I am trying to create a form for my visitors to give feedback. It is a nightmare to say the least. I don't have a lot of experience with web design and therein lies the problem obviously!

I am using Dreamweaver Cs3. I can create the form without any probs. It is executing the process from there that is the prob. What goes in the ACTION field for the form? I have the Missing manual and it is not making it clear enough for me. I have asked Hetzner, my ISP, but they say they have nothing to do with DW and therefore can't help.

Are there any good video tutorials on the market? Really good I mean. Any help will be so much appreciated. I have been at this for so long...help!

Christine

Hi Christine,

I recall writing a long post about this some time ago, but I can't find it in the forum, so here's a potted version <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

to get the feedback you need two things, first there is the form that your user sees in their browser, then there has to be a script/piece of software on the server that processes the user input from the form into an email and sends it to you. That's where the ACTION comes in. What DW is asking for is the name of the file that contains the processing software.

So, let's take a simple example, you have a form with name, email, comment fields
Your user fills them in and clicks submit
The browser assembles up all the data from the fields and sends it to the server, where it goes to a file, for example process_intput.php
process_input.php is executed, reads the inputs, checks them then assembles them into an email and sends it to you

There are ready-written programs to do this for you, formmail is one - fairly easy to set up, but it looks a bit messy (my opinion) to your users when it shows them what they input
Formstogo is a better solution, but a bit harder to set up and use - this is what I use

Hope that helps

Thanks a million Alan

I have managed to get it working. Major relief! I eventually managed to get Hetzner (my ISP) to give me the line of code for the action.

I will definately look up those programmes you mention- I couldn't go through that pain again!

C