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Setting up Matt's
Script Archive Formmail
in Microsoft
FrontPage.
Prerequisites:
- You are on a Unix box. (Matt does have a list of ports
to other operating systems; however, the
instructions below may or may not be accurate for
those ports).
- You have your own domain name. If you don't have
one, you can edit the script to not make use of
the @referers logic.
- You have the right to publish CGI scripts on your
server.
Instructions:
- Read Matt's
Formmail instructions for general
installation and use.
- Edit the formmail.pl file using notepad or
another text editor to modify the lines that
contain the following:
$mailprog =
"/usr/lib/sendmail";
@referers =
('worldwidemart.com','206.31.72.203');
- Check with your ISP as to where their
sendmail program is located.
- Replace 'worldwidemart.com' with your
domain name, and '206.31.72.203' with
your domain's IP address.
- Place the edited formmail.pl script in your
FrontPage CGI-BIN directory.
- From within FrontPage Explorer, switch to folder
view, find your CGI-BIN directory on the left
hand side, and right click on it.
- Select Properties.
- Make sure the "Allow scripts or
programs to be run" check box is
checked.
Note: If you have FrontPage Extensions
installed to your remote server, you will want to
open your web live and do the above as well as
doing it for any local copy you have on your
system.
- From within FrontPage Editor either bring up an
existing page you wish wish to add email feedback
to or create a new page.
- Make sure you have your forms toolbar activated
(View, Forms toolbar has a check mark next to it;
if not, then select it).
- Start making your form by adding those elements
which you want to track.
Examples:
- A subject text box to allow the person to
state why they are writing to you.
- A comments scrolling text box to allow
the person to write their thoughts.
- A email text box for the person to
include their email address.
- Include two push buttons at the end of the form.
- Right click on the second push button, and give
it a name and value of Reset, and select the
Reset radio button.
- Now, the tedious part. Right click on each field
element you added, and select Form Field
Properties.
- For each field's form field properties,
give it a meaningful name that contains
no spaces or non-alphanumeric characters.
- Modify the length (if applicable).
- Right click within the form itself, and select
Form Properties.
- Make sure the "Form Handler" is
set to "Custom ISAP, NSAPI, or CGI
Script"
- Under the "hidden fields"
section of the tab, click on the add
button.
- Type in "recipient" for the
name, and enter the e-mail address you
want the reply to go to in for the value
- If you wish to have a another page
display on the browser after the user
selects "submit" then create a
hidden field with a name of
"redirect" and a value of the
complete URL of the page you wish to
redirect the user.
- Other hidden fields you can add that
modify how the form works or what
information you can get are as follows:
required, env_report, sort, print_config,
title, return_link_url,
return_link_title, background, bgcolor,
text_color, link_color, vlink_color, and
alink_color. For an explanation of these
hidden fields and their usage, read Matt's
Formmail instructions.
- Click on the "Settings Botton"
next to "Form Handler" (in Form
Properties. Enter the complete URL of the
script in the action text box (example:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/formmail.pl).
- Make sure the method is set to Post.
- Save your work.
Problems?
- Check out Matt's
Formmail FAQ
- A common CGI problem is the permissions for the
scripts are not set to 755 (-rwxr-xr-x). If you
can FTP or telnet into your server, do a
"chmod 755 formmail.pl" on the server
end to ensure the permissions are set correctly.
-- Peter Abraham
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