Extension Communications & Educational Support

Computing & Web Resources

Technical Support

 

FormMail Configuration

To make use of it, you need to write an HTML form that refers to the FormMail script. This version of FormMail uses CAPTCHA, which requires anyone submitting the form to enter a code that is presented in a graphic.  Since computer software cannot read the graphic, spamming programs are not able to use the form to send spam.

Here's an example which will send mail to the address 'feedback@your.domain' when someone submits the form:

 

<form method="post" action="http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/cgi-bin/cru_tectite.php">

  <input type="hidden" name="recipients" value="feedback@your.domain" />

  <input type="text" name="feedback" /><br />

  Please enter your comments<br />

<img src="http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/cgi-bin/verifyimg.php" alt="Image Verification" /><br />

 Please enter the text from the above image:<br/>

<input type="text" name="imgverify" maxlength="12" /><br />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

 

See how the hidden 'recipient' input in the example above told formmail who to send the mail to ? This is how almost all of formmail's configuration works. Here's the full list of things you can set with hidden form inputs:

 

recipients        - The email address to which the form submission

                          should be sent. If you would like it copied to

                          more than one recipient then you can separate

                          multiple email addresses with commas, for

                          example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="recipients"

                                value="you@your.domain,me@your.domain" />

 

                          If you leave the 'recipients' field out of the

                          form, formmail will send to the first address

                          listed in the @allow_mail_to configuration

                          variable (see above).  This allows you to avoid

                          putting your email address in the form, which

                          might be desirable if you're concerned about

                          address harvesters collecting it and sending

                          you SPAM. This feature is disabled if the

                          $emulate_matts_code configuration variable is

                          set to 1.

 

subject                 - The subject line for the email. For example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="subject"

                                value="From the feedback form" />

 

redirect                - If this value is present it should be a URL, and

                          the user will be redirected there after a

                          successful form submission.  For example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="redirect"

                           value="http://www.your.domain/foo.html" />

 

                          If you don't specify a redirect URL then instead

                          of redirecting formmail will generate a success

                          page telling the user that their submission was

                          successful.

 

bgcolor                 - The background color for the success page.

 

background              - The URL of the background image for the success

                          page.

 

text_color              - The text color for the success page.

 

link_color              - The link color for the success page.

 

vlink_color             - The vlink color for the success page.

 

alink_color             - The alink color for the success page.

 

title                   - The title for the success page.

 

return_link_url         - The target URL for a link at the end of the

                          success page. This is normally used to provide

                          a link from the success page back to your main

                          page or back to the page with the form on. For

                          example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="return_link_url"

                           value="/home.html" />

 

return_link_title       - The label for the return link.  For example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="return_link_title"

                           value="Back to my home page" />

 

sort                    - This sets the order in which the submitted form

                          inputs will appear in the email and on the

                          success page.  It can be the string 'alphabetic'

                          for alphabetic order, or the string "order:"

                          followed by a comma separated list of the input

                          names, for example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="sort"

                           value="order:name,email,age,comments" />

 

                          If "order:" is used you must supply the names of

                          all of the fields that you want to be in the body of

                          the mail message.

 

print_config            - This is mainly used for debugging, and if set it

                          causes formmail to include a dump of the

                          specified configuration settings in the email.

                          For example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="print_config"

                           value="title,sort" />

 

                          ... will include whatever values you set for

                          'title' and 'sort' (if any) in the email.

 

required                - This is a list of fields that the user must fill

                          in before they submit the form. If they leave

                          any of these fields blank then they will be sent

                          back to the form to try again.  For example:

 

                          <input type="hidden" name="required"

                           value="name,comments" />

 

missing_fields_redirect - If this is set, it must be a URL, and the user

                          will be redirected there if any of the fields

                          listed in 'required' are left blank. Use this if

                          you want finer control over the the error that

                          the user see's if they miss out a field.

 

env_report              - This is a list of the CGI environment variables

                          that should be included in the email.  This is

                          useful for recording things like the IP address

                          of the user in the email. Any environment

                          variables that you want to use in 'env_report' in

                          any of your forms will need to be in the

                          @valid_ENV configuration variable described

                          above.

 

print_blank_fields      - If this is set then fields that the user left

                          blank will be included in the email.  Normally,

                          blank fields are suppressed to save space.

 

As well as all these hidden inputs, there are a couple of non-hidden

inputs which get special treatment:

 

email    - If one of the things you're asking the user to fill in is their

           email address and you call that input 'email', formmail will use

           it as the address part of the sender's email address in the

           email.

 

realname - If one of the things you're asking the user to fill in is their

           full name and you call that input 'realname', formmail will use

           it as the name part of the sender's email address in the email.

 

 

Secondary content using h2 tag.

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Life is good at WSU.

Secondary content can be almost anything. If you are not using this region delete all the content that is in between the div tags with the id ="additional".

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These brief posts are written by WSU students to give you a personal look through their window on campus life.

 

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