Help! Is there anyway of saving HTML form data in a local HTML page?

chet84

chet84

chet84

Associate
Joined
7 Apr 2004
Posts
1,508
Location
Coventry
Hoping that somebody might be able to shed some light on this for me.... i'm in the process of creating a HTML form and was wondering if there is any way to save the data from this form into a offline HTML webpage stored on the desktop?

I've googled it and not really found any relevant information.... any help would be great!

Thanks in advance....
Chet
 
Native HTML cannot store any data, so to do this you'll need to use a server side language such as ASP or PHP, so you're first job is to find out what language the server you're hosting on supports.

Once we know that we can give you a few examples - its fairly straightforward.
 
Tbh this is going to sound really strange but I was going to use the web form offline altogether (not put it online at all...)
 
Even then, you'd still need to use a server side language as HTML has no functionality to deal with the storing of data - only displaying it.
 
Right ok... as i'm not hosting it am I right in saying that it doesn't matter which language I use? If that is the case, I might as well go with php... I did a course on it a uni (not that I can remember any of it lol!)... I am being a real n00b - thanks for the help so far!
 
What exactly are you attempting to do here?

Are you attempting to make a program (any sort of program) that you basically type something into a text box, and it ends up in a file?

If you want to use php and mysql to do this sort of task, you're going to end up having to run a web server and php server on your local machine just to get the scripts to execute. Actually, I think you can get php to execute in other manners, but that's beside the point.
 
Right, basically what I am trying to do is create a checklist that can be used to check that my collegues are doing their jobs properly and to leave our customers with a report of what they have done at the end of it. My idea was to create a HTML form that could be filled in, which would in turn create a branded report once it was complete that we could then leave on the desktop of customers computers... but I've since found out it is not that easy. Am I going about this the right way or is there an easier way?
 
Or create a template in word.

Your engineers can just fill in the boxes, print out a copy and bring the saved document back with them for storage.
 
chet84 said:
I could, be we can't ensure all of our customers have office (which is why I opted for html)... :(
Click to expand...

I'd imagine they're more likely to have office installed than a full web stack (webserver / server side language / relational database) which is what you'd need to do it with PHP / ASP unfortunately.

If you can guarantee that they have internet access then there's nothing to stop you hosting it externally and making it secure. Then you'd just have to use the client PC to browse to the page.

Or maybe a small application on a USB stick is a better idea.
 
I'd go with a small application on a USB stick but I think i'm in well over my depth here tbh... I thought it would be something relatively simple but after reading more around the subject, it gets more and more complicated!
 
chet84 said:
I could, be we can't ensure all of our customers have office (which is why I opted for html)... :(
Click to expand...
How would they transport this html file to the client site?

If it's on a memory stick you could use something like Open Office Portable to give word/access like functionality. There may even be a way to get MS office on a memory stick.

If it's from a server somewhere on the internet then submitting the form to the server and using PHP, ASP, Perl, JSP or whatever the server runs to generate a report is the only way I can think of doing it in html.

Actually, you could get them to modify the html file using a text editor and do away with the form thing altogether :) Not exactly user friendly but they are supposed to be techies :D
 
chet84 said:
I'd go with a small application on a USB stick but I think i'm in well over my depth here tbh... I thought it would be something relatively simple but after reading more around the subject, it gets more and more complicated!
Click to expand...
You can make it simple or complex depending on your needs.

If I were you I'd knock up a template text document with the information you were going to put in the html file then provide it on memory stick along with Open Office.
 
If the format of the document didn't vary much you could probably knock a small app in VB or AutoIT that would create an HTML document. It might be even easier to do with XML.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom