Summary

In this chapter we have investigated ways to improve the appearance and behavior of common HTML form elements. We have learned about enhancing the styling of forms while leaving the original markup semantic, conditionally hiding and showing fields based on other field values, and validating field contents both before submission and during data entry. We have covered features like AJAX auto-completion for text fields, allowing only specific characters to be entered in a field, and performing calculations on numeric values in fields. We have also learned to submit forms using AJAX rather than a page refresh.

The form element is often the glue that holds an interactive site together. With jQuery, we can easily improve the user’s experience in filling out forms while still preserving their utility and flexibility.