Form question from beginner.

**Mike_M** · 23-01-06

Hi,

I am a complete web design novice. I've been reading up on Dreamweaver for about 2 days now, and have managed to use it to construct a very basic site with an application form.

Problem is, how do I make the form work (ie when a customer submits their details they get emailed to me)?

Can anyone help?

**andysears** · 23-01-06

Various ways of doing this, with ASP or PERL etc, and dependent on the server platform your using.

**monk-i** · 23-01-06

To expand on Andy you need some form of dynamic software such as ASP, PERL, PHP (the latter the most popular) installed on your hosting. This is what handles the information and then do with it what you want such as emailing it to you, storing in a database etc. This involves programming though which is a different area. There is no quick way within HTML to mail you that information without some sort of scripting language dealing with the inputted data.

Hope that helps clear it up mate.

**eskimo** · 23-01-06

There are lots of mailing list mangement companies, that will process and store the users details from you from the e-mail your form has generated.

**crazihos** · 23-01-06

Hi mike

If your html forms on the net and in form tags I can run a form script on it for you - I just need the URL and the email details you want it sending to and then I can send you the php coding in an email - takes 2 mins.

PM me if you like

Cheers

Russ

**Fudge** · 23-01-06

Some hosting companies actually provide you with a customisable form that is ready to go. It wont be great but it will do the job.

Get in touch for more dude.

**Mike_M** · 23-01-06

Thanks for the responses guys.

Originally Posted by Fudge

Some hosting companies actually provide you with a customisable form that is ready to go.

My hosting company is 1&1 and they do have 'formbuilder' which was really good until it broke down last Wednesday. Having made countless calls to their non-technical technical department since last Weds and being on hold for about 2 hrs in total they've finally come to the conclusion that there's a bug in the system and that it will hopefully be fixed by tomorrow (mind you they told me that last thursday). One of my calls today involved me ringing their 0870 number and being put on hold for nine minutes before the line went dead!

If you want a chuckle at the state of 1&1's customer service have a listen to some of these calls: http://www.bankraid.com/archive/0512...imon_jones.htm

So I've sort of lost faith with their formbuilder and wanted to try and build one myself from scratch, but I just don't know where to start - eg I've read that I can do it using formmail.pl, so I've downloaded the formmail file to my desktop - what next?

I've also read that I have to put the formmail.pl file in the cgi-bin folder on the server - and that if I don't know where that folder is (which I don't) then I should contact my hosting provider (don't know if I want to listen to 2 more hours of classical music!)

Are there any absolutely basic guides out there that will teach me how to do this sort of thing step-by-step, or am I way out of my depth?

**drivetowin** · 23-01-06

If you want a really cheap and dirty solution then set the top of your form to:

form method="post" action="mailto:yourname@yoursite.com" enctype="text/plain"

obviously set the mailto to your email address.

**Mike_M** · 23-01-06

Cheers Keith,

I tried that though and it pops up with two warning messages before allowing the customer to submit the form:

This form is being submitted using email
Submitting this form will reveal your email address to the recipient,
and will send the form data without encrypting it for privacy.
You may continue or cancel this submission

Even if they click 'continue' at this point, an outlook express message pops up saying:

A program is attempting to send the following email on your behalf
Subject: Form posted from Microsoft Internet Explorer
Would you like to send the message?

I feel that this would just put too many people off.

**crazihos** · 23-01-06

Mike - I've sent you a pm which you may find useful

Cheers

Russ

**Mike_M** · 23-01-06

Cheers Russ

**Jacqui** · 23-01-06

http://www.thesitewizard.com/wizards/feedbackform.shtml

This site has a 'feedback form wizard' where you can enter your details and it produces the code in either PHP or Perl for you. It works and is satisfactory if basic until you get the hang of scripting and want to make it a bit more fancy.