FishForm is a program that takes the contents of fill-in boxes on a form,
encrypts them and emails them to a specified destination.
We provide
fishform.pl in the cgi-bin directory of our secure server. Details
are provided below.
Creating your key
Before using FishForm, be sure that you have created a key in the online
Control Panel. The key can be any combination of numbers and/or letters.
To do this login to the Control Panel and click the link at the bottom that says: "Form Encryption and key creation." Then enter your key where it says Enter new pass key. The key can be any combination of numbers and/or letters but cannot contain special characters or periods.
Then add this tag to your form:
<input type=hidden name="ez_user" value="your-name.com">
of course you will want to change "your-name.com" to your domain
Decrypting Orders
Then, after you receive an encrypted order, you will return to the page in the Control Panel, click the link at the bottom that says: "Form Encryption and key creation, "enter your key and press enter to decrypt the order.
Creating your Forms
Now that you know about creating your key, here is more about creating forms:
fishform.pl is a universal WWW form to email gateway. There is only one
required form input tag 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 FishForm on your site. The action of your
form needs to point towards fishform.pl, and the method must be POST or GET in
capital letters. An example of a simple form, order.html,
using fishform.pl can be found at the end of this section.
Below is a list of form fields you can use and how to implement them.
There is only one form field that you must have in your form, for fishform.pl to work correctly. This is the recipient field.
Field: ez_user
Description: As discussed above, this form field is used by FishForm to tell what domain name's
encryption key to use to encrypt form results. The value should be your domain
name. (so for www.your-name.com, the value would be your-name.com. DO
NOT include the www and of course you will want to change "your-name.com" to your domain name). Please see the notes above to create your key.
Syntax: input type=hidden name="ez_user"
value="domain.com"
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 email address.
Syntax: input type=hidden name="recipient"
value="email@your.host.com"
Field: subject
Description: The subject field will allow you to specify the subject that you
wish to appear in the email 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
email address. If you want to be able to return email to your user, I
strongly suggest that you include this form field and allow them to fill it
in. If you want to require an email address with valid syntax, add this field
name to the 'required' field. This is used as the From address for the email
sent to the recipient.
Syntax: input type=text name="email"
Field: realname
Description: The realname form field will allow the user to input their real
name. This is used as the from name for the email that is sent to the
recipient.
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 email
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 a 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:
http://www.cgi-resources.com/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 email 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 email 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, name3,etc..."
Field: print_config
Description: print_config allows you to specify which of the config variables
you would like to have printed in your email message. By default, no config
fields are printed to your email. 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
emailed.
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="<A HREF="http://your.host.com/main.html">
http://your.host.com/main.html</A>"
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:
<A href="return_link_url">return_link_title</A>
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="<A HREF="http://your.host.com/error.html">
http://your.host.com/error.html</A>"
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="<A HREF="http://your.host.com/image.gif">
http://your.host.com/image.gif</A>"
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="#005555"
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 visited 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.
<html><head><title>Form</title></head>
<body>
<form method=POST action="/cgi-bin/fishform.pl">
<input type=hidden value="http://mydomain.com/mysuccesspage.html" name="redirect">
<input type=hidden value="me@mydomain.com" name="recipient">
<input type=hidden value="mydomain.com" name="ez_user">
<input type=hidden value="" name="subject">
<input type=hidden name="print_config" value="subject,">
<input type=hidden name="required" value="">
Reply-to <input type=text size=60 name="reply-to" value=" "><br>
myfield <input type=text size=20 name="myfield" value=" "><br>
<input type=hidden name="print_blank_fields" value="1">
<p>
<input type=submit value="SUBMIT"> <input type=reset value="START OVER!">
</form>
</body></html>