Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I use dreamweaver 8.  I have made a basic form for website visitors to complete - name, address, etc...  I need to complete the properties of the form by filling in the following five fields:

1. Action

2. Method

3. Target

4. Class

5. Enctype

Unfortunately, my host [APLUS.Net} refuses to support this.  Any thoughts?

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

There is a few cgi (pretty easy to install) scripts located at http://www.cgispy.com/ and many are free. Of course you have to activate a free account. Check that out. They might be of use to you.

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

I know of a good PHP form (if your server supports PHP.)  You can download it here.

Thanks very much.  What I really really really want is to know what to put into those fve dreamweaver form propery fields so that I can create other forms.  For example, I have a multiple choice quiz I want to have pharmacists complete so they can send me their answers to the quiz via e-mail.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

1. Action

The URL (web page) to send the form information to. This needs to be a script that can process the form data (i.e. store it in a database or email it to someone). I`m sure someone will tell you that you can use mailto:your@email.address but it`s a bad idea for too many reasons.

2. Method

How the information should be sent back to the web server (usually POST but can also be GET)

3. Target

The name of the window you want the page returned by the script from the action URL to be displayed in. Leave blank as you probably want it displayed in the same windows as the original form.

4. Class

The name of the CSS class for the form. Leave blank as you probably don`t want this.

5. Enctype

How the form is to be encoded before it is sent to the web server (note: encoded, not encrypted). Leave blank as you probably won`t need this.

Of course this won`t help you much if you don`t have a script/webpage that can process the information sent back. If it`s a simple form then try locating a formmail program that works with your hosting provider. This will take the information on the form and email it to you.

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Blog - http://www.buggy.id.au/

I have a tutorial that suggested the following:

/cgi-bin/form-handler.prl.  This does not work, as you can see if you go to the form at http://www.patentsmakemoney.com/ContactUs.html. 

If mailto:your@email.address is bad, what is a good alternative?  thanks.

-------------------------

James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Patent?
Ok here is the deal. No Web Hosting company should restrict you to using a form mail. Although form mails are an easy target for spammers. You shouldn`t have to be restricted of what you can do.
The script that I use is from Matt Scripts Form Mail. Its a simple cgi form that is very easy to use.
http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html

I can give you the script and configure it for you. Send me your IP address and domain name and I Will get it going for you.
Here is what your forms header is going to look like:
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------
<form name="contactus" method="post" action="cgi-bin/formmail.pl">
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="yourdomainname.com">
<input type="hidden" name="subject" value="Inquiry from your web site">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="http://www.mydomain.com/thankyou">
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------
Let me explain on it:
The form action is going to point to the file on your web hosting server. Your CGI-BIN, make sure that file exsists.
The Input name recipient, is the email address where you want the email to goto in this case you can have an email like info@mycompany.com>
The second input name subject, is the email subject or RE: or header
The third input redirect, is so when they fill out the form and they hit send it will redirect them to a nice "Thank You Page"
< ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------->
You don`t need Encytype because you are not uploading or parsing data files or anything>
Class: Only if you are using a cascading style sheet and you want to dress your form in a fancy manner, like change the font color, outline color and so forth.
Target:Not on this form since you are going to use redirect..

Here is your form BODY (use a table with colspan 2 or with two columns so it can display correctly.)
First Name:<input type="text" name="first_name:">
Last Name:<input type="text" name="last_name:">

and so forth..
Now if you are going to use other objects like radio buttons, check buttons, Drop down  menus,
then that would be in next lesson... just kidding.
I hope you get the picture..

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net