************************************************************
Emailing Form DataOne of the most common questions our mentor community is asked concerns the
use of Email Forms.
These are HTML pages that include a form in which the
site visitor can enter some information and send it via email to the
intended recipient.
There are several common uses for this type of form.
They are often used as a feedback mechanism, whereby a visitor can send
comments or suggestions about the site back to the webmaster.
They are also
used as a mechanism to capture data and send it off to a recipient at a
remote location, bypassing the need for a database in or near the system
where the site is being hosted.
Webmasters come up with plenty of creative
ways of using these forms, but increasingly over recent months, are also
coming up against some problems.
The distinguishing characteristic of an email form is found in its
"
ACTION
"
statement in the
<
FORM
>
tag.
There is a description of this type of form
in the HTML Goodies Tutorials at
In the example on that
page we see this
"
ACTION
"
statement:
<
FORM METHOD=
"
POST
"
ACTION=
"
mailto:your
email address
"
>
The
"
ACTION
"
in this example is a
"
mailto:
"
with an email
address.
It is this which defines this form as an email form.
The problem arises because modern browsers, IE6 + and equivalent, no longer
support email forms!
The effect of this is that the visitor fills out the
form and clicks the submit button and their email client program is invoked
showing a blank email with the specified address in the
"
To
"
field.
All
information entered on the form appears to have been ignored.
Essentially,
these browsers are treating the email form as if it was a simple
"
Mailto
"
email link (for information about email links, see
)
That
’
s the problem, but like all good programmers all we see is an
opportunity for a creative solution!
With that in mind, here are a couple
of offerings.
The first is a solution primarily aimed at Unix (or similar)
operating systems, and involves the use of CGI (Common Gateway Interface
–
see
) and a mail system such as
SENDMAIL (commonly installed on Unix and Linux systems.)
The second is a
little more specialized, in that it requires FrontPage Extensions.
The first involves the use of a script to send the email form.
One such
script is the very popular formmail.pl available from Matt
’
s Script Archive
at
This script is accessed via
the
"
ACTION
"
as in this example:
<
FORM ACTION=
"
/cgi-bin/formmail.pl
"
METHOD=
"
POST
"
>
There is a lot of comprehensive help information on Matt
’
s site that
describes very well how to use this script, so there is not much point in
going into details here.
There are a couple of things to point out,
however.
First, in order to use this script, the host system must support
CGI and make it available to you.
Check with your hosting company if you
’
re
not sure.
Secondly, you would be well advised to heed the security advice
that Matt offers.
Formmail, being a popular script, is the target of a lot
of exploitation.
Some good sense precautions can go a long way to minimize
the exposure.
It is worth noting that most of the exploits become a problem
for your hosting company more than for the website itself.
The second solution is available where FrontPage Extensions are available on
the hosting server.
The extensions will also need to have been configured
to handle email.
Again, check with your hosting company if you
’
re not sure.
Included in the FrontPage Extensions is a series of capabilities provided by
what Microsoft calls
"
Webbots
"
.
If you use a FrontPage Extension aware
editor to create your form, the program will provide you the ability to
specify an email address to send the form data to as a property of the
form.
The program then generates the instructions needed to utilize the
Webbot to send out your email.
This is a very simple method, but does
depend on the availability of the extensions and a suitable editing program
(such as FrontPage itself.)
In addition to these two types of solution, there are numerous other options
of varying degrees of complexity.
There is not enough room in here to go
into details of these here, but instead it is my hope that these two
relatively simple options will provide you a quick and simple solution to
the pro
Thanks for reading!
–
Vince Barnes
************************************************************
Q
&
A Goodies
***********************************
Questions are taken from submissions to our Community
Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to
Is possible to click on the TEXT link and have it change to a new color
and remain in that color without it going back to it
’
s original color?
A.You could set up a couple of classes this:
<
style
>
A.linkcolora {color:red}
A.linkcolorb {color:blue}
<
/style
>
And then in your link you could assign one of the classes for the initial
color and use the onClick to change the color.
Here is an example:
<
A HREF=
"
page1.html
"
class=
"
linkcolora
"
onClick=
"
this.className=
’
linkcolorb
’
"
TARGET=
"
framec
"
>
Click
<
/A
>
The above example assumes that you are using the TARGET property to target
which frame to load the document in.
