I done a form data that when i click submit ought to be saved on the server/or sent to my email as per my choice, but none happens. i did the html form in MS Publisher and the submit button has command: .../index_files/--WEBBOT-SELF-- the help says to check if ISP has front page ssl 2.0 (or something close). hmm, what do i do?

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Sorry, but you are making no sense. Publisher is not the program you should use IN ANY INSTANCE to create a webpage. And a webbot is nothing to do with form submit.

And the front page ssl 2.0 is jargon for, does the host have frontpage extension support (i think).

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You should have a form that tells the HTML how to handle the form in the very beginning of the form it should look like the below, you just need to fill in the proper information.

Now you will need a program that will process this form and send e-mail to you with the processed results that part is up to you and in th above example the processform.xxx will be replaced by whatever program you want to process the file, that is where your problem is since you said that your form action referred to a robot or something else that couldn't work. You need a file that will take the posted information that is in the named fields of the form and do something with it.

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okay, that was a little helpful Houdini, but if you can, can i get a complete sample coding of a working form. and instead of emailing, if it can save to a file on the server will be good too!

and 'guy', you think you are too smart, why dont you get me something that could actually help out rather than showing how 'high-knowledge' person you are, which you arent from any point of my view! "Publisher is not the program in any instance for webpages???" lol have you used publisher? if not, then i think you should keep that thing shut! else, try using it! its good for dummies like me.. lol.. and better for dummier ppl like you ;-)
no offence but.. i dont think you were trying to help me, rather than getting posts credits.. lol

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Hey Yudzzy, you have to include more information to make people able to help you otherwise they can just guess and if that doesn't help you, you might also think about what you did wrong. But well, let me try my part:
You are trying to send information from a form field to a script which is supposed to save the information somewhere, right? Did you write that script yourself?
Could we see the source code for the page with the submit form on it?
A working example of a form (in HTML):

I do not believe that the submit button can make any problems. It just has to be type="submit".
You have to ensure that there is a working script at the other end.
If you want really useful help for your problem, then you have to provide us with more information!
// Ruben

 

 

 

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OK, lets take this step by step.

First, MS Publisher does have the capability to produce web pages but lacks the ability to create a script to handle the form request. Actually, Publisher does a fairly decent job of outputing HTML especially for new website creators. It It is very limited in it's overall usability but if you don't have a better wysiwyg and don't know HTML, go with what you have.

Second, "--WEBBOT-SELF--" is more than likely a prompt for the actual file that should be used to handle the request from the from. Otherwise, it is an internal script engine designed to perform simple and common form requests. Whatever the reasoning for Publisher inserting that command there, it really should be the file path of a working script that was designed to handle the form request.

Third, you'll need some type of handler in nearly all form requests. This is usually some file that resides on your server that is expecting the various information that your form will send to it. Any information it isn't expecting will simply be ignored in most cases. There are a few ways to use JavaScript to handle the from request and output a result but this is infrequent.

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Here is a baisc fow of information through a form.

1. The web page with the form on it is loaded.
2. The user fills in the form and clicks the submit button
3. The form sends all of the information that the user filled in to a script on the server that was writen to handle that specific form.
4. The script on the server gathers the information sent by the form and prepares it for processing.
5. The script then performs whatever task it was designed to do with the submitted information and returns a result.
6. The result may be to send an email, load a new page with the user submitted information, save the information to a database or file, or a combination of those options.

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As an example of how all of this works, I'll describe the process of posting a reply in this forum.

1. Member reads a post and then clicks the reply button.
2. The reply button is actually a renamed submit button for an invisible form that already contains your username, the name of the topic, and the post that is being replied to.
3. The invisible form then sends the reply request to a PHP script on the server and forwards all of that invisible information to the script.
4. The script then generates the reply form and inserts the quoted post from the post being replied to if that option was used.
5. The member fills in the form with his reply, and chooses whatever options he wishes.
6. Then when the submit button is clicked, the reply and all of the other information is sent to another PHP script that adds the reply to the database, increases the members post count, informs topic subscribers of the new reply, moves the topic to the top of the list of topics in the category, increases the members hosting credits the correct amount for the size of the post and then generates the new topic page with the reply at the bottom.

