How do I enter Form Data in a Letter?

Text:confused;
I am very new both to DreamweaverMX2004 and website creation in general, but
what I want o do seems very simple, yet is not covered by any HELP topic or
text book.

I am the Membership Secretary of a motor club and on our website I want people
who apply for membership to enter personal data and inforemation about their
car(s) in text fields in a Form, and when they press SUBMIT for that
information to be shown on a new page contained within a letter which they
then print and send to me with their cheque/check (they also do the dsame thing
on another page to pay by Credit Card).

I have had no difficulty (well, not much!) creating the Form, and I have
created the letter with blank spaces on another page, but I just can't find out
how best to get the two together.

Can some kind person help?

Peter Ross in the UK

"Peter Ross" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Text:confused;
I am very new both to DreamweaverMX2004 and website creation in general,
but
what I want o do seems very simple, yet is not covered by any HELP topic
or
text book.

I am the Membership Secretary of a motor club and on our website I want
people
who apply for membership to enter personal data and inforemation about
their
car(s) in text fields in a Form, and when they press SUBMIT for that
information to be shown on a new page contained within a letter which
they
then print and send to me with their cheque/check (they also do the dsame
thing
on another page to pay by Credit Card).

I have had no difficulty (well, not much!) creating the Form, and I have
created the letter with blank spaces on another page, but I just can't
find out
how best to get the two together.

Can some kind person help?

Peter Ross in the UK

The proper way to do this would be by using php ( I would expect someone

else to fill in here) however 1 easy shortcut would be to use the form in
the normal way so that you would recieve the data in e-mail format and then
forward the e-mail to them using the mailto address they provided.

B

Peter Ross wrote:

Text:confused;
I am very new both to DreamweaverMX2004 and website creation in general, but
what I want o do seems very simple, yet is not covered by any HELP topic or
text book.

I am the Membership Secretary of a motor club and on our website I want people
who apply for membership to enter personal data and inforemation about their
car(s) in text fields in a Form, and when they press SUBMIT for that
information to be shown on a new page contained within a letter which they
then print and send to me with their cheque/check (they also do the dsame thing
on another page to pay by Credit Card).

I have had no difficulty (well, not much!) creating the Form, and I have
created the letter with blank spaces on another page, but I just can't find out
how best to get the two together.

Hi Peter:

It sounds like you are about to enter the shady world of Server side
behaviours. While these aren't the most complex thing you can do, it
might not be as simple as you first hope.

Are you wanting to keep the information they fill in? One would think,
because if they are paying with a Credit Card, they're not going to be
sending in their membership.

Here's my suggestion. There are other ways of doing this (rather than
have them print out the form, you could have it emailed to yourself),
but using a database is probably the most elegant, though it is nowhere
near the easiest. (Elegant, because they do all the work of entering the
information; all you do is put it in the bank account.)

Yup, that's right. I said database. Just started web design, and already
you're into database programming.

It isn't that hard, but it does take a bit of knowledge on the subject.
There's some tutorials over at
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/php.html.

Because you are now capturing the information to a database, there isn't
really any reason to have them mail in a form. What you might want to do
is create your link to pay by credit card (and this can get pretty
complex; the simplest solution is to use pay pal; there is a plug-in
somewhere on the Macromedia website, and a bunch of info at pay pal). If
they want to pay by post, have a page that tells them that their
membership has been recieved, and is awaiting processing, which will get
done when they send you the money.

You'll probably also want some sort of alert when somebody submits a new
membership. I've never done that, but I know it can be done. Maybe
someone wiser in the ways of server side behaviour can help with that.

For yourself, you can create a back-end page that allows you to add in
all the other information you need to track: When their memberships
expire and stuff like that.

Really, it's not that hard. A month ago, I knew nothing about this sorta
thing. Now...well, some people round here would tell you that I still
know nothing about this sort of thing, but I have been able to create a
fairly useful set-up similar to this for a bunch of businesses, so it
can't be that tough.

A big thank you to the two that replied to my plea for help.

It looks like I confused you by mentioning payment by credit card. That is
not a problem as the company who deals with these things accepts the message
that my website sends and puts the money in our bank and sends me a message
with all the stuff on it which was on the form.

No, it is the people who have physically to send me a cheque (cheque) or sign
a bank Standing Order form and send it that I need to be able to print out a
letter.

I guess whilst I am learning about php (whatever that is) and struggling with
databases I should, in the meantime, get the system to send me an e-mail, and
then send it back to the customer, or just get the system to send the same
e-mail to both of us. Food for thought.

Peter Ross wrote:

A big thank you to the two that replied to my plea for help.

It looks like I confused you by mentioning payment by credit card. That is
not a problem as the company who deals with these things accepts the message
that my website sends and puts the money in our bank and sends me a message
with all the stuff on it which was on the form.

No, it is the people who have physically to send me a cheque (cheque) or sign
a bank Standing Order form and send it that I need to be able to print out a
letter.

I guess whilst I am learning about php (whatever that is) and struggling with
databases I should, in the meantime, get the system to send me an e-mail, and
then send it back to the customer, or just get the system to send the same
e-mail to both of us. Food for thought.

PHP is one of a number of options that allow your website to be dynamic;

ie: allow it to do things other than display information. Other options
are ASP and Coldfusion. Perl/CGI scripts also work, but are as of late
falling out of fashion, it seems (though that could just be perception,
and not reality).

I'm confused as to why you need them to print out the information and
send it to you again. The customer doesn't need to have a copy of the
information: they've entered it into the form, they should know it
already. And they've entered it in at your website, so you should have
it, too. You shouldn't have to make them send it in again.

What you could do is have the form emailed to you, then you could send a
seperate email to the customer saying "We have recieved your information
and are awaiting payment by post before activating your membership. In
the meantime, here is the information we recieved. If you need to make
any changes, please email us back."

This is simpler, but it adds to the work on your end. How do you keep
track of all the members? Do you print everything out and have a folder?
Do you go back and enter the information into a spreadsheet? The reason
I suggested a database (PHP/MySQL are my favourite combo) is that, while
you put a bit more work in up front, it saves you work in the long run.
You don't have to enter it into a spreadsheet, as it is already in a
database. You can search the database to have it list all the people
whose memberships expire next month so you can send them all a
letter/email reminding them to renew.

It is, as always, just a suggestion.