[Newbie123]

Hi there,

I posted this in my original 'please be gentle' thread but no-one has replied - thought I'd try resubmitting.

Basically I want to put a simple HTML form onto my website (katebullock.co.uk) for people to fill in. I understand that I need a web server and an application server in order to process the resulting data. Other than that I'm really struggling to find the information I need quickly enough to make some headway. Which application server should I choose (bearing in mind I'm new to all this) and does anyone have any suggestions as to how to set this up, as simply as possible? Thanks in advance.

[funkyprem]

i don't know what you mean by application server, but you'll first need to find out what operating system your site runs on. by this I mean is it windows, linux or apache. if it's linux or apache, you then need to find out if PHP is enabled on your account (it usually is) then find some PHP tutorials on how to process forms and form data. If it's a windows account you have, you'll need an ASP tutorial. ASP and PHP are whats called server side languages.

[centro]

Originally Posted by Newbie123

Hi there,

I posted this in my original 'please be gentle' thread but no-one has replied

Thats gentle.

[datahound]

<cotton wool>

You need a form for the visitor to fill in.

When they press submit the data is sent to a script (PHP) which puts the data into an email and sends it.

This is the first I came to doing a google search
http://www.ibdhost.com/contact/

</cotton wool>

[pgo]

Originally Posted by Newbie123

Basically I want to put a simple HTML form onto my website (katebullock.co.uk) for people to fill in. I understand that I need a web server and an application server in order to process the resulting data. Other than that I'm really struggling to find the information I need quickly enough to make some headway. Which application server should I choose (bearing in mind I'm new to all this) and does anyone have any suggestions as to how to set this up, as simply as possible? Thanks in advance.

Your best bet overall is probably going to be a Linux server (OS), running Apache (web server), using PHP (app server...kinda...it's just an engine that executes PHP programming).

This is a "LAMP" server - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (MySQL being the database) - and it's the most common form of web server, I believe. All four of those applications are free and open-source.

Your host seems to be streamline.net and according to http://streamline.net/wh.php they support PHP4. That's what you'll use.

To test it, create an empty file in Notepad called hello.php, open it and paste in:

<?php
echo "Hello!";
?>

Save it, upload it, and call it in your browser (yoursite.co.uk/hello.php, for example). You should see "Hello!". If that doesn't work, get in touch with your host.

HTML is just a markup language, so it can't "do" anything. For that, you need something to process the form inputs. Something like PHP.

You can use my PHP contact form script if you like. Or Google it. There's a million of them out there floating around.

[Newbie123]

Thanks guys, that's a great help. I'm looking at the possibilities of Javascript also - would that work?
I'll check out doing it the PHP way.
By the way...

Originally Posted by centro

Thats gentle.

Is that sarcasm or just humour?

[funkyprem]

javascript to process form data? no.

[Newbie123]

Oh...o.k. my misunderstanding, sorry. So a PHP script is the best way I guess. So much to learn! Thanks for your patience.

[Newbie123]

Originally Posted by funkyprem

i don't know what you mean by application server, but you'll first need to find out what operating system your site runs on. by this I mean is it windows, linux or apache. if it's linux or apache, you then need to find out if PHP is enabled on your account (it usually is) then find some PHP tutorials on how to process forms and form data. If it's a windows account you have, you'll need an ASP tutorial. ASP and PHP are whats called server side languages.

My account is on a Windows server. PHP is enabled, - but can I use PHP? From what you say above I need to use ASP.

[pagey]

Originally Posted by Newbie123

My account is on a Windows server. PHP is enabled, - but can I use PHP? From what you say above I need to use ASP.

ASP (or ASP.Net) is kind of the Windows equivalent to PHP. The main difference is that PHP is open-source (free!).

Also, you can use PHP on a Windows machine/server, as long as your server has it enabled (which yours appears to have).

Therefore, there wouldn't appear to be anything standing in your way, apart from learning some PHP, to sort your form out.

[mike_m]

Download this: http://www.php-form.net/ follow thier instructions. Sorted.

[Newbie123]

Thanks again everyone.
Quick note to pgo,
Thanks v much for your advice - I wanted to try your php script (thanks for offering it to me) - I've put it on my site (katebullock.co.uk/1mnmusic.php) - and each time I fill in the boxes it returns the error 'uh-oh, looks like you've missed a required field, please try again'. I guess that's something to do with me not altering the code correctly for my needs. I have put my email address as the 'mail to', and entered valid form data, but I can't get anywhere with it. If you could spare me a moment, I'd love to know if you think it's a simple thing to sort! Thanks again for the offer of your script.

[datahound]

katebullock.co.uk/1mnmusic.php

This link (with www added) is not working for me?

[Newbie123]

No, it's not working for me now either. I'm at work all day so no chance to rectify this...I was working on it late last night and gave up - must have done something very wrong.

