When utilizing forms, it is helpful to use a combination of the ID and name attributes, I typically name and ID my form and nearly all of my form fields so it is easy to manage them programmatically. Here is an example:
<form id="contactForm" name="contactForm">
<input id="firstName" name="firstName" type="text">
<input id="lastName" name="lastName" type="text">
<input id="phone" name="phone" type="tel">
<input id="submit" name="submit" type="button" value"Contact Us">
</form>
Accessing via ID or Name
As you can see, I made both the names and IDs the same. The reason I do this is because sometimes you use the ID in JavaScript to grab a field and in form processing, the form object, which is accessed via the name attribute, is used.
To access a field by ID:
document.getElementByID("firstName").value;
To access a field via the name attribute:
document.formObject["firstName"].value;
Either one is a valid access method, but with forms and their processing, the form object is typically easier and used more often.
Happy Coding!
Clay Hess
