Dream Possibilities, Weave Reality

A posse ad esse, from possibilty to actuality with Dreamweaver

Forms, The Whole Story

Making the Forms

Making a form is the easy part, especially with Dreamweaver. The hard part is getting them to work properly.

Web Form Aids

DMXzone has a Free CSS Form Designer Extension... To get the extension all you need to do is sign up, download and install dmxCssFormDesigner

On line Form Generator in html/XHTML and CSS

Accessify.com's web site has an html/XHTML web form builder that includes some CSS for styling.

Free On-line Forms

There are many free form sites available this is just one... http://www.emailmeform.com/v-samples.html

This link takes you to their sample page. For simple forms you can use their "free" service, But these services can get real expensive with weekly and monthly fees if you want more features...
Note the use of Captcha to block spam email

The Freedback Form

Freedback has their own way of "doing" security as you'll soon see...

Click here to put a form like this on your site.

Form Making Tips

You will need to make several supporting Web Pages

The Form Page. It gathers an e-mail address and name and sends it to you. The user is redirected to a confirm page and/or a thank you page.
The Thank You page. It contains confirmation and a thank you for joining and a link where the user can unsubscribe. And a link to another location in your web site... There is a tendency here to make the transfer automatic in a too short a period of time... Let the user read the page and make their own choices...
Error Page: This is a page that displays if the e-mail attempt was not successful and contains a link to the form page so another attempt can be made.
Confirm/unsubscribe. This page is displayed when the visitor requests to unsubscribe. It should display a form button to confirm the user's wish to unsubscribe.
Unsubscribed Page. This is the final page, it acknowledges that the user has unsubscribed and that they can re-join at any time.

Only gather a minimal amount of information. If you are making a Contact form, mailing list form, join a group form or a newsletter form, All you need is their name and e-mail address.
A password input does NOT make the form secure!
Password
If you are gathering sensitive information you need to make your web site secure with an SSL certificate. Ask your host if they provide one for your use (they will probably charge a fee)... You can buy a certificate from GoDaddy for $12.99 per year. Your website will then be available at https://www.yourdomain.com/ and you'll see the padlock icon on your web page browser.
Radio Buttons and Check Boxes

Always put the buttons or selection boxes on the left.

Sending the Form & Making the form SPAM proof

Solution 1 Use your Hosts Form Mail script.
I asked you to find out if your host supports Form Mail and provides you with a server-side script. The reason for that is that in Internet Explorer the form "action" below doesn't always work, and using "Mailto:your@emailaddress.com" leaves your e-mail address exposed to SPAM attacks.

<form action="mailto:your@email.address" method="POST" enctype="text/plain">

Solution 2 A simple php script
If your host supports php or CGI (Computer Gateway Interface) scripts you can use the following script...

A simple php script

----->snip cut and paste into a text editor

<?php
//----You just need to CHANGE the paramaters IN RED--------------------------

// Subject of email sent to you.
$subject = 'Newsletter Contact info';

// Your email address. This is where the form information will be sent.
$emailadd = 'Your-e-mail address here between the single quotes!';

// Where to redirect after form is processed includes path and name of the file.
$url = '../thankyou.html';

// Makes all fields required. If set to '1' no field can not be empty. If set to '0' any or all fields can be empty.
$req = '0';

// --------------------------Do not edit below this line--------------------------
$text = "Results from form:\n\n";
$space = ' ';
$line = '
';
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value)
{
if ($req == '1')
{
if ($value == '')
{echo "$key is empty";die;}
}
$j = strlen($key);
if ($j >= 30)
{echo "Name of form element $key cannot be longer than 20 characters";die;}
$j = 30 - $j;
for ($i = 1; $i <= $j; $i++)
{$space .= ' ';}
$value = str_replace('\n', "$line", $value);
$conc = "{$key}:$space{$value}$line";
$text .= $conc;
$space = ' ';
}
mail($emailadd, $subject, $text, 'From: '.$emailadd.'');
echo '<META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0; URL='.$url.'">';
?>

<-----------snip

Save the file as "sendform.php" and upload it to your web site with your forms...
Actually, the proper place for a php script, should be a folder called "cgi-bin" at the TOP level above the root folder of your website
Files in a cgi-bin folder are executed, not read... and are safe from prying eyes...

In your Form page add this

<form action="sendform.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"

Where action="path and name of the above file sendform.php" If the form is located in a folder in the root of your web site, the path would be, "../cgi-bin/sendform.php"

You may have to add another "../" to the path... you'll have to experiment to find the correct path

Test it

There are more "complete" free scripts and forms available on the internet... Some include "captcha" for security and other functions...

Solution 3
Make your own form, but Use information from a 3rd party Form

Make your form and then make an identical form from
"Freedback"

For the PC Coffee Cup Form Builder $39.00

For the Mac and PC (Your host needs to have PHP installed )

BestWebForms This form builder is template and web based.

bestwebforms is Currently $19.95 You'll need to be able to FTP, and know how to set permissions.

Freedback Form
First Name:
Last Name:
Email Address:
Comments