Email Contact Form

[Joss]

Howdi Ya'llFirstly please forgive my ignorance... whats coming may irritate the Ultra Informed amongst you. I have designed a website using dreamweaver... its all cool. Stage by stage stuff. I would like to put somethings on to sell... but before this I need to create a contact form - that WORKS! A form which people can type in their name their email and then a box for asking their questions etc.. I want this form to send their first name and email with their question to me. The forms content must be complete in order to send.I used a form with Yahoos webhosting - my server...but whenever I tested it, it only succeeded in sending an email and its contents to the sender of the question.... Not to me and MY email. . If this was the content of the yahoo predesigned html form then I do not know how to solve it. what piece of code is incorrect and how do i correct it? Its clearly the part with the email that needs some attention.....? I want to receive the senders email on the form... and have it sent to me,, not back to them LOL... Im sure there was a way to shorten this.. so sorry for length

[thescientist]

I would gather that around here, most people are going to recommend you invest a little time into learning PHP and implementing that into your website. A Google search for 'PHP contact form' should turn up a bunch of help for you, or better yet, do a search on these forums for 'PHP contact form'. It would probably be necessary to see the code you have in order to help you with your specific situation. As far as PHP goes, it is something that needs to be supported by the web server you're hosting your pages on.

[Joss]

Thanks for your reply I truly appreciate that I WAS going to ask about PHP... but as im not sure about PHP I guess thats gonna take me a good while to figure out.. I assume its the kind of thing necessary for this kind of form huh? OK Will go look it up... Thanks sincerely for taking your time out to help advise me Lets hope I get somewhere with that LOL Joss

[jeffman]

When you post a form to PHP, the data ends up in an array called $_POST. You'll need to learn how to extract data from that. Not too hard.Then you'll need to learn the mail() function. Look in these two spots:http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_mail.asphttp://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.phpAlso not too hard.Then you'll want to print/echo some kind of success/failure message. That part can be plain-jane HTML if you want to keep it simple.So to jump-start this thing, the number of concepts to learn is actually quite small.

[Joss]

You are a dream! Thx SO much I am reading that PHP is basically another language and can be intergrated into HTML... ? Its gonna take me a while to digest... but getting it right is whats important so your resonse is so valuable... I have been going a bit nuts trying to figure the html for it... and somewhere felt it was asking too much.. so PHP.. the place where its all happening... OK I will let you know if I get anywhere and if I dont.. will hang my head in shame !!!

[jlhaslip]

No need to hang your head, just come back here and ask more questions, but bring your code with you... Simple.

[Joss]

Howdi!OK... PHP and me do not agree! I know to prettiy much 100% of you this could be construed as dumb! BUT I have been working my site for a long...so had to leave the contact form for a while...is there no way a contact form can work without the PHP thing... can HTML not succeed in making this work?jlhaslip... tell me exactly what would I need to list and what can I keep private in order to get your help ?

[thescientist]

what have you got so far? did you try searching for example forms or reading the PHP tutorial in w3schools? show us what you got so far. also, make sure Yahoo supports PHP, too.

[Joss]

