Web Page Forms

New Changes Made to E-mail Forms 5/1/04

The newest securety changes are list at the top. A Must to read and understand.
If you have any questions please contact CommUnities OnLine for assistance.

CONFIGURATION Behind The Scenes

There are a number of variables that have changed which alter the way that the program works.
New scripts have Increased securety and spam prevention techniques added. For these reasons the following changes have been made. Items mentioned

Max Num of Recipients
The maximum number of e-mail addresses that any single form should be allowed to send copies of the e-mail to. This value is hard set to 3.
You may contact Communities OnLine if you have need to increase this number.

Postmaster
The envelope sender address used for all emails sent by the script. This prevents blank "<>"sender e-mails. This address is set to "form_server@wwcol.com".

Referers
This is A list of referring hosts. This is used to prevent other servers from linking to FormMail.pl from their own HTML forms. Client domains are added to this list which is not accessable online.
Contact CommUnities OnLine to have a new recipient added for your forms.

You do NOT include the above information on your forms. We set them up behind the scenes.

Surveys That use this same form. You may use them as guides to the possibilities.
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FORM CONFIGURATION

To make use the script, you need to write an HTML form that refers to the Form script. Here's an example which will send mail to the address 'feedback@your.domain' when someone submits the form:

<form method="post" action="http://DOMAIN.NAME/cgi-bin/Mail.pl">
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="feedback@your.domain" >
<input type="text" name="feedback" ><br >
Please enter your comments<br > <input type="submit" >
</form>

See how the hidden 'recipient' input in the example above told formmail who to send the mail to ? This is how almost all of mail's configuration works. Here's the full list of things you can set with hidden form inputs:

Common Field Descriptions and Syntax examples

Field: cc

Description: This form field is No Longer Available Due to securety and spam

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Field: bcc

Description: This form field is No Longer Available Due to securety and spam

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Field: courtesy_reply

Description: This ection is No Longer Available Due to securety and spam

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Field: append_db

Description: If you wish to append the form fields to a flat file database, just specify the filename as the value of this field. The value should specify the path and file to hold the data.

Form Configuration:

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The action of your form needs to point towards this script (obviously), and the method must be POST or GET in capital letters. Version 1.5 of FormMail offers many new ways to code your form to tailor the resulting HTML page and the way the script performs. Below is a list of form fields you can use and how to implement them.

Necessary Form Fields:

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There is only one form field that you must have in your form, for Form Mailer to work correctly. This is the recipient field.

Field: recipient
You may use this feature OR use the recipient_alias feature described next for better securety from spammers.

Description: This form field allows you to specify to whom you wish for your form results to be mailed. Most likely you will want to configure this option as a hidden form field with a value equal to that of your e-mail address. See also the recipient alias option. ALSO note that ALL recipients should be listed in this field, seperated by a comma and a space. There is no other way to send such as CC or BCC.

Syntax: <input type=hidden name="recipient" value="email@your.host.com, rec2@domain.com">

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Field is still: recipient
NOTE: The recipients OR the recipient-alias Can be entered into the form's recipient field.
recipient-alias IS A list of recipients used in the recipient form field, while keeping all the email addresses out of the HTML so that they don't get collected by address harvesters and sent junk email.
Contact CommUnities OnLine to have a new alias added offline for your forms.

For example, suppose you have several forms on your site, and you want each to submit to a different email address and you want to keep the addresses hidden. You might set up your recipient_alias like one of these lines:

recipient as alias form entry samples

Syntax:
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="animals">
<input type=hidden name="recipient" value="sales23">
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="plants" >

We would then set up your alias entries in our protected list like this:

recipient_alias = (
'sales23' = duces@wcol.com
'fhtc2df' = uno@wcol.com
'animals' = domains@wcol.com
'plants' = silks@cotton.com, uno@wcol.com );

Note how the alias can be almost anything you want for your own purpose.
However since scripts are shared you must verify your alias when you have us set up the list.

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Optional Form Fields:

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Field: subject

Description: The subject field will allow you to specify the subject that you wish to appear in the e-mail that is sent to you after this form has been filled out.

Syntax:

When you wish to choose what the subject is: <input type=hidden name="subject" value="Your Subject">

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Field: email

Description: This form field will allow the user to specify their return e-mail address. If you want to be able to return e-mail to your user, I strongly suggest that you include this form field and allow them to fill it in. This will be put into the From: field of the message you receive. If you want to require an email address with valid syntax, add this field name to the 'required' field.

Syntax: <input type=text name="email">

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Field: realname

Description: The realname form field will allow the user to input their real name. This field is useful for identification purposes and will also be put into the From: line of your message header.

Syntax: <input type=text name="realname">

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Field: redirect

Description: If you wish to redirect the user to a different URL, rather than having them see the default response to the fill-out form, you can use this hidden variable to send them to a pre-made HTML page. If you do not supply this field they will receive The Fall back wording is as follows: From: webform@wwcol.com Subject: Web Page Form Submission Thank you for your form submission.