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As you should realize by now, if you don't have some type of script at the end of that request, nothing will happen. It is like calling another house that doesn't have a phone connected. You'll just ring and ring but the server won't answer.

If you want to be able to use forms on your website to allow users to send you information, you'll need to do one of two things.

1. Learn to write the kind of scripts required to handle form requests.
2. Find a prewriten script that will handle the form requests.

Since I assume that you are still kind of new to the world of web publishing, I think it would be best for now to locate a prewritten script for your needs. There are hundreds of scripts other people have already written that are free to use if you know where to look.

For Perl scripts, I suggest the CGI Resource Index:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/

For PHP scripts, I suggest the PHP Resource Index:
http://php.resourceindex.com/

There are other places to get scripts but you should find what you need here.

I recommend going with PHP because it will be easier for you to learn from and Perl scripts are less likely to be supported by your service provider.
[hr=0]
These scripts can be very simple for a mailto script that just emails the information to you or very complex for a database program that adds, modifies, searches database entries.

I hope that this will give you a better idea of what you'll need to successfully add forms to your website.
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Good Luck.

vujsa

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Good expalination vujsa and the links ought to help them get going with their site, but there is however a little more that happens with a post with Invision, when the post is submitted or previewed it is parsed into HTML for display, and when submitted it is stored as IB Code in the database. When you click a link of a post it is fetched from the database then reparsed back into HTML.

If a user clicks to edit a post (possible here but difficult) then the HTML that shows in the messsage text area is then reconverted into IB Code for the editing process, and whan submitted the altered post takes the place of the IB Code that was stored on the database.

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First of all, as Ruben explained, as you did not put enough information, I couldn't understand your request, therefore, I found no reason to put any helpful information. If I appeared blunt or rude, then I appologise. Next, I have tried Publisher, Word and a lot more office tools to make webpages and they simply did not have the power to make "good-enough" webpages, the output may be almost standard, but they do not have the speciality that is needed. Try using a WYSIWYG editor, one that gives you the functionality of Publisher and the power of true web-designing. For beginners, I would suggest Namo WebEditor or NetObjects Fusion (just google the terms), alternatively, you could find tutorials on the net on how to use Dreamweaver. All of the software I have mentioned comes with a 30-day free trial, so you can decide which one is best. The reason Publisher, Word and other office applications shouldn't be used, is that they are mainly for Print. Publisher is short for Desktop Publishing, mainly used for printed documents. It was designed to be only partially usable for the Internet, and Word, is just the same, but harder to use.

As for your original request, I think vujsa explained it well.

A great resource for scripts is http://www.hotscripts.com just navigate around it and you should find what you are looking for.

A slightly detailed tutorial on using PHP can be found at http://www.w3schools.com click on the PHP on the menu and it should get you started.

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Vujsa good explanation as usual but if I may I'd like to make a suggestion here.

WUSIWYG editors are great, and if your on a Server with FrontPage extentions and the rest of the stuff FrontPage needs to do its thing then it is a halfway decent editor to start with...IMHO. Its how I started out with form building and what not, but before anyone starts a good natured discussion over its many weaknesses and dirty code, please let me state that no matter what WYSIWYG editor you may or may not chose to use never forget that you should do your best to learn how to code on your own, nothing beats having a binder full of notes and a good knowledge base since there are certain things that no WYSIWYG editor can do.

Now that Webot entery is just a place holder so that you can enter your own script to be able to send/save the contents of the feild as you see fit. Publisher is giving you the basic code and is letting you know where to put in the code/script that you need to be able to complete what your trying to do.

Vujsa and Guy have put up a couple of very good links where you can find and research the scripts you need. Good luck and hope your able to get your form working. Please let us know.

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yes i read that yesterday, and i was impressed by the quality of response and i actually need to check out those scripts and implement them.

ruben: just your code what you wrote, is it enough to make the form work? of course the scripts too!
if i can get the meaning of each commands that would be helpful, like form action = script.php does what etc.

vujsa: thats so helpful of you, i will try it and get back to you? it will take some time to get the things work perfectly..
but thats a hella explanation.. hats off

guy: thanks for the links, you were better this time and i will try those you said about

logan: thanks for your suggesting but i'm more into other computer stuffs than programming, but i will take it into consideration!

i appreciate the help :-D

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