Form Configuration Necessary Form Fields recipient Optional Form Fields subject email realname redirect required env_report sort print_config print_blank_fields title return_link_url return_link_title missing_fields_redirect background bgcolor text_color link_color vlink_color alink_color cc, a Cc: is added to the e-mail when sent cc_visitor bcc - a Bcc: is added to the e-mail when sent courtesy_reply - if present and email also present, reply sent courtesy_reply_texta, First line of courtesy reply text courtesy_reply_textb, Second line of courtesy reply text courtesy_who_we_are, Name or company underneath the "Regards" courtesy_our_url, URL to print after "Regards" courtesy_our_email, e-mail to print after "Regards" append_db, if present, value is the data file to append to db_delimiter, delimiter between fields

Necessary Form Fields There is only one form field that you must have in your form, for FormMail to work correctly. This is the recipient field. Field: recipient Description: This form field allows you to specify to whom you wish for your form results to be mailed. Most likely you will want to configure this option as a hidden form field with a value equal to that of your e-mail address. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="recipient" value="email@your.host.com"> Optional Form Fields Field: subject Description: The subject field will allow you to specify the subject that you wish to appear in the e-mail that is sent to you after this form has been filled out. If you do not have this option turned on, then the script will default to a message subject: WWW Form Submission Syntax: If you wish to choose what the subject is: <input type=hidden name="subject" value="Your Subject"> To allow the user to choose a subject: <input type=text name="subject"> Field: email Description: This form field will allow the user to specify their return e-mail address. If you want to be able to return e-mail to your user, I strongly suggest that you include this form field and allow them to fill it in. This will be put into the From: field of the message you receive. If you want to require an email address with valid syntax, add this field name to the 'required' field. Syntax: <input type=text name="email"> Field: realname Description: The realname form field will allow the user to input their real name. This field is useful for identification purposes and will also be put into the From: line of your message header. Syntax: <input type=text name="realname"> Field: redirect Description: If you wish to redirect the user to a different URL, rather than having them see the default response to the fill-out form, you can use this hidden variable to send them to a pre-made HTML page. Syntax: To choose the URL they will end up at: <input type=hidden name="redirect" value="http://your.host.com/to/file.html"> To allow them to specify a URL they wish to travel to once the form is filled out: <input type=text name="redirect"> Field: required Description: You can now require for certain fields in your form to be filled in before the user can successfully submit the form. Simply place all field names that you want to be mandatory into this field. If the required fields are not filled in, the user will be notified of what they need to fill in, and a link back to the form they just submitted will be provided. To use a customized error page, see 'missing_fields_redirect' Syntax: If you want to require that they fill in the email and phone fields in your form, so that you can reach them once you have received the mail, use a syntax like: <input type=hidden name="required" value="email,phone"> Field: env_report Description: Allows you to have Environment variables included in the e-mail message you receive after a user has filled out your form. Useful if you wish to know what browser they were using, what domain they were coming from or any other attributes associated with environment variables. The following is a short list of valid environment variables that might be useful: REMOTE_HOST - Sends the hostname making the request. REMOTE_ADDR - Sends the IP address of the remote host making the request. REMOTE_USER - If server supports authentication and script is protected, this is the username they have authenticated as. *This is not usually set.* HTTP_USER_AGENT - The browser the client is using to send the request. There are others, but these are a few of the most useful. For more information on environment variables, see: The CGI Resource Index: Documentation: Environment Variables Syntax: If you wanted to find the remote host and browser sending the request, you would put the following into your form: <input type=hidden name="env_report" value="REMOTE_HOST,HTTP_USER_AGENT"> Field: sort Description: This field allows you to choose the order in which you wish for your variables to appear in the e-mail that FormMail generates. You can choose to have the field sorted alphabetically or specify a set order in which you want the fields to appear in your mail message. By leaving this field out, the order will simply default to the order in which the browsers sends the information to the script (which is usually the exact same order as they appeared in the form.) When sorting by a set order of fields, you should include the phrase "order:" as the first part of your value for the sort field, and then follow that with the field names you want to be listed in the e-mail message, separated by commas. Version 1.6 allows a little more flexibility in the listing of ordered fields, in that you can include spaces and line breaks in the field without it messing up the sort. This is helpful when you have many form fields and need to insert a line wrap. Syntax: To sort alphabetically: <input type=hidden name="sort" value="alphabetic"> To sort by a set field order: <input type=hidden name="sort" value="order:name1,name2,etc..."> Field: print_config Description: print_config allows you to specify which of the config variables you would like to have printed in your e-mail message. By default, no config fields are printed to your e-mail. This is because the important form fields, like email, subject, etc. are included in the header of the message. However some users have asked for this option so they can have these fields printed in the body of the message. The config fields that you wish to have printed should be in the value attribute of your input tag separated by commas. Syntax: If you want to print the email and subject fields in the body of your message, you would place the following form tag: <input type=hidden name="print_config" value="email,subject"> Field: print_blank_fields Description: print_blank_fields allows you to request that all form fields are printed in the return HTML, regardless of whether or not they were filled in. FormMail defaults to turning this off, so that unused form fields aren't e-mailed. Syntax: If you want to print all blank fields: <input type=hidden name="print_blank_fields" value="1"> Field: title Description: This form field allows you to specify the title and header that will appear on the resulting page if you do not specify a redirect URL. Syntax: If you wanted a title of 'Feedback Form Results': <input type=hidden name="title" value="Feedback Form Results"> Field: return_link_url Description: This field allows you to specify a URL that will appear, as return_link_title, on the following report page. This field will not be used if you have the redirect field set, but it is useful if you allow the user to receive the report on the following page, but want to offer them a way to get back to your main page. