Stripped down example of mailto.pl form

This is documentation for using the mailto.pl script from your World home page. If you're not familiar with how cgi scripts work in general, you'll want to look at the source of this page along with the rendered version (what you see in a web browser.) This is a minimal example that doesn't show any of HTML's special form features, it is intended to demonstrate the minimal requirements to get the mailto.pl script to work. If you're using the Wolrd shell account, can look at the source with:

	world% more ~wexample/public_html/mail.sample.html

and/or you can copy of this page (to use as a basis for experimentation) to your public_html directory with the UNIX copy command, "cp":

	world% cp ~wexample/public_html/mail.sample.html ~/public_html

If you're using Netscape, just choose "View" from the top menu; then "Source" from that dropdown to see the html source code of this page. Other browsers have similar features, contact World technical support if you can't find it in your browser.

Below are the four elements you need for the form to work at all. You can't see them on the rendered page, you have to view the source.

Above are lines that make the form work; you can't see them until you view the source, and your visitors won't see them on your form. The field names must be "to", "from", and "body". All those fields are necessary, they have to have values or the submit button will generate an error. The field names are lower case; upper case won't work.

Key points

The html markup "<form..." is paired with the closing "</form>" below. That means when the visitor hits the "submit" button, the program "mailto.pl" will be called, with whatever the visitor types in or selects as input to the program. "mailto.pl", will generate email to you, because you'll put your address in the "to" input field above. All the values the visitor types in or selects will be transformed to an easily readable format and mailed to you.
The html markup "<input name="somename" type="hidden" value="somevalue"> creates a hidden field named "somename" with the value "somevalue". The field names are significant, and are the most common stumbling block. "to", "from", and "body" are all special field names. They have to be present and be set to a value, or the submission will fail when your visitor hits submit. The field "body" doesn't have any obvious use; it's just necessary.
Any field with a name other than "from", "body", "to", "sub" or "nexturl" will be included in the text of the mail you receive from your page. The data will be send one field per line, looking like:
```
	phone->617-739-0202
```
Between "<form" and "</form>" you can have as many fields as you want, with any name (pretty much) you like. Your visitors can fill in the form by typing in information or choosing from picklists; various alternatives are shown at the more realistic mailto.pl demonstration page
You should replace "jones@world.std.com" in the "to" line with your own email address, or jones (an alias for some of the staff) will get your mail.
All input fields, and the submit and reset buttons, must come between the opening <form...> and the closing </form>. (You don't have to have a reset button; but if you have more than a couple fields, you probably want to.)

Below is trivial area for input, just to make this a valid form.

Fill in the two fields with top secret information:

Please enter some text

And enter something for line 2

Lines above would result in text being sent to you labled "firstlinge" and "linetwo," respectively. The two buttons below are set to say "Clear" and "Send" in the "value" field. They could as easily be labled "Start over" and "Submit", the text that appears is up to you. However, the type attribute of the buttons is important, the type must be "reset", for a button to clear all the values of the form and start over, and "submit" to call the program.

To Start Again Press:
To Send Form Press:

Some Options

You almost certainly want to make a field named "nexturl", like this: <input name="nexturl" type=hidden value=http://world.std.com/~jones>, substituting your own URL, of course. The URL you specificy is where the visitor to "land" after successfull submission.
Add a subject field. If you create a hidden field named "sub" initialized to whatever value you want, that will make the mail you receive have the subject you specify, perhaps allowing you to sort your mail more easily. E.g.:
```
	<input name="sub" type=hidden value="feedback from suvey.html">
```
allow the visitor to fill in the "from". If an input field isn't of type "hidden", the visitor gets to fill it in. Then you can reply to mail you receive by using the "reply" feature in your mail reader. However, if the visitor skips it, the submission will fail, and your visitor might decide not to bother fixing it. Also, do be aware that, in any event what you're going to get is whatever the visitor types in, the form can't autodetect the visitor's email address; if the visitor makes a typo, or intentionally gives you a false address, there's no way to know. So, if you get mail from president@whitehouse.gov offering you a position as a cabinet secretary, take that with a grain of salt.