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 (click the Form Encryption
link):
The key can be any combination of numbers and 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.
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. 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="
http://your.host.com/main.html"
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:
return_link_title
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="
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.com/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="#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>
