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netbasiks.com
Technical Support: Formmail
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Formmail
Script Features
What
is Formmail?
Formmail
allows you to create sophisticated forms without CGI
scripting. To use Formmail, create a form with any decent
web page creation software.
The
form action line should be
<form
method="POST" action="/cgi-sys/formmail.pl">
Notice
that the path is /cgi-sys.
This is the path to our universal CGI BIN, which holds the 'formmail.pl'
script.
The
'formmail.pl' script
will do all the programming work for you. You alter the
behavior of formmail by using hidden fields in your form.
There
is only one form field that you must have in your form for
Formmail to work correctly. This is the recipient field.
| Field:
recipient |
| 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. |
| <input
type=hidden name="recipient"
value="username@your_domain.com"> |
Optional
Form Fields:
| Field:
subject |
| 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. If you
do not have this option turned on, then the script
will default to a message subject: WWW Form
Submission |
If
you wish to choose what the subject is:
<input type=hidden
name="subject" value="Your
Subject">
To
allow the user to choose a subject:
<input type=text
name="subject">
|
| Field:
email |
| 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 Bly 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. |
| <Input
type=text name="email"> |
| Field:
realname |
| 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. |
| <Input
type=text name="realname"> |
| Field:
sort |
| 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 isn't
always the exact same order 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. |
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,etc...">
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| Field:
redirect |
| 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. |
To
choose the URL the user will end up at:
<input type=hidden
name="redirect" value="http://your_domain.com/filename.html">
To
allow the user to specify a URL he wishes to travel
to once the form is filled out:
<input type=text
name="redirect">
|
| Field:
required |
| You
can now 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. |
| If
you want to require that the user 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">
|
| Field:
env_report |
| 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 attribute is 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.
HTTP_USER_AGENT
- The browser the client is using to send the
request. General format: software/version
library/version.
|
If
you wanted to find the remote host and browser
sending the request, you would put the following
into your form:
<input type=hidden
name="env_report" value="REMOTE_HOST,HTTP_USER_AGENT"> |
| Field:
title |
| 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 |
If
you wanted a title of "Feedback Form
Results":
<input type=hidden
name="title" value="Feedback Form
Results"> |
| Field:
return_link_url |
| 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. |
| <Input
type=hidden name="return_link_url"
value="http://your_domain.com/filename.html"> |
| Field:
return_link_title |
| 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> |
| <input
type=hidden name="return_link_title"
value="Back to Main Page"> |
| Field:
background |
| This
form field allows 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. |
| <Input
type=hidden name="background"
value="http://your_domain.com/image.gif"> |
| Field:
bgcolor |
| This
form field allows 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. |
| For
a background color of white:
<input type=hidden
name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"> |
| Field:
text_color |
| This
field works in the same way as bgcolor, except that
it will change the color of your text. |
| For
a text color of black:
<input type=hidden
name="text_color"
value="#000000"> |
| Field:
link_color |
| Changes
the color of links on the resulting page. Works in
the same way as text_color. Should not be defined if
redirect is. |
For
a link color of red:
<input type=hidden
name="link_color"
value="#FF0000"> |
| Field:
vlink_color |
| Changes
the color of visited links on the resulting page.
Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be
set if redirect is |
For
a visited link color of blue:
<input type=hidden
name="vlink_color"
value="#0000FF"> |
| Field:
alink_color |
| Changes
the color of active links on the resulting page.
Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be
set if redirect is. |
For
a visited link color of blue:
<input type=hidden
name="alink_color"
value="#0000FF"> |
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.
| chmod
604 [filename] |
Minimum
permissions for HTML file |
| chmod
705 [directory name] |
Minimum
permissions for directories |
| chmod
755 [filename] |
Minimum
permissions for scripts & programs |
| chmod
606 [filename] |
Permissions
for data files used by scripts |
| chmod
703 [directory name] |
Write-only
permissions for public FTP uploading |
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