When you click on the link the onClick
event will change the class name to linkcolorb which is blue.
Now if you
want to change the color of that link back when another link is clicked on
then it gets a little more complicated.
Here is an example of using JavaScript to change the Class Name of the link
clicked to the one for a different color.
It also makes sure that the other
links Class Names are switched back to the original if not.
The way the
script works is when you click on the link the onClick event will perform
the
function chgcolor().
This function has the links properties passed to it
and then the Class Name is changed so that the color changes.
The second
part of the function places all of the links on the document into an array
and then a for loop checks to see if the link is not equal to the id of the
link clicked.
If it is not then the class name is changed to the original
class name.
There are probably other ways to do this, but this is what I
came up with quickly.
This example doesn
’
t use frames, but you should be able to adapt it.
<
html
>
<
head
>
<
title
>
Link Color Change
<
/title
>
<
SCRIPT LANGUAGE=
"
JavaScript
"
>
function chgcolor(lnkobj)
{
if(document.getElementById) // check for IE5+ and NS6+
{
// This line will change the Class Name of the link clicked
document.getElementById(lnkobj.id).className=
"
linkclassb
"
// This line will place all of the links in the document
// in to an array called links.
links=document.getElementsByTagName(
"
A
"
)
total=links.length // get the number of links
for(i=0;i
<
total;i++)
{
// if the id of the link in the array is not equal to the
// the link clicked the change the class name to linkclassa.
if(links
[
i
]
.id!=lnkobj.id)
{document.getElementById(links
[
i
]
.id).className=
"
linkclassa
"
}
}
}
}
<
/SCRIPT
>
<
style
>
A.linkclassa{color:red}
A.linkclassb{color:blue}
<
/style
>
<
/head
>
<
body
>
<
a href=
"
#
"
id=
"
linka
"
class=
"
linkclassa
"
onClick=
"
chgcolor(this)
"
>
Click
Me
<
/A
>
<
br
>
<
a href=
"
#
"
id=
"
linkb
"
class=
"
linkclassa
"
onClick=
"
chgcolor(this)
"
>
Click
Me
<
/A
>
<
br
>
<
a href=
"
#
"
id=
"
linkc
"
class=
"
linkclassa
"
onClick=
"
chgcolor(this)
"
>
Click
Me
<
/A
>
<
br
>
<
/body
>
<
/html
>
Q.I just finished the 1st tutorial. It says that the Word files should be
saved as text and named with an .htm suffix. So, I opened a Word file, chose
Save As, and chose .txt as the Save As type. I also renamed the file to
include an .htm extension. Then when I clicked Save, I got a File Conversion
dialog box warning me that
"
Saving as a text file will cause all formatting,
pictures, and objects in your file to be lost.
"
It gives me Text encoding
choices, Options, and End lines with options. What should I choose? I don
’
t
understand what all the choices mean. And it wasn
’
t kidding
–
I lost all of
the formatting I had on the original Word document. But if I save it as .htm
from the Save As type box, I don
’
t lose my formatting.
When you make a file choose
"
Save As
"
and not just
"
Save
"
. Then at the
bottom where it says save as type choose
"
web Page
"
(.htm .html) and it will
give the file a htm extension. You can also just type .html for the
extension if you want to use that one.
[
Recent versions of Word support HTML directly, even providing WYSYWYG
editing capabilities for web pages.
Earlier versions of Word supported HTML
files only as text files, in much the same way as Wordpad does today.
–
Ed.
]
I am trying to open a new window using Javascript and I have suceeded in
doing so. But I have encountered a problem: the window opens with half on
the screen and half the window off. Basically if a user wants to see the
other half of the new window, they must drag it into a new position. Do you
have any sugestions on how to get the window to open on a specified place on
the x-axis and the y-axis of the
user monitor?
A.One method is to use the top and left properties.
Here is an example:
function OpenWin()
{ PopMen=window.open
(
"
poplink.html
"
,
"
popwin
"
,config=
"
width=175,height=225,location=no,status=no,directories=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,top=0,left=0
"
);
}
I want to build a site where people can download documents (.pdf) where
do I start?
