Forms setup
Netlify comes with built-in form handling that’s enabled by default. Our build bots do it by parsing your HTML files directly at deploy time, so there’s no need for you to make an API call or include extra JavaScript on your site.
# HTML forms
Code an HTML form into any page on your site, add data-netlify="true"
or a netlify
attribute to the <form>
tag, and you can start receiving submissions in your Netlify site admin panel.
Your form’s name
attribute determines what we call the form in the Netlify app interface. If you have more than one form on a site, each form should have a different name
attribute.
Here’s an example:
<form name="contact" method="POST" data-netlify="true">
<p>
<label>Your Name: <input type="text" name="name" /></label>
</p>
<p>
<label>Your Email: <input type="email" name="email" /></label>
</p>
<p>
<label>Your Role: <select name="role[]" multiple>
<option value="leader">Leader</option>
<option value="follower">Follower</option>
</select></label>
</p>
<p>
<label>Message: <textarea name="message"></textarea></label>
</p>
<p>
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</p>
</form>
When Netlify bots parse the static HTML for a form you’ve added, they automatically strip the data-netlify="true"
or netlify
attribute from the <form>
tag and inject a hidden input named form-name
. In the resulting HTML that’s deployed, the data-netlify="true"
or netlify
attribute is gone, and the hidden form-name
input’s value
matches the name
attribute of <form>
like this:
<input type="hidden" name="form-name" value="contact">
# Submit HTML forms with AJAX
You don’t have to, but you can submit static HTML forms using AJAX.
A static HTML form submitted this way must have data-netlify=true
or a netlify
attribute inside its <form>
tag.
Here’s an AJAX form submission example using the fetch
API for a static HTML form:
document
.querySelector("form")
.addEventListener("submit", handleSubmit);
const handleSubmit = (e) => {
e.preventDefault();
let myForm = document.getElementById("pizzaOrder");
let formData = new FormData(myForm);
fetch("/", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" },
body: new URLSearchParams(formData).toString(),
})
.then(() => console.log("Form successfully submitted"))
.catch((error) => alert(error));
};
Requirements for the request:
- The body of the request must be URL-encoded. In the above example, the form is passed to a
FormData
constructor. That object is then encoded using theURLSearchParams
constructor and converted to a string. Note that Netlify forms do not support JSON form data at this time. - If the form accepts alphanumeric data only, the request should include the header
"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
. If the form accepts file uploads, including aContent-Type
header is not recommended.
# JavaScript forms
You don’t need to include extra JavaScript on your site to use Netlify Forms. But, if you want to, you can use JavaScript to render a form client-side. You can also submit JavaScript-rendered forms over AJAX.
# Work with JavaScript-rendered forms
Our buildbots find your forms by parsing the HTML of your site when the build completes. This means that if you’re using JavaScript to render a form client-side, our buildbots won’t find it in the pre-built files. You can work around this:
Create a hidden HTML form with the
data-netlify="true"
attribute or anetlify
attribute and input fields withname
attributes to match the inputs of your JavaScript-rendered form. You need to apply the same work around if you want to use our reCAPTCHA 2 integration, and create adiv
element in the hidden HTML with thedata-netlify-recaptcha="true"
attribute.Add a hidden input to the JavaScript-rendered form or JSX form:
<input type="hidden" name="form-name" value="name_of_my_form" />
You can also find related tutorials on our blog:
While the two articles are fairly framework-specific, the code demonstrates how to prerender forms when working with them in a web application.
# Submit JavaScript-rendered forms with AJAX
To submit a JavaScript-rendered form built with a framework like Gatsby or Nuxt, you can send an AJAX POST request to any path on your site. Requirements for the request:
- You need a function to URL-encode your form data in the body of the request.
- If you haven’t added a hidden
form-name
input to your JavaScript-rendered form, you need to send aform-name
attribute in the AJAX POST request body. - If the form accepts alphanumeric data only, the request should include the header
"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
. If the form accepts file uploads, including aContent-Type
header is not recommended.
Here’s an AJAX form submission code sample using the fetch
API for a JavaScript-rendered form. It uses Gatsby’s navigate
function to redirect to a custom page on form submission success.
function encode(data) {
return Object.keys(data)
.map(
(key) =>
encodeURIComponent(key) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(data[key])
)
.join("&");
}
const handleSubmit = (event) => {
event.preventDefault();
fetch("/", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" },
body: encode({
"form-name": event.target.getAttribute("name"),
...name,
}),
})
.then(() => navigate("/thank-you/"))
.catch((error) => alert(error));
};
For a JavaScript-rendered form, you need to add a hidden input
with name="form-name"
to the returned form elements. Here’s an example:
return (
<form
data-netlify="true"
name="pizzaOrder"
method="post"
onSubmit={handleSubmit}
>
<input type="hidden" name="form-name" value="pizzaOrder" />
<label>
What order did the pizza give to the pineapple?
<input name="order" type="text" onChange={handleChange} />
</label>
<input type="submit" />
</form>
);
In the code sample above, a handleChange
function updates the form’s state, which ultimately gets sent in a POST request to Netlify.
# Success messages
By default, when visitors complete a form, they will get a generically styled success message with a link back to the form page. You can replace the default success message with a custom page you create by adding an action
attribute to the <form>
tag, entering the path of your custom page (like "/pages/success"
) as the value. The path must be relative to the site root, starting with a /
. Here’s an example:
<form
name="contact"
action="/pages/success"
method="POST"
data-netlify="true"
></form>
# File uploads
Netlify Forms can receive files uploaded with form submissions. To do this, add an input with type="file"
to any form. Although most browsers will detect the encoding automatically, you can optionally include enctype="multipart/form-data"
in the <form>
tag,
Here’s a sample HTML form with a file upload field:
<form name="fileForm" enctype="multipart/form-data" data-netlify="true">
<p>
<label>
<span>Name:</span>
<input name="name" type="text"/>
</label>
</p>
<p>
<label>
<span>Add file:</span>
<input name="file" type="file"/>
</label>
</p>
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
<p class="result"></p>
# Limitations
Keep the following considerations in mind when working with file uploads in forms.
- Only one file upload per field is supported. For multiple file uploads, use multiple fields.
- The form request has a maximum size limit of 8 MB.
- File uploads time out after 30 seconds.
# Submit file uploads with AJAX
When submitting a form with a file upload, including a Content-Type
header is not recommended. The browser should detect and set the Content-Type
automatically.
Here’s an AJAX form submission code sample using the fetch
API for the above HTML form with file upload:
document.forms.fileForm.addEventListener("submit", (event) => {
event.preventDefault();
const result = document.querySelector(".result");
fetch("/", {
body: new FormData(event.target),
method: "POST",
})
.then(() => {
result.innerText = "Success";
})
.catch((error) => {
result.innerText = `Failed: ${error}`;
});
});
# More Forms resources
Forms: Serverless Functions Integration
Forms: Serverless Functions Integration
Forms: Custom reCAPTCHA 2 with your own settings
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