Create a 
                      Simple, Effective PHP Form for Your Web Site 
                      © 2005 Herman Drost  
                       
                      If you have been struggling to set up forms on your web site 
                      using cgi, then definitely read this article. Installing a 
                      simple PHP form is much easier  and faster than installing a cgi 
                      form and doesn't need any programming  experience.  
                       
                      How does a PHP form work?  
                       
                      PHP is short for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor"  
                      (originally called personal home page). It is a 
                      server-side,  cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language.  
                       
                      A server side scripting language allows you to create dynamic 
                      web pages.  Web pages that have been enabled with PHP are 
                      treated just the same  as any other HTML page, and PHP even lets 
                      you create and edit them the  same way you would create and edit 
                      your HTML pages.  
                       
                      This PHP form consists of 3 web pages, an html page, a PHP page 
                      (PHP  script) and a thank you page. You collect the visitors 
                      information when  he fills out the form on the html page. It is 
                      then processed by the PHP  script which resides on the server. 
                      The visitor automatically receives a  "thank you for 
                      subscribing" message. The form results are returned from  the 
                      server to your email box.  
                       
                      Server requirements for your PHP form  
                       
                      Check with your web host you have PHP4 installed on your server 
                      Most Unix servers do - if so you are in luck and  ready to go.  
                       
                      How to create the simple PHP form  
                       
                      You will create a very simple, effective form in which you will 
                      collect the  name, email address and comments of your visitors. 
                      The form results will  be sent to your email address.
                      
                      Here's the
                      Simple 
                      PHP Form in action. 
                       
                      1. Download the PHP script  - once downloaded, copy and paste 
                       
                      the PHP code of
                      Jack's
                      FormMail.php script
                      into notepad (not MS  Word)   
                      and save it as securemail.php
                      (not formmail.php - this will  
                      make it a more secure form) 
                       
 http://www.dtheatre.com/scripts/formmail
                       
                      2. Edit Recipient Field -
                      the recipient field allows you 
                      to specify to  
                      whom you wish for your form results to be mailed. For 
                      Multiple Recipients 
                      separate the email addresses with commas (","). 
                       
                       $recipient = "info@domain.com, 
                      steve@domain.com"; 
                       
                      Note: If you use this option you cannot use 
                      recipient in your html form i.e. 
                       
                      <input 
                      type=hidden name="recipient" value="info@yourdomain.com"> 
                      If you already inserted 
                      this in your html form, then simply delete it. 
                      This will prevent spammers from harvesting your email 
                      address 
                      because it now can't be found on your html form. 
                      
                      3. Edit the referrers field  - the only recommended field to edit 
                      in  
                      the script is the
                      "referers"  field. This field defines the domains that allow 
                      forms to reside on and use  your securemail.php script. If you try 
                      to put the form on another server,  that is not the specified 
                      domain or ip, you will receive an error message  when someone 
                      tries to fill it out.  
                       
                      ie: $referers = array ('ihost-websites.com','www.ihost-websites.com','209.123.240.161'); 
                      
                      4. Upload the securemail.php script  to the root directory 
                      of your server  
                      (same location as your index.html file).  
                      Note: Make sure you 
                      upload the php script in ASCII mode. This is  
                      because it is a text file. You will get errors if you 
                      upload it in binary mode. 
                       
                      5. Create your HTML form  - create a web page (ie contact.htm) 
                      that contains your html form (see example html form 
                      below). 
                       
                      6. Point the action of your form to the securemail.php script
                       you  
                      downloaded in Step 1. 
                       
                      ie: <form name="form mail" method="post"  
                      action="http://www.ihost-websites.com/securemail.php">  
                       
                      7. Add optional form fields  
                       
                      "subject field" - this allows 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".  
                       
 ie: <input type=hidden name="subject" value="Form 
                      Mail Results">  
                       
                      "full name field" - this allows visitors to fill in their name. 
                      This will help you  to personalize your return email by 
                      including their first and/or last names.  
                       
                      i.e: <input type=text name="fullname">  
                       
                      "email address field" - this allows you to specify your 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.  
                       
                      i.e: <input type=text name="email">  
                       
                      "comments field" - this allows visitors to add any comments in 
                      your form.  You could name this field anything you like.  
                       
                      ie: <textarea name="comments"></textarea>  
                       
                      "required field" - these are the required fields you want your 
                      visitors to fill  in before they can successfully submit the 
                      form. If the required fields are  not filled in, the visitor 
                      will be notified of what they need to fill in, and a  link back 
                      to the form they just submitted will be provided.  
                       
                      ie: <input type=hidden name="required" value="fullname,email">  
                       
                      "redirect field" - if you wish to redirect the visitor 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 (ie  thankyou.htm) page.  
                       
                      ie: <input type=hidden name="redirect"  
                      value="http://www.ihost-websites.com/thankyou.htm">  
                       
                      "submit field" - this allows the visitor to submit the form  
                       
                      ie: <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">  
                       
                      8. Create a thank you page (thankyou.htm) - this web page will  
                      automatically thank visitors for subscribing. Add your own 
                      comments you wish them to receive. Upload this web page to your 
                      server.  
                       
                      Tip: Use your own domain name, email and IP address in the 
                      fields above.  
                       
                      Here's an example of a typical web page using the PHP form. 
                      (http://www.ihost-websites.com/contact.htm)  
                       
                      All the fields are included as was discussed above:  
                       
                      <html> 
                      <head> 
                      <title>Form Mail</title>  
                      </head> 
                       
                      <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <form name="form1" 
                      method="post"  action="http://ihost-websites.com/securemail.php"> 
                       
                      <input type=hidden name="subject" value="Form Mail Results">  
                       
                      <input type=hidden name="required" value="fullname,email"> 
                       
                      <input type=hidden name="redirect"  
                      value="http://www.ihost-websites.com/thankyou.htm"> 
                       
                      Name<br><input type=text name="fullname"><br> 
                       
                      Email<br> <input type=text name="email"><br> 
                       
                      <br> Comments<br> <textarea name="comments"></textarea> <br> 
                       
                      <br> <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"> 
                       
                      </form> 
                       
                      </body> 
                      </html>  
                       
                      9. Copy and paste this html form into your web page - name it 
                      anything you like (ie contact.htm), then upload it to your 
                      server.  
                       
                      10. Test out your form - when you fill out the form, you should 
                      immediately  receive the reply from your thankyou.htm page 
                      and receive the form results in your email box.  
                       
                      Conclusion - you now have a fully functional and flexible PHP 
                      form on your  web site to collect visitor information. You can 
                      add more fields to the  form if necessary. You may also add any 
                      number of HTML forms to your web site and still use the same 
                      PHP script.  
                       
                      Resources  
                       
                      Jack's
                      PHP FormMail 
                       
                      Help/Support
                      - PHP Form Forum 
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