Sending Form Data to E-mail Address

Fools Gold · #1 (**permalink**) Dec 12th, 2007, 16:29

Hope this is the right board for this.

I'm using Frontpage and I've designed a form using the design method not HTML. I want to be able to send the data that will be entered in the form to my e-mail address. I can't remember how to do it.

I go to "Form Properties" and select "Send To Other". Then I click on "Advanced" then in the "Advanced Form Properties" window I add the recipient, which is my e-mail address. Then I click on "Options" and this is the bit I can't remember. I know the METHOD is "POST" but I can't remember the "ACTION" bit. All I know is it's something to do with webmail-cgi........ at least that's what they told me at my course.

Can someone please help me

cocoonfx · #2 (**permalink**) Dec 21st, 2007, 10:34

Hello

Frontpage is a bitch i would try and use dreamweaver to start with. Form action will be mailto: and then the email address.

You would need to have some validation on the form i would use PHP or Java (not sure if your new to web design).

So for example you would have an HTML form and then you have a PHP or Java script associated. Thats for the advanced version.

Here is a very basic java version:-

HTML: Select all

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1250">
<title>JavaScript Form validation</title>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" TYPE="text/javascript">
function check() {
var nameandsurname = document.myform.nameandsurname;
var email = document.myform.email;
var age = document.myform.age;
var gender = document.myform.gender;
if ( nameandsurname.value.indexOf(" ") == -1) {
alert("Enter your Name and Surname.");
nameandsurname.focus();
} else if ((email.value.indexOf("@") == -1) || (email.value.indexOf(".") == -1)) {
alert("Enter your valid email address.");
email.focus();
} else if (! (parseInt(age.value) > 0)) {
alert("Enter your Age.");
age.focus();
} else if (gender.selectedIndex == 0) {
alert("Select your gender.");
gender.focus();
} else { 
document.myform.submit();
}
}
</SCRIPT>
</head>
<body>
<form action="mailto:info@cocoonfxmedia.co.uk" method="post" name="myform">
Name and Surname: <br/>
<input type="text" name="nameandsurname" size="30"> <br/>
Email: <br/>
<input type="text" name="email" size="30"> <br/>
Age: <br/>
<input type="text" name="age" size="3"> <br/>
Gender: <br/>
<select size="1" name="gender">
<option>- Select gender -</option>
<option value="Male">Male</option>
<option value="Female">Female</option>
</select>
<br/>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" onClick="check();return false;">
</form>
<br/>
<b><a href="<A href="http://www.cocoonfxmedia.co.uk">Cocoonfxmedia</a></b">http://www.cocoonfxmedia.co.uk">Cocoonfxmedia</a></b>
</body>
</html>

Aso · #3 (**permalink**) Dec 21st, 2007, 10:52

I wouldn't recommend using the mailto function these days. Client-side validation (Javascript) isn't reliable enough, and you need a server-side script to process the form, detect invalid inputs, and format it so that you end up a with a readable message in your inbox. Plus you might also want to redirect users after submission or warn them if it fails.

There are loads of ready made scripts out there that only require a bit of tweaking. Here's a PHP mail script, but you can use anything from Perl to ASP to do the job.

Then simply change the action variable at the top of your form to action="filename_of_script"

Marc · #4 (**permalink**) Dec 21st, 2007, 12:04

I too wouldn't reccommend using the mailto: function - instead I would use a programming language such as PHP or ASP - aso186 pointed out a good example of a PHP Contact script.

Cocoonfx, what you described there was JavaScript, and not Java

. Once again, I wouldn't reccommend using JavaScript for validation since users can disable it on their browsers.

ScottR · #5 (**permalink**) Dec 23rd, 2007, 14:16

Although, if you serious about validation. You probably want to validate with JavaScript AND a server side language. Reason being that when you validate with a server side script the page is reloaded. When you validate and catch errors with JavaScript the page is not reloaded and you can simply highlight the fields that have errors in them.

As far as your users go, this will be easier for them without starting over everytime there is an error (especially with a large form). The reason you use both client and server side is that JavaScript can be turned off and then you can catch those errors on the server side.

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Sending Form Data to E-mail Address