Web Forms & Pop-up blockers

[Clint Neilsen]

The number of customer contacts indicating that they can't use our forms because of their security settings has increased.
I've seen a number of sites offering tutorial information on how to set their spam filters toallow pop-ups, however we would like to offer our forms in the parent window to ensure nothing is missed.
Would anybody know of any major websites that have built their forms like this? Or any articles on best practice to mitigate forms being blocked by spam filters?

[morestar]

Hi Clint. So are you asking about putting the form in the page rather than a popup?

[deepsand]

Many "major" sites that employ pop-ups advice their users up front that pop-ups should/must be allowed.

Why is it presently the case that the forms in question are being rendered via pop-ups?

[Clint Neilsen]

Originally Posted by deepsand

Why is it presently the case that the forms in question are being rendered via pop-ups?

I am not sure of the original developer's rationale, I assume because the forms are on a different secure server designed a completely different interface for forms.

I feel the forms should not be in the pop up format for usability sake & may take a look at Amazon or similar for best practice examples

[morestar]

...and if anyone wants to make a 'popup' form or other 'popup' element they could just use a div and apply a clickevent to a link that displays or hides the div...but I don't know what the OP is asking...

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by Clint Neilsen

... I assume because the forms are on a different secure server designed a completely different interface for forms.

What is the nature of the data being captured via said forms?

Where is such data being stored?

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by morestar

...and if anyone wants to make a 'popup' form or other 'popup' element they could just use a div and apply a clickevent to a link that displays or hides the div...but I don't know what the OP is asking...

Depends on both the nature of the data being presented, and the context within which such is presented.

E.g., a seating chart for a venue is best presented in a pop-up when the user is already viewing information relating to one or more specific seating locations, particularly when the background content exceeds the depth of the display, such that the user needs to scroll through the background content while still needing to be able to view the seating chart..

[morestar]

True...I guess the notification seems the best bet...it probably won't go wrong in the long run...

[wige]

I have seen popups used for a few different purposes. Some are just to highlight form fields or input errors, such as showing fields where data is improperly formatted, or where on a card the CVC is located.

Other systems, however, such as bank login forms, use popups as an external verification method. To counteract certain types of cross site scripting attacks, a popup is forced through. If the popup is not displayed, the login attempt is discarded. If the popup is displayed, the IP address that requests and submits elements of the popup is compared to the IP address that is submitting data in the main form. If there is a discrepency, the login attempt could be treated as suspicious. In addition, the banks IDS can analyze the packets from the popup relative to those from the main form looking for inconsistencies that might indicate the connection is being spoofed or hijacked.