A.You want to build a site where people can download PDF documents
…
is a
little broad. Do you want to know how to build the site? Do you want to know
how to offer the files for download? Do you know HTML? Are you familiar with
building websites at all? We can certainly help you with these different
aspects but we can
’
t take you step by step through this email. We are only
here to help with the areas in which you get stuck. If you are just starting
out then the first place to start is here:
To allow people to download PFD files or any other file, just create a link
to that file. If the person has the program to read the document it is
possible that it will open right from the web. To avoid this you can either
place the file in a ZIP file or tell the user to right click and choose
"
Save target as
…
"
Q.I want to move the mouse over some text and have a small box of text
appear, similar to a pop-up button menu.
I don
’
t want it to be a menu.
I
just want it to give a quick explanation of the text.
A.If you wrap the text with the
<
A HREF
>
tag you could use the TITLE
property which is supported by NS6+ and IE5+ browsers.
An example would be
this:
<
A HREF=
"
#
"
TITLE=
"
Apples are good to eat.
"
>
Apples
<
/A
>
If the above does not work out there are several
"
Tool Tip
"
scripts that
also would work. The nice thing about the above example is that it does not
require Javascript.
I was using the tutorial in my HTML goodies book on JavaScript.
I used
the code in the book, but i altered it for my own use.
I cant get it to
work, and I dont know why.
It seems like a perfectly sound code to me, but
when I try and run it, i get an Object Expected error for the
<
onLoad
>
command. (code was attached)
A.In your script, you have
"
funtion dateinbar()
"
, just change it to
"
function dateinbar()
"
and the problem should go away.
[
This is such a common type of error
–
no matter what your level of
experience, have someone else look at your code.
Often a fresh pair of eyes
sees something so obvious that we ourselves keep missing it!
]
Discussion Goodies***********************************
Have you seen the discussion forums on the HTML Goodies website?
It
’
s a
great place to get help from others who, just like you, are developing web
pages.
Many different topics appear in the forum, and a new one will appear
if you create it!
Here
’
s a sample of recent topics:
The requested method POST is not allowed?:
Simple Table Cell height question:
payment processing:
Flash animation tool:
Site looks ok in firefox, crappy in IE:
***********************************
FTC: CAN-SPAM Is Working[
December 20, 2005
]
With a big helping hand from technology, feds spam say
volume is declining. But are spammers staying away?
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
Other former employees join him in legal spotlight.
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
Analysis: Is it a match made in heaven or a slippery
slope for both parties?
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
There
’
s a strong demand for portables, but overall
growth is expected to slow in 2006.
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
Big Blue works to get the project and portfolio
management software integrated to rest of its Rational line.
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
UPDATED: Some of the city
’
s workers are taking advantage
of the halt in the city
’
s subways and buses.
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
Ex-Intel chip architect says competition from AMD is
good for the industry and Intel.
Read the article:
[
December 20, 2005
]
With its past year
’
s acquisitions fully integrated,
Oracle proudly releases its latest security software.
Read the article:
[
December 19, 2005
]
Oracle again cuts its per-processor licensing model to
make its software more attractive.
Read the article:
[
December 19, 2005
]
House approves the transition date; Senate expected to
agree today.
Read the article:
***********************************
Did you ever wish your newsletter was an easy two way communications
medium?
Ploof! It now is!
If you would like to comment on the newsletter or expand/improve on
something you have seen in here, you can now send your input to:
mailto:nlfeedback@htmlgoodies.com
We already receive a lot of email every day.
This address helps us sort out
those relating specifically to this newsletter from all the rest.
When you
send email to this address it may wind up being included in this section of
the newsletter, to be shared with your fellow readers.
Please don
’
t send
your questions to this address.
They should be sent to our mentors: see
Thanks for all your feedback!
***********************************
Examining ASP.NET 2.0’s Membership, Roles, and Profile – Part 2In this article we will examine ASP.NET 2.0
’
s role service. We
’
ll start by
seeing how to setup and configure the roles service on a website, along with
how to base authorization rules using roles. In addition, we
’
ll look at how
to programmatically work with the roles service, and see how to use the
LoginView Web control to show information based on the logged in user
’
s
role. Read on to learn more!
