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Docs | Val Town

Save HTML form data

You can submit forms to Val Town using the HTTP val. You can place these forms on any page on the internet - or host the form directly on Val Town.

These examples show how to accept and store email addresses on Val Town. The email addresses are saved into a val, and you also get sent an email notification for each new signup.

Add a form to your website

Create an HTTP val

Write a val function that accepts a Request and returns a Response.

Add the form to your webpage

Copy your val’s Web endpoint URL using the menu (Endpoints > Copy web endpoint) and set it as the form’s action (this tells the form where to send its data when it’s submitted).

Below is a full HTML page example. If you are adding a form to an existing page just copy and paste the <form></form> block.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Email Form</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- Change the action here to your val's Express endpoint! -->
    <form action="https://user-saveFormData.web.val.run" method="post">
      <label for="email">Email:</label>
      <input type="email" id="email" name="email" required />
      <br />
      <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Host your form on Val Town

There are two ways to do this. You can write a val function that serves a webpage, and a separate val that accepts the form data - or you can write a single val that does both like the example below.

When a form is submitted, it sends a HTTP request with the POST method. When a user visits a webpage in their web browser, the server (your val function) gets sent a GET request.

You can check the HTTP method using req.method and change how your val function responds.

See Web forms — Working with user data on the MDN Web Docs site for more help with forms. Forms are a basic part of the web - you don’t need a lot of front-end JavaScript to make them work.