- A short summary describing how interactive websites are used and?

The name is just any unique title for the form to differentiate it from other forms which might be on the page.
The action is where the form data gets sent. In this form, all the text inputs, checkboxes, etc. are sent to the “processpage.php” page.
The method is the way data gets sent. Post means it’s sent invisibly to the process page. Another method is the “get” method – this sends it in the URL string. You’ve probably seen ugly, long addresses, kinda like the Yahoo! Answers URL in the address bar. Those are “get” variables.
I almost always use “post” variables, because they’re not displayed in the address bar, and they give you a little added security.

The form values should be validated first using a front-end Javascript. Here’s an example of how to validate form submissions with Javascript before they are actually sent to the the process page:
http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/wikis/php-tutorial/form-validation-using-php.aspx

On the processpage.php page, there is no interface. It is simply a page to check the database for existing users, validate the inputs to make sure the values are valid…eliminating illegal characters, filtering out possible hacking attempts, etc. Then, once all the form values are validated, the values can be inserted into the database as a new record, or update an existing record and replace old values.

Then, once all operations are completed on the processpage.php page, I use header(“Location: success.php”); to redirect the user to a new page. If there’s some sort of error in the form submission, like invalid user name, email address, etc., I can use header(“Location: failure.php”); to redirect them to a failure page. Or, I can send them back to the original form, and give them feedback on which values need to be corrected for a successful form submission.

The database tables and data types must be constructed in such a way that they coincide with the types of values in the form. Integers, strings, booleans, currency, etc. – all these different data types in the form should also have matching data types in the database.

Here are some tutorials on how to do it with PHP:
http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_mysql_insert.asp
http://www.tizag.com/phpT/examples/formex.php

PHP email form:
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/feedbackphp.shtml

Best regards,

subexpression