Spam isn
’
t just an e-mail problem anymore. Web forms are now a routine
target of spammers. Whether your web site is a personal one just looking for
feedback or a commercial site generating sales leads, getting dozens of
entries for link exchanges or online gambling sites isn
’
t anyone
’
s idea of
useful feedback.
The .NET Framework version 2.0 introduces a new namespace named
System.Net.NetworkInformation that encapsulates all of the network related
features. This namespace exposes a number of classes that provide useful
information about the network. In this article, Thiru Thangarathinam
examines the classes and features available in the
System.Net.NetworkInformation namespace and provides examples that show how
easy they are to utilize in your .NET applications.
***********************************
1989US Invaded Panama
Wanting to overthrow the dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been indicted in
the US on drug charges, the US invaded Panama on this day in 1989. In the
early 70
’
s he had been recruited by the CIA to assist the US in its efforts
against the spread of communism in Central America.
By the late 70
’
s he
became involved in drug trafficking and was dropped from the CIA payroll.
In 1979 the communist Sandinistas came to power, and in 1983 Noriega was
brought back in to the CIA.
He became the military dictator of Panama.
In
1986 reports surfaced that he had been a double agent, working also for the
Cuban intelligence agency and for the Sandinistas.
He was disowned by the
US government and indicted by Federal Grand Juries on drug smuggling and
money laundering charges.
President Bush had increased the US military
security force in the canal zone when, on December 16 1989 a US Marine was
shot dead at a Panamanian Defense Force roadblock.
The next day President
Bush authorized
"
Operation Just Cause
"
and on December 20, 9,000 US troops
joined the 12,000 already there.
By December 24, Noriega and his PDF were
crushed.
The US made Guillermo Endara President of Panama (he had actually
been elected, but the election was annulled by Noriega) and on January 3
1980 Noriega was arrested by US Drug Enforcement Agency agents.
The
Organization of American States and the European Parliament both called the
invasion a flagrant violation of international law.
Today was also the day that in:
1620the Mayflower, with 103 pilgrims
aboard, landed at Plymouth Rock;
1835HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin
aboard, sailed into the Bay of Islands, New Zealand;
1898Pierre and
Marie Curie discovered Radium;
1914the first feature length (silent)
film comedy,
"
Tillie
’
s Punctured Romance
"
was released, starring Marie
Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin;
1923Nepal became an
independent nation (formerly a British Protectorate);
1933Five year
old Shirley Temple was signed to a studio contract with 20th Century Fox;
the first feature length, color and sound cartoon,
"
Snow White
"
(Disney) premiered;
19461,086 died in an earthquake in southern
Japan;
1948the State of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State)
declared its independence;
1954Dr. Sam Sheppard was convicted of the
murder of his wife, Marilyn (inspired
"
The Fugitive
"
);
1968David
Crosby, Stephen Stills
&
Graham Nash premiered together in California;
Police in Des Plaines IL, arrested John Wayne Gacy Jr for murder;
Zimbabwe adopted its constitution;
1988New York bound
Pan Am jumbo jet (Flight 103) exploded over Scotland, killing all 259 people
on the plane and 11 people on the ground;
1989Vice-President Quayle
sent out 30,000 Christmas cards with word beacon spelled
‘
beakon
’
;
1991actress Jane Fonda married CNN-director Ted Turner (her birthday);
1994Bomb exploded on #4 train on Fulton Street NYC;
Born today were: in
1117Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket;
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli;
1850Hadassah
founder Henrietta Szold;
1879Russian dictator Joseph Stalin
Dzoegashvili;
1918Nazi/ 4th UN Secretary General/Austrian President
Kurt Waldheim;
1937actress Jane Fonda;
1940musician Frank
Zappa;
1943musician Albert Lee;
1944actor Jared Martin;
actress Carol Potter;
1957comedian/actor Ray Romano;
actor Andy Dick;
1978actor Michael Vitar;
The original home of HTML tutorials. HTMLGoodies is a website dedicated to publishing tutorials that cover every aspect of being a web developer. We cover programming and web development tutorials on languages and technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. In addition, our articles cover web frameworks like Angular and React.JS, as well as popular Content Management Systems (CMS) that include WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Website development platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix are also featured. Topics related to solid web design and Internet Marketing also find a home on HTMLGoodies, as we discuss UX/UI Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and web dev best practices.
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