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like in a perl script. This is a bit more arcane than i can comfortably accomplish, though I understand the principles behind it. You need more dohickies.

there are lots of books on it. Google it, you can find free editors for it too.

Yes, you need a server-side scripting language of some sort for that. Another one is PHP. You might want a database for it as well.

If you're sending via e-mail, you need nothing server-side.

You basically need a custom mailto: link. See here.

The simplest way is to write a bit of Javascript that will concatenate form strings on submit. Psuedocode:

window.open("mailto:?subject=Rating&body=Rater's Name: "+forms[0].input[0].value+"\nRatee's Name: "+forms[0].input[1].value+"\nComments: "+forms[0].input[2].value);

No, I'm not going to write everything for you; you need to learn for yourself. I've given you all the tools.

Last edited by Basseq (2008-11-20 7:19 pm)

Basseq's form of mailto would open the user's email client, with the subject and message content automatically filled in based on the form. The user would then send the email to the email address you provided.

Yep, although I'm part of that 2/3 and I have my computer set to use Gmail's webmail as the default email handler with Google Notifier. Many probably don't have that, but it is possible.

Title27GT wrote:

Yeah, the whole problem was that Mailto was opening up people's mail clients, which I don't want to happen. Back to the drawing board.

If you want to do this sort of thing without opening people's mail clients, then you need something server-side such as PHP or Perl, and possibly a database such as MySQL or SQLlite. I know you think this sounds hard, but in reality these sorts of things can really make web development a lot easier, and I'm not just talking about web forms. Static web sites, which are the kind of site you're currently making, are a major pain in the butt to maintain/modify. Much of the modern web would be impossible without dynamic web development.

Last edited by Macskeeball (2008-11-21 11:23 am)

mrreet2001 wrote:

he should be able to use a php file and a text document ... wouldn't he?

That had me puzzled at first because a PHP file is a text document, but then I realized you meant a text document instead of a database. Sure, that can be done, but using a database to store the data in would probably be easier than writing a parser, and would probably scale better.

Macskeeball wrote:

Title27GT wrote:

Yeah, the whole problem was that Mailto was opening up people's mail clients, which I don't want to happen. Back to the drawing board.

If you want to do this sort of thing without opening people's mail clients, then you need something server-side such as PHP or Perl, and possibly a database such as MySQL or SQLlite. I know you think this sounds hard, but in reality these sorts of things can really make web development a lot easier, and I'm not just talking about web forms. Static web sites, which are the kind of site you're currently making, are a major pain in the butt to maintain/modify. Much of the modern web would be impossible without dynamic web development.

You're right, it is a pain in the neck, but this is a non-money related organization which makes it impossible for me to pay for any sort of web development services and leaves me forced to code things from the ground up from nothing but HTML and occasionally CSS.