search" name="catalog_search"  />
Telephone: <input type="tel" name="work_number"  />
Color: <input type="color" name="user_backcolor"  />

<BR/>
<BR/><input type="submit" />

</form>

</body>
</html>


Conclusion

We went through the host of new input types introduced in the HTML5 standard. These input types help taking the web forms one level ahead in a standard consistent manner.

Happy Coding!

 

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