Urgent: Need Email Form Help

Im in a bit of a bind. Im doing this website for someone and the form is not
working. This is the first time ive had to do a form and he could lose a lot of
money if i dont get this working. I made the form and put a mailto: command in
the action field. I thought that was all i had to do. Now im reading that i
need a script. So how do i use a PHP script. Im trying to set up the one from
boadrink.com. Do i open the script file in a new Document and then build the
form. Can someone give me specific instructions on how to insert the boadrink
PHP script and build the form. I need to get this done and i dont have time to
learn it all. I would greatly appreciate it. The form is being sent to a
hotmail address. It has text fields asking for name, adress,..... It also has
check boxes to select something.

There are two basic ways to process form data -

1. Use mailto:name (AT) domain (DOT) com as the action of the form
2. Use a server-side scripting method to a) harvest the form's data, b)
process it in some manner, e.g., enter it into a database, c) formulate and
send an email to one or more email recipients, and d) redirect the visitor
to some ending page

Method 1 is quite simple, and is also the least reliable. It depends both
on your visitor having an email client already installed on their computer -
this eliminates public computers - and on that email client responding to
the mailto call. It is not possible to use this method *and* send the
visitor to a
thank you page as well.

Method 2 is the preferred method, since it eliminates the problems of method
1, but it means that you have to grapple with server-scripting somehow (ASP,
CF, PHP, perl, etc.).

Your choice between these two methods would depend on your capabilities, and
the tools supplied/supported by your site's host.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"simonrex22" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Im in a bit of a bind. Im doing this website for someone and the form is
not
working. This is the first time ive had to do a form and he could lose a
lot of
money if i dont get this working. I made the form and put a mailto:
command in
the action field. I thought that was all i had to do. Now im reading that
i
need a script. So how do i use a PHP script. Im trying to set up the one
from
boadrink.com. Do i open the script file in a new Document and then build
the
form. Can someone give me specific instructions on how to insert the
boadrink
PHP script and build the form. I need to get this done and i dont have
time to
learn it all. I would greatly appreciate it. The form is being sent to a
hotmail address. It has text fields asking for name, adress,..... It also
has
check boxes to select something.

In addition, could someone explain everything you need to make an email form work and the steps in which you would do it. Again, this is an emergency. Please help me.

So how do i use a PHP script. Im trying to set up the one from
boadrink.com. Do i open the script file in a new Document and then build the
form.

that script has instructions- follow them.

first- Can you use PHP on this site host?

next- follow the script's instructions.
Open the script, make the required edits so your domain is "allowed" to use
the script, and the recipients of the email are allowed to be sent mail from
the script.

then, upload the script to your hosting.

then, modify your form as explained in the instructions.
change the Action of the opening form tag to point to the formmail.php file.
add a hidden field named recipients.

test the form.

As Alan has already stated, its all there in the instructions, if you follow
them carefully you can't really go wrong.
Tom

"Alan" <dont_mail_me_period (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

So how do i use a PHP script. Im trying to set up the one from
boadrink.com. Do i open the script file in a new Document and then build
the
form.

that script has instructions- follow them.

first- Can you use PHP on this site host?

next- follow the script's instructions.
Open the script, make the required edits so your domain is "allowed" to
use
the script, and the recipients of the email are allowed to be sent mail
from
the script.

then, upload the script to your hosting.

then, modify your form as explained in the instructions.
change the Action of the opening form tag to point to the formmail.php
file.
add a hidden field named recipients.

test the form.

Ok, thanks, you've cleared a lot of things up. But when you say upload the
script to the host, do you mean just have it in the site folder when i put it.
Also, im not sure if the hosting will accept PHP. Im using ValueWeb. Do you
know what kind of script they can take.

Also, im not sure if the hosting will accept PHP

then clear that up before wasting time working on the script.

See Your host's FAQ/Support section, or look at the description of what's
included in your hosting package.

or just upload a phpinfo file and check.
open a new file in dw.
click in code view. Delete everything.
type in:

<?php

phpinfo();

?>


save as aaa.php
upload. view remote page in browser.
what's in the page?
If nothing, what's in the source of the page?

simonrex22 wrote:

Ok, thanks, you've cleared a lot of things up. But when you say upload the
script to the host, do you mean just have it in the site folder when i put it.
Also, im not sure if the hosting will accept PHP. Im using ValueWeb. Do you
know what kind of script they can take.

If you have the basic hosting package, it doesn't look like you can use PHP:

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--
Bonnie in Alameda
kroko at
sbcglobal dot net
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites.woa

simonrex22 <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Ok, thanks, you've cleared a lot of things up. But when you say upload
the script to the host, do you mean just have it in the site folder
when i put it. Also, im not sure if the hosting will accept PHP. Im
using ValueWeb. Do you know what kind of script they can take.

I do know that there are people who are using the NMS FormMail and
TFmail programs on ValueWeb - you can find more information and
support about using these programs from:

http://nms-cgi.sf.net/

/J\