We offer a pre-configured version of Yousef Hamade's port of Matt Wright's FormMail CGI script for processing data-entry fields and emailing the results back to an internet mailbox. This script is available for no additional charge to all subscribers.

To make a web form that sends input to an email address, follow the instructions below:

Basic Form

Include the following html in a web page to try out the form script:

<FORM 
METHOD="POST" ACTION="/pub-bin/formmail.pl"> <input type=hidden name=recipient 
value="email address"> <input type=hidden name=subject value="your 
subject line"> <input type=hidden name=email value="a valid email 
address"> 
 Your email Address: <input type=text name=mail> <br> 
Your Full Name: <input type=text name=realname> <br> <input type=submit> 
</FORM> 

email address is the address to which you would like the contents of the form mailed.

your subject line The subject heading of the email you receive from the form submission.

valid email address This can be any valid email address.

There are also a variety of optional fields you that can add.

It should look like this on your web page:

Your email Address:
Your Full Name :

this will not function correctly from this page as it's an NT script on a UNIX server. This is merely to show you how this will look.)

Optional Fields

There are several fields you can use to edit how the emails you receive will appear. The recipient and email fields are the required fields. Below are the available optional fields you can use.

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. If you do not have this option turned on, then the script will default 
to a message subject: WWW Form Submission Syntax: 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: 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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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. 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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Field: required Description: 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. 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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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: <input type=hidden name="env_report" 
value="REMOTE_HOST, HTTP_USER_AGENT"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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. 
Version 1.6 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..."> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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: <input type=hidden name="print_config" value="email,subject"> 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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: Syntax: <input type=hidden name="return_link_title" 
value="Back to Main Page"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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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