Form Configuration
The action of your form needs to point towards this script
(ACTION="http://www.thecia.net/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi"), and the
method must be POST or GET in capital letters.
Below is a list of form fields you can use and how to implement them.
Necessary Form Fields
There is only one form field that you must have in your form, for FormMail to
work correctly. This is the to field.
Field: to
Description: This form field allows you to specify to whom you wish for your
form results to be mailed. Most likely you will want to configure
this option as a hidden form field with a value equal to that of
your e-mail address.
Syntax:
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Optional Form Fields
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:
To allow the user to choose a subject:
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Field: email
Description: This form field will allow the user to specify their return
e-mail address. If you want to be able to return e-mail to your
user, I strongly suggest that you include this form field and
allow them to fill it in. This will be put into the From: field
of the message you receive. If you want to require an email
address with valid syntax, add this field name to the 'required'
field.
Syntax:
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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:
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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:
To allow them to specify a URL they wish to travel to once the
form is filled out:
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Field: required
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: env_report
Version:1.3 & Up
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 the
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:
The CGI Resource Index: 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:
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Field: sort
Version:1.4 & Up
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:
To sort by a set field order:
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Field: print_config
Version:1.5 & Up
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:
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Field: print_blank_fields
Version:1.6
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:
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Field: title
Version:1.3 & Up
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':
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Field: return_link_url
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: return_link_title
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
* return_link_title
Syntax:
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Field: missing_fields_redirect
Version:1.6
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:
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Field: background
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: bgcolor
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: text_color
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: link_color
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: vlink_color
Version:1.3 & Up
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:
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Field: alink_color
Version:1.4 & Up
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 active link color of Blue:
Any other form fields that appear in your script will be mailed back to you and
displayed on the resulting page if you do not have the redirect field set. There is
no limit as to how many other form fields you can use with this form, except the
limits imposed by browsers and your server.