Perhaps the most banal but time consuming aspect of web development is form handling. Typically, a form must be defined and prepared for display. Then, when form data is submitted to the server, various form processing tasks must be conducted to validate, manipulate, and store form data. Drupal has a special API for handling forms—the Forms API (FAPI). FAPI automatically handles the mundane details of form handling, making it much easier for developers to quickly write forms.

Using the Forms API, developers can create a single form definition that is then used by Drupal to perform various aspects of form handling. The same data structure that is used to generate the form is also used to validate the form. And with a few simple functions, complex forms can be handled effectively. FAPI stands out as one of the gems in Drupal's crown because of these features.

In this section, we will implement a form using the FAPI.