Syntax:

To choose the URL they will end up at: <input type=hidden name="redirect" value="http://your.host.com/to/file.html">

To allow them to specify a URL they wish to travel to once the form is filled out: <input type=text name="redirect">

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Field: required

Description: You can require for certain fields in your form to be filled in before the user can successfully submit the form. Simply place all field names that you want to be mandatory into this field. If the required fields are not filled in, the user will be notified of what they need to fill in, and a link back to the form they just submitted will be provided. To use a customized error page, see 'missing_fields_redirect'

Syntax:

If you want to require that they fill in the email and phone fields in your form, so that you can reach them once you have received the mail, use a syntax like: <input type=hidden name="required" value="email,phone">

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Field: env_report

Description: Allows you to have Environment variables included in the e-mail message you receive after a user has filled out your form. Useful if you wish to know what browser they were using, what domain they were coming from or any other attributes associated with environment variables. The following is a short list of valid environment variables that might be useful:

REMOTE_HOST - Sends the hostname making a request.

REMOTE_ADDR - Sends the IP address of the remote host making the request.

REMOTE_USER - If server supports authentication and script is protected, this is the username they have authenticated as. *This is not usually set.*

HTTP_USER_AGENT - The browser the client is using to send the request.

There are others, but these are a few of the most useful. For more information on environment variables, see:

http://www.cgi-resources.com/Documentation/Environment_Variables/

Syntax:

If you wanted to find the remote host and browser sending the request, you would put the following into your form:

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Field: sort

Description: This field allows you to choose the order in which you wish for your variables to appear in the e-mail that FormMail generates. You can choose to have the field sorted alphabetically or specify a set order in which you want the fields to appear in your mail message. By leaving this field out, the order will simply default to the order in which the browsers sends the information to the script (which is usually the exact same order as they appeared in the form.) When sorting by a set order of fields, you should include the phrase "order:" as the first part of your value for the sort field, and then follow that with the field names you want to be listed in the e-mail message, separated by commas.

*** Now allows a little more flexibility in the listing of ordered fields, in that you can include spaces and line breaks in the field without it messing up the sort. This is helpful when you have many form fields and need to insert a line wrap.

Syntax:

To sort alphabetically: <input type=hidden name="sort" value="alphabetic">

To sort by a set field order: <input type=hidden name="sort" value="order:name1,name2,name3,etc...">

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Field: print_config

Description: print_config allows you to specify which of the config variables you would like to have printed in your e-mail message. By default, no config fields are printed to your e-mail. This is because the important form fields, like email, subject, etc. are included in the header of the message. However some users have asked for this option so they can have these fields printed in the body of the message. The config fields that you wish to have printed should be in the value attribute of your input tag separated by commas.

Syntax:

If you want to print the email and subject fields in the body of your message, you would place the following form tag:

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Field: print_blank_fields ***

Description: print_blank_fields allows you to request that all form fields are printed in the return HTML, regardless of whether or not they were filled in. FormMail defaults to turning this off, so that unused form fields aren't e-mailed.

Syntax:

If you want to print all blank fields: <input type=hidden name="print_blank_fields" value="1">

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Field: title

Description: This form field allows you to specify the title and header that will appear on the resulting page if you do not specify a redirect URL.

Syntax:

If you wanted a title of 'Feedback Form Results': <input type=hidden name="title" value="Feedback Form Results">

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Field: return_link_url

Description: This field allows you to specify a URL that will appear, as return_link_title, on the following report page. This field will not be used if you have the redirect field set, but it is useful if you allow the user to receive the report on the following page, but want to offer them a way to get back to your main page.

Syntax: <input type=hidden name="return_link_url" value="http://your.host.com/main.html">

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Field: return_link_title

Description: This is the title that will be used to link the user back to the page you specify with return_link_url. The two fields will be

shown on the resulting form page as:

<ul> <li><a href="return_link_url">return_link_title</a> </ul>

Syntax: <input type=hidden name="return_link_title" value="Back to Main Page">

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Field: missing_fields_redirect ***

Description: This form field allows you to specify a URL that users will be redirected to if there are fields listed in the required form field that are not filled in. This is so you can customize an error page instead of displaying the default.

Syntax: <input type=hidden name="missing_fields_redirect" value="http://your.host.com/error.html">

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Field: background

Description: This form field allow you to specify a background image that will appear if you do not have the redirect field set. This image will appear as the background to the form results page.

Syntax: <input type=hidden name="background" value="http://your.host.com/image.gif">

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Field: bgcolor

Description: This form field allow you to specify a bgcolor for the form results page in much the way you specify a background image. This field should not be set if the redirect field is.

Syntax: For a background color of White: <input type=hidden name="bgcolor" value=" FFFFFF">

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Field: text_color

Description: This field works in the same way as bgcolor, except that it will change the color of your text.

Syntax: For a text color of Black: <input type=hidden name="text_color" value=" 000000">

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Field: link_color

Description: Changes the color of links on the resulting page. Works in the same way as text_color. Should not be defined if redirect is.

Syntax: For a link color of Red: <input type=hidden name="link_color" value=" FF0000">

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Field: vlink_color

Description: Changes the color of visited links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is.

Syntax: For a visited link color of Blue: <input type=hidden name="vlink_color" value=" 0000FF">

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Field: alink_color

Description: Changes the color of active links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is.

Syntax: For a visited link color of Blue: <input type=hidden name="alink_color" value=" 0000FF">

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Any other form fields that appear in your script will be mailed back to you and displayed on the resulting page if you do not have the redirect field set. There is no limit as to how many other form fields you can use with this form, except the limits imposed by browsers and your server.

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Surveys That use this same form. You may use them as guides to the possibilities.
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