Let’s Make An Form! Bonney Armstrong GD 444 Westwood College February 9, 2005

Elements In A Feedback Form Their name Their address Their phone number Any comments they might have Any options you might want to include –More information? –Rate something? –Join newsletter?

How The HTML Looks – Getting Started This piece of code uses the POST method It goes between the and tags It refers to a Perl script placed in the CGI or CGI-BIN directory

How The HTML Looks – Hidden Fields The address is where the results will be sent The URL is where the page will redirect to once the information has been submitted via POST method You can specify the subject line of the to be sent Sending along the environment variables can be helpful in troubleshooting

How The HTML Looks – Input Fields Name Telephone Fax Please contact me as soon as possible! There are various elements to a form -,, etc. Give each element a descriptive name (since this will appear in your ) with NO SPACES (underlines are OK) Leave enough room in the elements for users’ data

How The HTML Looks – SUBMIT And RESET Buttons We welcome your feedback! If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, please share them with us. Thanks! Comments: May we contact you?: Name Telephone Fax Please contact me as soon as possible! Don’t forget your SUBMIT and RESET buttons; these are reserved keywords (and keep their layout consistent) Enclose all field coding with a FORM end tag

How The HTML Looks - Complete We welcome your feedback! If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, please share them with us. Thanks! Comments: May we contact you?: Name Telephone Fax Please contact me as soon as possible!

FormMail.pl – Path Variables #!/usr/local/bin/perl ############################################################################## # Define Variables # # Detailed Information Found In README File. # # $mailprog defines the location of your sendmail program on your unix # # system. The flags -i and -t should be passed to sendmail in order to # # have it ignore single dots on a line and to read message for recipients # $mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail -i -t'; Know your path to Perl (your hosting provider or system administrator should know this) Know your path to SENDMAIL (see above) Change only the items in red – leave everything else alone or that is typed behind a # sign Usually the default settings that come with the script are correct for most Linux-based systems

FormMail.pl – Domain And IP Address allows forms to be located only on servers which are defined # # in this field. This security fix from the last version which allowed # # anyone on any server to use your FormMail script on their web site. = ('himblau.com',' '); Again, you will only change the items in red You will put in the name of your domain You will put in the IP address of your domain –If you don’t know your own IP address, open up a command or MS- DOS window, then type “ping yourdomainname.com”, using whatever your domain name is –The IP address will appear in the window; type that number in This prevents other domains or servers using your system to send mail (you get charged for that bandwidth!)

FormMail.pl – Allowed Domain defines the addresses or domain names that can # # be sent to. This must be filled in correctly to prevent SPAM and allow # # valid addresses to receive . Read the documentation to find out how # # this variable works!!! It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. = To enable to be sent to any address within your domain, make sure that the recipients variable is set to any recipient at your specified referrer Since you’ve already specified that the referring domain is himblau.com in this case, all sent to will be sent

FormMail.pl – Envelope Information # ACCESS CONTROL FIX: Peter D. Thompson Yezek # allows the sysadmin to define what environment variables can # # be reported via the env_report directive. This was implemented to fix # # the problem reported at = ('REMOTE_HOST','REMOTE_ADDR','REMOTE_USER','HTTP_USER_AGENT'); # Done # ############################################################################## This isn’t necessary, but is a nice-to-have This enables you to put the environment variable information in the capture area of the form and have it passed to you in the response that you will receive And that’s all you have to modify! Leave the rest of the FormMail.pl script alone Copy it into your CGI or CGI-BIN directory Ensure permissions are set to (CHMOD) 755 (Read and Execute)

FormMail.pl – Overview of Edited Area ############################################################################## # Define Variables # # Detailed Information Found In README File. # # $mailprog defines the location of your sendmail program on your unix # # system. The flags -i and -t should be passed to sendmail in order to # # have it ignore single dots on a line and to read message for recipients # $mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail -i -t'; allows forms to be located only on servers which are defined # # in this field. This security fix from the last version which allowed # # anyone on any server to use your FormMail script on their web site. = ('himblau.com',' '); defines the addresses or domain names that can # # be sent to. This must be filled in correctly to prevent SPAM and allow # # valid addresses to receive . Read the documentation to find out how # # this variable works!!! It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. = # ACCESS CONTROL FIX: Peter D. Thompson Yezek # allows the sysadmin to define what environment variables can # # be reported via the env_report directive. This was implemented to fix # # the problem reported at = ('REMOTE_HOST','REMOTE_ADDR','REMOTE_USER','HTTP_USER_AGENT'); # Done # ##############################################################################

Putting It All Together Upload your HTML files to the server Ensure your FormMail.pl script is in the right directory and has the right permissions set Ensure the paths are set correctly within the script Make sure you have access to the account you’ll be sending to Test the page and check for your results!