Oh well - I'll perservere, it will have to be later on this evening.

[Newbie123]

Hi,
I'm still struggling away with this one. Both links (one with modified code = katebullock.co.uk/1minmusic.php, and one with unaltered code as per pgo's php form = katebullock.co.uk/1mnmusic.php) both have the same problem. I don't know what I've done, or whether you'll be able to access them - I guess I'm taking lots of 'shots in the dark' to figure it out but I'm getting nowhere. I'm scared of using a php script that makes me accessible to dangers like spambots, and pgo's form looks great for that, but I don't know how to configure it.

Sorry about all this - would really appreciate your help if poss!
Thanks

[Newbie123]

I guess it might help to post the code I've modified (probably a complete shambles) as opposed to the code very kindly offered by pgo:

<?php
$thisPage = "1minmusic";
$pageTitle = "1 min music request form";

$to="klb@allsearchengines.co.uk";
$showForm=true;

if (!isset($_POST["submit"])){
echo "\n <p>Please feel free to use the form below to send me an email. I promise I'll respond as soon as I'm able.</p>";
} else {
$name = $_POST['name'];
$name = urldecode($name);
$email = $_POST['email'];
$url = $_POST['url'];
$message = $_POST['message'];

$subject = "1 min music form";
$headers = "From: $name \n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: $email";

if (!empty($math)) {
if ($math != '15') {
$math = strtolower($math);
}
}

if (empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($message) || empty($math)) {
echo "\n <h3>Error!</h3>";
echo "\n <p>Uh oh! Looks like you missed one of the required fields. Please, try again.</p>";
}
elseif ($math != '15' && $math != 'fifteen') {
echo "\n <h3>Check Your Math</h3>";
echo "\n <p>You didn't answer the math question correctly. It's not hard...unless you're a spambot.</p>";
}
elseif (eregi("\r",$name) || eregi("\n",$name) || eregi("\r",$email) || eregi("\n",$email) || eregi("\r",$url) || eregi("\n",$url)) {
echo "\n <h3>Error!</h3>";
echo "\n <p>Tsk, tsk! Seems as though you're trying to inject some email headers. That's not very nice.</p>";
}
elseif (!eregi('^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@(([0-9a-zA-Z])+([-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$', $email) ) {
echo "\n <h3>Error!</h3>";
echo "\n <p>Strange. It seems you've entered an invalid email address. Please, try again and check for typos!</p>";
}
else {
$full_message = "$message\n\nFrom: $name\nEmail: $email\nURL: $url";
mail ($to, $subject, $full_message, $headers);
echo "\n <h3>Success!</h3>";
echo "\n <p>Your email was successfully sent!</p>";
echo "\n <p>I will respond to your message as soon as possible. Thank you for your interest in me and my work.</p>";
$showForm = false;
}
}
if ($showForm) { ?>

<form id="1minmusicForm" method="POST" action="<?=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>">
<div class="clearfix">
<label for="name">Name <span>(<abbr title="Required">Req'd</abbr>)</span></label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="name" class="text" value="<?php echo $name; ?>" />
</div>
<div class="clearfix">
<label for="email">Email <span>(<abbr title="Required">Req'd</abbr>)</span></label>
<input type="text" name="email" id="email" class="text" value="<?php echo $email; ?>" />
</div>
<div class="clearfix">
<label for="url">Website </label>
<input type="text" name="url" id="url" class="text" value="<?php echo $url; ?>" />
</div>
<div class="clearfix">
<label for="message">Message <span>(<abbr title="Required">Req'd</abbr>)</span></label>
<textarea rows="10" cols="30" name="message" id="message"></textarea>
</div>
<p>Please answer the following math question. This is to prevent spam bots from automatically filling out this form.</p>
<div class="clearfix">
<label for="math">What is five times the square root of 9? <span>(<abbr title="Required">Req'd</abbr>)</span></label>
<input type="text" name="math" id="math" class="text" value="" />
</div>
<div><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send" id="send" class="button" /></div>
</form>
<?php
}

?>

[Newbie123]

When I try and submit, it just returns the error 'uh-oh! looks like you've missed a required field. Please, try again'. Does that mean that there's an error in the preceding part of the code?

[Newbie123]

Oh boy,
What a wally. I think I may have found out what I'm doing wrong here...back in a while to confirm this.

[pgo]

Under "$message = $_POST['message'];" try adding "$math = $_POST['math'];"

Sorry, my mistake! I'll fix it when I get home.

FYI, the includes and the $thisPage and $pageTitle can be removed.

[Newbie123]

Hey pgo,
No worries - Thanks for fixing the problem. But I've sent it to my email, and it hasn't arrived. Do you think it's something to do with my server (streamline.net) - is there anything I could do to check if so? thanks.