FormMail Configuration Tutorial
Table of Contents
Introduction
Creating an E-mail form on your Web Site is easy, yet flexible with FormMail. We have done all the programming for you already so that you do not have to know anything about writing CGI scripts to create your own E-mail submission forms for your Web Site.You do NOT have to modify a single piece of cgi-bin code--the same cgi-bin program will work with anyone's form! Even if you do know how to write E-mail submit forms, you will find this beneficial as an easy-to-use, productive, and flexible way to create most of your mailto forms.All kinds of different forms with input fields, option lists, checkboxes, radio buttons, text areas, and selection lists may be used. Formatting of the email response is smart. You may choose to specify required input fields to be submitted before anything is emailed to the recipient's). Subject and Reply-to email headers are correctly set for most email readers with properly created forms. The response you desire to give after submission (and incorrect submission if required fields are specified and not submitted) may be specified in the form as a url that you may create just like you create any other html file.
Getting Started
You must request FormMail be added to your domain (at no cost) before it will work. Click here to request it.In order to use our script you must specify the correct method and action for the form. The METHOD should be set to post indicating that the form will be submitted separately from the URL so that large submissions will not lose any data. The ACTION should be set to /cgi-bin/FormMail.pl. Please remember that this is case sensitive.
<FORM METHOD="POST"
ACTION="http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/FormMail.pl">
...
</FORM>
Required Configuration Options
Specify the email recipient of the form
You may specify who is to receive the email form by using a reserved input tag of FormMail software. This is required to have your form work correctly with the script.An input tag should be used. You should set TYPE to hidden and have NAME set to recipient. Case is important with the NAME value. VALUE must be set to the email address of who you would like to receive submissions from the form.
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="recipient"
VALUE="info@yourdomain.com">
You may specify multiple recipients by delimiting them with a comma.
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="recipient"
VALUE="info@yourdomain.com,sales@yourdomain.com">
Specify the response URL for correct submissions
After a form is submitted, FormMail will display a response page to the user that you must create and specify. This allows you the freedom to give any response to the user of the form you would like with the page design and links you desire.You do this by creating an html file that you may name anything you desire and that may contain any response message that you may wish to give. An example response file is as follows:
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Response</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<IMG SRC="/images/sample_logo.gif">
<H2>Thank You!</H2>
<P>
Our staff will promptly process your request
for more information.
<A HREF="/">Return to our Home Page</A>
</BODY>
</HTML>
To create and save this file, simply drag your mouse over the text above and select Copy from your Edit Menu, then open a Text Editor (like Notepad for Windows) and select Paste from Text Editor's Edit Menu. Save and then upload this file to your Web Site's root directory and save it with an HTML file name you would like such as "response.html."Next, you must specify to FormMail what response file to use. You must reference this file using its full URL. If your domain happens to be "www.your_domain.com" and the response file was saved in the root directory of the website as "response.html", the full URL would be: http://www.your_domain.com/response.htmlAn INPUT tag should be used. You should set TYPE to HIDDEN and have NAME set to response. ("response" must be in lower case. Case is important with the NAME value) VALUE must be set to the full URL of the response page as described:
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="redirect"
VALUE="http://www.yourdomain.com/response.html">
Optional Configuration Parameters
Setting the Reply-to E-mail header
The process of including a reply-to header in an e-mail message from the web server is not automatic since the web server has no way of knowing everyone's e-mail address. An e-mail address to reply-to must be submitted by the person submitting the form.In order to set the reply-to email header to the person submitting the form, an input field must be included that requests the user to input their email address. The input field must have the name email. An example is given:
<B>Enter Your Email Address:</B>
<INPUT NAME="email">
In addition, you can have this header to include in parenthesis the name of the person/people that this email message is from. This input field must have the name realname. An example is given:
<B>Enter Your Name:</B>
<INPUT NAME="realname">
You may use this in conjunction of setting required fields to make sure a person submitting a form has submitted an email address to reply to. An example is given:
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="required"
VALUE="email,realname">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="missing_fields_redirect"
VALUE="http://www.yourdomain.com/required.html">
<B>Enter Your Email Address:</B>
<INPUT NAME="Email">
<B>Enter Your Name:</B>
<INPUT NAME="Name">
Specify the subject of the email message
You may specify the subject of the email that is to be sent by using a reserved input tag of FormMail.An input tag should be used. You should set TYPE to hidden and have NAME set to subject. Case is important with the NAME value. VALUE must be set to whatever you would like the subject to be of the email sent to the recipient(s). An example is provided:
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="subject"
VALUE="Reply from your website!">
Specify required submission fields
You may specify what input fields are required to be completed before any email is sent.An input tag should be used. You should set TYPE to hidden and have NAME set to missing_fields_redirect. Case is important. Next, specify the required field names by setting VALUE equal to the fields that are required. Separate each field with a comma and include no spaces unless the field name contains a space. Fields are the same as the string provided in the NAME of an INPUT tag.
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="missing_fields_redirect"
VALUE="realame,email">
You must specify the response URL to give the user for unsuccessful submission because of missing required fields. You create this file similar to the way you created the response file for successful submissions.An input tag should be used. You should set TYPE to hidden and have NAME set to missing_fields_redirect. Case is important with the NAME value. VALUE must be set to the full URL of the response page as described.
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="missing_fields_redirect"
VALUE="http://www.yourdomain.com/required.html">
Notes
All INPUT tags may be used of any TYPE, including CHECKBOXES and RADIO BUTTONS. Make sure that you give the same name to each radio button that you want the user to choose from and give a unique value to each one that you want sent to you that will identify the radio button that was selected. TEXTAREA, SELECT, and OPTION tags may also be used.Whatever is specified as the NAME will be printed in the email form followed by a colon and a tab. The VALUE assigned to the NAME will follow the NAME. In the cases where VALUE is assigned in the form, this will be printed if it is selected. If the VALUE is to be specified by the user, this VALUE will be printed if a value is given by the user. Multiple fields with the same names are also properly handled and all fields will be printed that have values.Be sure to include the <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT> tag. If you have any questions about this software, bug reports, or suggestions, please send them to cgi@denverwebhost.com.