Hi there, I certainly did look at the PHP forms ... but as I do not understand its language I found it difficult to decipher how I include it on an already created HTML page... do I select the PHP code and simple paste it into the right place on my html code design... obviously replacing the parts relevant to me...? Do I save the page as php...instead of htm......also the yahoo web hosting has a very long list about php... whats supported n whats not... there look to be more yeses than no's LOL I willl copy the functions supported below and perhaps someone with a amazing patience will know where I go from this! Then I will paste the form ive been trying to figure... I designed my site in dreamweaver and like I said all was perfect until I get to the point of this form! It cannot be as hard as im finding it!Yahoo PHP functions: Y Supported N Not SupportedN Advanced PHP debuggerN Apache-specific functionsY Array functionsN Aspell functions (deprecated)Y BCMath Arbitrary Precision Mathematics functionsN Bzip2 Compression functionsY Calendar functionsN CCVS API functionsY Character type functionsN Classkit functionsY Class/Object functionsN ClibPDF functionsN COM support functions for WindowsN Crack functionsN Crédit Mutuel CyberMUT functionsY CURL, Client URL Library functionsN Cybercash payment functionsN Cyrus IMAP administration functionsY Date and Time functionsY Database (dbm-style) abstraction layer functionsN DB++ functionsN dBase functionsN DBM functions (deprecated)N dbx functionsN Direct IO functionsY Directory functionsN DOM functionsY DOM XML functionsY Error Handling and Logging functionsY Exif functionsN File Alteration Monitor functionsN filePro functionsY Filesystem functionsN Firebird/InterBase functionsN Forms Data Format functionsN FriBiDi functionsN FrontBase functionsN FTP functionsY Function Handling functionsN GettextN GMP functionsN GNU ReadlineN GNU Recode functionsY HTTP functionsN Hyperwave API functionsN Hyperwave functionsN IBM DB2, Cloudscape and Apache Derby functionsN ICAP functions (deprecated)Y iconv functionsN ID3 functionsN IIS Administration functionsY Image functionsN IMAP, POP3 and NNTP functionsN Improved MySQL ExtensionN Informix functionsN Ingres II functionsN IRC Gateway functionsN KADM5N LDAP functionsN libxml functionsN Lotus Notes functionsN LZF functionsY Mail functions (Note: To use mail with PHP, you'll need to complete PHP/Perl Mail Setup.)N mailparse functionsY Mathematical functionsN MaxDB PHP ExtensionN MCAL functionsY Mcrypt Encryption functionsN MCVE Payment functionsN Memcache functionsY Mhash functionsN Microsoft SQL Server functionsY Mimetype functionsY Ming functions for FlashY Miscellaneous functionsN mnoGoSearch functionsN Mohawk Software Session Handler functionsN mSQL functionsY Multibyte String functionsN muscat functionsY MySQL functions (Note: Before you can perform MySQL functions, you must set up your MySQL database.)N Ncurses Terminal Screen Control functionsN .NET functionsN Net_GopherY Network functions (fsockopen and pfsockopen are disabled)N NSAPI-specific functionsN Object Aggregation/Composition functionsY Object property and method call overloadingN ODBC functions (unified)N oggvorbisN OpenAL Audio BindingsY OpenSSL functionsN Oracle functionsN Oracle 8 functionsY Output Control functionsN Ovrimos SQL functionsN Paradox File AccessN Parsekit functionsN PDF functionsN PDO functionsN PHP bytecode compilerN PHP/Java integrationY PHP options & informationN POSIX functionsN PostgreSQL functionsN PostScript document creationN Printer functionsN Process Control functionsN Program Execution functionsY Pspell functionsN qtdom functionsN RadiusN Rar functionsY Regular Expression functions (Perl-compatible)Y Regular Expression functions (POSIX Extended)N runkit functionsN Secure Shell2 functionsN Semaphore and Shared Memory functionsN SESAM database functionsY Session handling functionsN Shared Memory functionsN Shockwave Flash functionsN SimpleXML functionsN SNMP functionsN SOAP functionsN Socket functionsN SQLite functionsN Standard PHP Library (SPL) functionsY Stream functionsY String functionsN Sybase functionsN TCP Wrappers functionsN Tidy functionsY Tokenizer functionsY URL functionsY Variable handling functionsN Verisign Payflow Pro functionsN vpopmail functionsN W32api functionsY WDDX functionsN xattr functionsN xdiff functionsY XML parser functionsY XML-RPC functionsN XSL functionsY XSLT functionsN YAZ functionsN YP/NIS functionsY Zip File functions (read-only access)Y Zlib Compression functionsOK! Thats the list

[jlhaslip]

better find out what this means:

Y Mail functions (Note: To use mail with PHP, you'll need to complete PHP/Perl Mail Setup.)

[Joss]

ON clicking that link..the info is about my "sending" emails...via php... as apposed to recieving email... there appears to be nothing on that link relating to... receiving emails through an online form. None the less I have set the default email on that page to my websites email. There is a php editor amongst the site building tools though. Of course it has no content... and as I have a page predesigned for the concept of an email form reciever.. someone posted this..and it looks very useful... if I could decipher where abouts I put my own details .. I could be on to a winner... perhaps I can then copy the html of my contact page.. put it onto the php editor.. and then place this form onto it? http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_mail.asp

[justsomeguy]

ON clicking that link..the info is about my "sending" emails...via php... as apposed to recieving email

You don't want PHP to check your email account, you want to use it to "send" yourself an email:

I want this form to send their first name and email with their question to me.

There are several pre-made PHP contact form scripts online that you can adapt to your needs, but you'll need to get your hosting account set up so that PHP can send the email to your account.

[Joss]

many thanks.. I will give that a go... im sorry its taking me such time.... for it to sink in.... the php on yahoo seems to only have the option for "sending" but will look through absoluetly ALL the info to see where it offers the receiving of. Its much like when a person on ebay asks a question to a seller...thats the concept... an online form on my website so people can contact me directly without having to copy and paste my email into their email counts...it may delay them and thus lose their interest in my work. its for efficiency... and yet I dont feel deserving of knowing how it works... it dosnt seem to be getting past the front of my skull HA HA! I'll get there... I appreciate all your replies

[justsomeguy]

Just to clarify, you need PHP to send an email, this doesn't have anything to do with receiving the email. You'll receive it the way you normally would, what you want PHP to do is to send it in the first place.

[Joss]

RESOLVED! Absolutely super.... all figured out now.. thanks to you guys.... the problem was eventually tracked down to the alternative email address!! Sometimes I guess it gets so foggy you cant see whats before your eyes!! Thats what im telling myself! Much appreciation from me... I wish I could list my site for you to see but I wouldnt be so crude LOL....Just massive Thanks to all... you were very patient and I wont forget it! You also opened my eyes to PHP and I am continuing to learn about that too!I hope I dont bug anyone again too soon :)Thanks againone very happy girlyJoss

[thescientist]