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="return_link_url" value="http://your.host.com/main.html"> Field: return_link_title Description: This is the title that will be used to link the user back to the page you specify with return_link_url. The two fields will be shown on the resulting form page as: return_link_title Syntax: <input type=hidden name="return_link_title" value="Back to Main Page"> Field: missing_fields_redirect Description: This form field allows you to specify a URL that users will be redirected to if there are fields listed in the required form field that are not filled in. This is so you can customize an error page instead of displaying the default. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="missing_fields_redirect" value="http://your.host.com/error.html"> Field: background Description: This form field allow you to specify a background image that will appear if you do not have the redirect field set. This image will appear as the background to the form results page. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="background" value="http://your.host.xxx/image.gif"> Field: bgcolor Description: This form field allow you to specify a bgcolor for the form results page in much the way you specify a background image. This field should not be set if the redirect field is. Syntax: For a background color of White: <input type=hidden name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"> Field: text_color Version: 1.3 & Up Description: This field works in the same way as bgcolor, except that it will change the color of your text. Syntax: For a text color of Black: <input type=hidden name="text_color" value="#000000"> Field: link_color Description: Changes the color of links on the resulting page. Works in the same way as text_color. Should not be defined if redirect is. Syntax: For a link color of Red: <input type=hidden name="link_color" value="#FF0000"> Field: vlink_color Description: Changes the color of visited links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is. Syntax: For a visited link color of Blue: <input type=hidden name="vlink_color" value="#0000FF"> Field: alink_color Description: Changes the color of active links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is. Syntax: For a active link color of Blue: <input type=hidden name="alink_color" value="#0000FF"> Field: cc Description: This form field will allow you to send a copy of the users form data to another address instead of putting multiple addresses in the recipient field. This will be added to the e-mail as a Cc: field. Syntax: <input type="hidden" name="cc" value="webmaster@infosheet.com"> Field: bcc Description:   This form field will allow you to send a blind copy of the users form data to another address instead of putting multiple addresses in the recipient field. This will be added to the e-mail as a Bcc: field Syntax: <input type=hidden name="bcc" value="webmaster@infosheet.com"> Field: cc_visitor Description: This form field will allow you to send a copy of the users form data to the email address specified by the visitor in the email field. This could be helpful to confirm orders so the visitor has a copy of what was submitted. This tag will not work in conjunction with the cc field above. This will be added to the e-mail as a Cc: field.  Syntax: <input type=hidden name="cc_visitor" value="1"> Field: courtesy_reply Description: This field initiates an automated courtesy reply to the user to thank them for filling out your form!  Syntax: <input type=hidden name="courtesy_reply" value="yes"> Field: courtesy_reply_texta Description: The first line of your courtesy reply text. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="courtesy_reply_texta" value="Thank you for taking the time..."> Field: courtesy_reply_textb Description: The second line of your courtesy reply text. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="courtesy_reply_textb" value="Call us if you need anything..."> Field: courtesy_who_we_are Description: Tell the visitor who you are in the courtesy reply footer. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="courtesy_who_we_are" value="The Byte Shop"> Field: courtesy_our_url Description: If you want to put your url in the footer of the reply. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="courtesy_our_url" value="http://www.infosheet.com"> Field: courtesy_our_email Description: If you want to put your email in the footer of the reply. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="courtesy_our_email" value="bsietz@infosheet.com"> Field: append_db Description: Appends field values to a flat-file database. If you wish to append the form fields to a flat file database, just specify the filename as the value of this field. The value should specify the path and file to hold the data. When using the append to database feature, the initial blank datafile MUST be created on the server prior to using the script. The script does not automatically create it; it only appends to it! (Very common mistake) In addition, the data file AND the directory containing it MUST have world write permissions. If you do not understand Unix permissions, please ask your system administrator for help. The permission for the directory holding the data files must have world write access since the server does not have any special privs. On my system, world execute access is also required, so the protection should be 773 (rwx, rwx, wx). As for the data file itself, remember it must be created first, manually. Use any editor to create an empty file. If you don't understand empty, create a file with the letter "A" in it, then delete the "A" and resave it! The file MUST have world write permissions for the same reason as above. Use 662 (rwx, rwx, w). When specifying the datafile itself in the form field, it can be either a full unix path, e.g. "/home/users/smith/public_html/cgi-bin/data/datafile.dat" or a relative path, e.g. "./data/datafile.dat". It is important to note that if you specify a relative path, it is usually the path relative from the CGI-BIN directory. Do not specify the CGI-BIN as the location of the data file since most servers do not allow write access to this directory. You CANNOT specify a URL such as "http://www.myserver.com/cgi-bin/data.dat". Syntax: <input type=hidden name="append_db" value="./formdata/InfoSheet.dat"> Field: db_fields Description: Specify exactly which fields are appended to the database. Any field not specified in db_fields will not be appended to the database. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="db_fields" value = "realname,email,homephone"> Field: db_delimiter Description: The separator character between fields in the database. avoid using common characters, like @. Syntax: <input type=hidden name="db_delimiter" value = "|">