Using a Form-to-Email CGI Application

[frogkettle]

I wonder if I could get some help and advice regarding a server based application that I have just encountered on a site.

My initial research indicates that this is a Form-to-Email CGI Application (of which there are several types available) that handles data entered into an html form & then can do various things with it

For example the url:- http://www.dss-uk.co.uk/quote.html
This page simply takes the form data & emails it to a predefined email address which I am assuming is a rather nice way of hiding it from the Email Bots send out by Spammers to gather viable email addresses. Looking at the source code it would also appear that the Form-to-Mail application then displays one of three different screens depending of if an error was encountered or the data was accepted

The second example url:- http://www.dss-uk.co.uk/caldera/brochure.htm
Again this sends out an email using the data entered into the form but this time it allows the user to download a pdf file (this I have located to being stored in the directory http://www.dss-uk.co.uk/caldera)- would I be correct in assuming that all they have done is add a link onto the 'form accepted' page and so in principle is exactly the same as the first example?

Now for some questions that are bothering me;

i) Which of the available applications would folks recommend I load onto my server? (it looks like the site in question is using AlienForm2 but then I have also picked up a report on www.securityspace.com that this package is not all that secure)

ii) How does the application know what action to perform as the links from each of the different web pages all appear to be identical?

iii) Is this the best way of achieving the examples above or is there a better / easier way?

iv) Where would the 3 response pages for each option be stored, as I cannot find the source html anywhere?

v) Where would the destination email be stored?

vi) And lastly why is a .pl file used when refering to the server hosting the application?


I would be grateful for any advice or help on the pros & cons of this method

[computergenius]

Originally Posted by frogkettle

My initial research indicates that this is a Form-to-Email CGI Application (of which there are several types available) that handles data entered into an html form & then can do various things with it

The programming language you use could just as easily be PHP or ASP. Simplest is to figure out what you have available on your server

Originally Posted by frogkettle

would I be correct in assuming that all they have done is add a link onto the 'form accepted' page and so in principle is exactly the same as the first example?

Sounds like it

Originally Posted by frogkettle

Now for some questions that are bothering me;

i) Which of the available applications would folks recommend I load onto my server? (it looks like the site in question is using AlienForm2 but then I have also picked up a report on www.securityspace.com that this package is not all that secure)

This would depend on what is available on your server.

Originally Posted by frogkettle

ii) How does the application know what action to perform as the links from each of the different web pages all appear to be identical?

Not all data is visible. Data could be passed from page to page by POST or by SESSIONS

Originally Posted by frogkettle

iii) Is this the best way of achieving the examples above or is there a better / easier way?

Totally depends on what you are trying to do <G>

Originally Posted by frogkettle

iv) Where would the 3 response pages for each option be stored, as I cannot find the source html anywhere?

You can store the pages whereever you like. I write in PHP normally. You will not see the PHP code, something on the lines of "if you need to send an email, mail it off now", because PHP code is only normally visible on the server. HTML is not capable of this kind of behaviour, it cannot send emails, etc.

Originally Posted by frogkettle

v) Where would the destination email be stored?

Either in a database, or emailed to the recipient.

Originally Posted by frogkettle

vi) And lastly why is a .pl file used when refering to the server hosting the application?

Because the programming language is (appears to be) PERL, which usually has a .pl extension.

I use many different methods, usually writing my own, to pass a message to someone at the website, to put a message into a database for action, to "tell a friend" about this page.

You should first decide what is available on your server. There isn't an awful lot of difference at this level between PHP and ASP (these are the two main choices of web programming language)

And before some pedants jump in, the question appears to be a basic one, so I have simplified some parts of the answers.

[TrafficProducer]

Form-to-Email CGI Application.. I heard that there have been security issues using such code in the past.. Maybe much better now?

in PERL

# Mailprogram (Most it's OK so. On NT its Blat)
$mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';

Then

 
   open(MAIL,"|$mailprog -t -oi") || die;

    print MAIL "To: $my_email\n";
    print MAIL "From: $from_email\n";
    print MAIL "Subject: $subject\n\n";

    print MAIL "$mailmessage\n";

    close(MAIL);

[thepcman]

Hello,

I don't know if this will help but you might try this FREE Formmail Form Generator it creates the form page for you and answers many set up questions.
Maybe it will help...

[itsdonny]

Here is a good one that was recomended to me.

Dagon Design Contact Form Generator

[frogkettle]

Thanks guys - gives me some more to be looking into

one typo in my original post changed the meaning of one of the questions

v) Where would the destination email be stored?

should have read

v) Where would the destination email address be stored?

[computergenius]

Where would the destination email address be stored?

Normally in the "code" section of the second page, be it PHP or ASP, or whatever. Visitors cannot read the "code", they can only read the HTML which the code generates, so the email address is not visible.

I sometimes store the email addresses in a database, if there are more than one, or if there is a choice - that would depend on the application.

[philscanlan]

This is a classic. CGI-Perl

http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html

[frogkettle]

Just some final feedback for anyone else following the same path as myself ....

AlienForm does not appear to have an English based web support site - so that was no good to me

And it seems the security issues are still there in the original FormMail application but has been fixed & enhanced by the guys at NMS http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml

Support documents are not obvious for the NMS version but are there and do a rather good job of explaining how to use the package http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/formm...-3.14m1/README

Now that I think I fully understand how to use this package how I want all I have to do is put it into practice and as I am using XAMPP the perl support should already be there

Now to see if I can put it into working practice ... :) Thanks again to everyone who has added their comments on this :)