Expert: Mark Jenkins - 6/25/2003

Question
Mark:
I created a form for my webpage.
I would like the form data to be sent to my E-mail address.

When I click the submit buton, my E-mail form pops up...... what may I be doing incorrectly.

The code for the form is as follows;
<FORM NAME="Order" ACTION="mailto:me@aol.com" enctype="text/plain" method="post">

Hope you can help.
Nicholas M.

Answer
Hi,
The problem is that you have a form that uses "mailto:" which is basically a link that opens your mailer.

What you need is to link that form to a CGI script that will format, and send the info from the form. This can be written in perl, php or asp.

Ex.
<FORM NAME="Order" ACTION="mail_script.php" enctype="text/plain" method="post">

The script "mail_script.php" will then format and send the e-mail that will be sent using SMTP.

You can find scripts to send e-mails, all over the web.  Just figure out what language you web host provides for your account.

Many web hosts provide free e-mail scripts that will do this for you, with a little configuration. I know that our company does, anyway.

Hope this was helpful,
Mark Jenkins