Processing form data

[carl38]

Hi there tech people..

 

i have two websites that i have been developing , hosted with yourselves,

 

www.mythaiangel.com

www.lavalbone.com

 

dating sites ,

 

i need now to configue the application forms on both sites ,

Im a novice website deveolper with only basic skills

 

please advise which method would be easier to set up

1/ having application form information sent to sever and how this is done ?

2/ having web form information sent to emial address and how to do ?

3/ easiest way of configuring applicaiton forms ?

4/ are there any step by step tutorials advising me on above ?

 

Thank you indavance for your help

THailand GMT +7 hrs

best regds

Carl

[TCH-Rob]

I am not sure myself Carl. Hang tight and someone should be along with an answer.

[carl38]

thanks Rob

will wait for reply

rgds

Carl

[TweezerMan]

please advise which method would be easier to set up

1/ having application form information sent to sever and how this is done ?

2/ having web form information sent to emial address and how to do ?

3/ easiest way of configuring applicaiton forms ?

4/ are there any step by step tutorials advising me on above ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

#1 will always happen, provided that the 'action' parameter in your <form> tag points to a valid script on your site. What happens when the form data is submitted depends on the design of the script.

 

#2 requires a script that can accept your site's form data, compose an e-mail with it, then send it to you.

 

#3 - I don't know what you mean by "configuring application forms".

 

#4 - There's lots of tutorials and information on the internet about how to build HTML forms in general - I'd suggest searching Google. To find a script that will e-mail you submitted form data, try searching hotscripts.com (there's quite a few available).

[carl38]

Thanks David will try recommended site and suggestions

best regds

carl

[carbonize]

Actually #2 can be achieved by using a mailto tag as the action for the form. This will then have the persons email client email the data to you. If you are after writing your own scripts then PHP is probably the easiest language to learn.

[TweezerMan]

Actually #2 can be achieved by using a mailto tag as the action for the form.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wouldn't that be putting a big "spam me" target on the web site?

[carbonize]

Not really as it sends the email using MAPI and therefore sends it from the email address in their email client and will have their IP as the received from address.

[TweezerMan]

What I mean is: Wouldn't the destination e-mail address be in the mailto link on the form, available for e-mail spam bots to harvest? I'm thinking this would make the web site owner's e-mail address available to spammers.

[borfast]

Yes, David. You are correct. The basic rule is: if you can read the e-mail address (even if only in the HTML source code), then a spam bot can read it too.

[carbonize]

Could always encrypt it using hex or javascript. Or just create an account for the purpose and set up a script whereby that account only accepts emails with the subject you specified.

[owatagal]

Personally, I wouldn't want to email form data directly to myself without processing it and verifying the data-- more than the threat of spam bots this is why I run through some sort of process.php page. You could set up a form that was all drop-down menus and think you're safe in terms of what people can send you, but if you don't process the actual information, people can send you whatever they want, and it doesn't have to have anything to do with your form parameters. A processing page lets you hide your email address and ensure the information someone is trying to send you is legit.

 

For carl38, if you're looking through hotscripts, I'd recommend looking for an email program that offers some sort of data checking/security checks before the information is sent to you.

 

By being sent to the server did you mean some sort of database application? That can be done-- you'd need both a database language like MySQL and a scripting language like PHP to do it, and there are tutorials out there as well. I imagine hotscripts would have options for that kind of script--again, make sure the script does security checks on the data.

 

If you aren't sure in either case, contact the script's writer and find out.

[scotttyz]

Yes, David. You are correct. The basic rule is: if you can read the e-mail address (even if only in the HTML source code), then a spam bot can read it too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What I have done on most of the sites I have worked on is to "hard-code" the mailto: line into the form processing script and leave it out of the HTML page completely. That way no mining of emails.

 

 

 

[stevesh]

I use Phorm (www.phorm.com) for several form-based pages, and it works great. It will send form results to you in an email (HTML, if you want) and will also write to a text file and/or a MySql database. All your email addresses are coded into config files, so there's no spam exposure.

 

Steve