ArgoNet Form Mail

This newer script has been specifically designed to replace all other scripts, however all other mail scripts will continue to function.

A list of the parameters needed to run the script appears below; however, some users have requested more of a tutorial on how to create mail forms.

Full list of parameters

The Basics

<form>
  Enter something:<br>
  <input type="text" name="parameter" size="32">
  <p align="center">
    <input type="submit"> |
    <input type="reset">
  </p>
</form>

This example form also has some other fairly common, but by no means compulsory, elements in it. These are the text box - a simple one-line text entry area - created using <input type="text" name="parameter" size="32">, and then there's the two buttons, one to submit the form data to whatever controlling program is running on a web server waiting to receive this data, and another to wipe clean any data you might have entered so that you can start again. These are created using <input type="submit"> and <input type="reset">.

See the pattern emerging? Most controls in forms are via
<input type="something">
More on that later.

Creating the mail form
<form...>...</form>

The program we're using is located at http://www.argonet.co.uk/cgi-bin/formmail, and to tell the Web browser to us this program you need the following command:
<form method="get" action="http://www.argonet.co.uk/cgi-bin/formmail">

Hidden commands
<input type="hidden"...>

With this form, you will probably want to use the following as hidden inputs:

Name	Example
mailto	<input type="hidden" name="mailto" value="webmaster@argonet.co.uk">
mailsubject	<input type="hidden" name="mailsubject" value="Message from web page">
linkto	<input type="hidden" name="linkto" value="index.html">
mailhide	<input type="hidden" name="mailhide" value="system">
mailhead	<input type="hidden" name="mailhead" value="yes">
mailformat	<input type="hidden" name="mailformat" value="line">

You will probably want to do the mailfrom part as a text box so the user can enter their own address....

Single line text boxes
<input type="text"...>

<input type="text" name="mailfrom">

The name section can be anything - if it's not one of the options the script recognises then it will be put into the email, so...
<input type="text" name="my_name">
...will result in something like this showing up in the email you receive:
my_name
"Richard Goodwin"

You can enter some text automatically by using the value="..." attribute:
<input type="text" name="mailfrom" value="@argonet.co.uk">

You can set the size of the box on screen by using the size=".." attribute, and set the maximum number of characters that can be entered by using maxlength=".." - for instance, size="32" maxlength="64" (note that they don't have to be the same!)

Multiple line text areas
<textarea>...</textarea>

You can set the height and width using rows="5" and cols="32"; there are also a few different ways of set how text wraps inside the box, the main two being: wrap="virtual"|"physical"> - virtual just wraps while the user is typing, whereas physical means that the text that is received at the other end is formatted in the same way.

Example:

<textarea name="message" rows="5" cols="32" wrap="virtual">
 Some default text
</textarea>

Tick boxes and radio icons
<input type="checkbox"|"radio">

You can change the value that is sent through by using the value="..." attribute - vital for radio icons to tell one from the other, but for tick boxes perhaps you can use it to give it an easier-to-read value (usually it returns either "on" or doesn't appear at all if switched off); and you can select an icon by default simply by adding checked (with no extra parameters)

Examples:

<input type="checkbox" name="maillist" checked>
 Untick this box if you do not
 want to be added to our mailing list

Decision time:
<br>
<input type="radio" name="decision" value="yes" checked>
  Yes
<br>
<input type="radio" name="decision" value="no">;
  No
<br>
<input type="radio" name="decision" value="maybe">
  Maybe

Menus
<select...><option>...</select>

The opening <select...> tag should have a name="..." to identify it; you can also add multiple (with no extra parameters) so that more than one option can be selected in the list. Some computers also allow you to add size=".." so that a box with more than one line is shown - instead of using a separate menu to select an option, the user can select from one (or more) of the options displayed inside the box.

Options are added using the <option> tag. These tags are immediately followed by the plain text which is used as that option's display in the menu. This text is returned in the email as the value of this selection, unless you define another piece of text using the value="..." attribute. Finally, as with other tags you can add selected (with no extra parameters) to choose an option other than the first in the list to be the default.

Example:
Although this is not a mail form, I'll use the URL changing script as an example of a selection form:

<form method="get" action=
  "http://www.argonet.co.uk/cgi-bin/dropdown">
 <select name="url">
  <option value="/support/">General support
  <option value="/support/acorn/">Acorn support
  <option value="/support/pc/">PC support
  <option value="/support/mac/">Mac support
  <option value="/support/web" SELECTED>Web stuff
  <option value="http://www.argonet.co.uk/">ArgoNet home
  <option value="users">User pages
  <option value="links">Links elsewhere
 </select><input type="submit" value="Go!">
</form>

url
"/support/"

Buttons
<input type="submit"|"reset">

Both of these can have the text displayed on the button changed by using the value="..." attribute. For instance:

You can
<input type="submit" value="send this">
or you can
<input type="reset" value="wipe it clean">

Images
<input type="image"...>

The main attribute you need is to tell the browser where to get the image from; as with the <img...> tag this is done using the src="..." attribute. You can also include width=".." and height=".." tags to tell the browser how big the image will be before it is downloaded. One change however is that to change the text displayed if the image can't load, you don't use the alt="..." attribute; here it is value="..." instead.

However, by using an image instead of a "proper" submit button, you also get extra information sent along with the form data - the x and y coordinates of where you clicked on the image, which obviously with the right cgi script is used to make imagemaps work. You can change the name of this data from x and y using the name="..." attribute, so for instance name="wubble" will return wubble_x and wubble_y. This could be useful to differentiate between different images in the same form, although don't forget that, due to the image acting like a submit button, you will only be able to get the data from one image at a time.

Putting it all together

Don't forget to change the mailto, mailsubject and linkto options - it won't do anything useful unless you do change them. Also, to change the colours you should do a search and replace for the light blue (#CCCCFF), dark blue (#3300AA) and possibly the white text (#FFFFFF).

Do not use this form as it stands to email ArgoNet - any data from this form as it stands will vanish, and won't go through to anyone. If you need to email ArgoNet, please contact them though the proper channels.

Email Examples