Copyright

 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THE HEADER!!! COPYRIGHT NOTICE FormMail.php v1.0
Copyright 2000,2001 Ai Graphics and Joe Lumbroso (c) All rights reserved.
Created 07/06/00 Last Modified 07/06/00
Joseph Lumbroso, http://www.aigraphics.com
                        http://www.dtheatre.com/scripts

This cannot and will not be inforced but I would appreciate a link back to any of these sites:
http://www.dtheatre.com
http://www.aigraphics.com


THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Overview
FormMail is a universal WWW form to E-mail gateway. There is very few required form input tags which must be specified in order for this script to work with your existing forms. Other hidden configuration fields can also be used to enhance the operation of FormMail on your site.

Setting Up the FormMail Script

    To set up the FormMail.php script copy it into the directory in which you are planning to use it. It's that plain and simple.

    Your formmail program is now configured.

Form Configuration

    The action of your form needs to point towards this script (obviously).

    Below is a list of form fields you can use and how to implement them.

    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: "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. The email address submitted will be checked for validity.
    Syntax: <input type=text name="email">
    Field: phone_no
    Description:

    This form field will allow the user to specify a phone number.
    The phone number submitted will be checked for validity and must match one of the following formats.

  • 123.123.1234
  • 123-123-1234
  • (123)123.1234
  • (123)123-1234
    		•
    Syntax: <input type=text name="phone_no">

    Field: fax_no
    Description:

    This form field will allow the user to specify a fax number.
    The phone number submitted will be checked for validity and must match one of the following formats.

  • 123.123.1234
  • 123-123-1234
  • (123)123.1234
  • (123)123-1234
    		•
    Syntax: <input type=text name="fax_no">

    Field: zip_code
    Description:

    This form field will allow the user to specify a zip code.
    The zip code submitted will be checked for basic validity and must match one of the following formats.

  • 12345
  • 12345-1234
    		•
    Syntax: <input type=text name="zip_code">
    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: 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: 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
    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">

    Any other form fields that appear in your script will be mailed back to you and displayed on the resulting page if you do not have the redirect field set. There is no limit as to how many other form fields you can use with this form, except the limits imposed by browsers and your server.

Some of the possible uses of this script

  1. You want to have a form that will be mailed to you, but aren't sure how to write the CGI script for it.
  2. You are the webmaster of your site and want to allow users to use forms, but not to have their own cgi-bin directories, which can cause security risks to your system. You can set this script up and then allow all users to run off of it.
  3. Want to have one script to parse all of your html forms and mail them to you.

History

Version 1.0a 7/10/00 -  This script was created and released.

Version 1.1a 7/15/00 -  Fixed the Required Fields Issue (thanks to Gard Paulsen for pointing it out).

Final Comments

Thanks to Matt Wright from Matt's Script Archive for the original inspiration.