HTML email cgi Form?

liunx · Jan 10, 2008

Hello, 
 
Is there a way to create a working form in html emails? 
 
For example, I used html to create a form to vote for something. Using the cgi bin I set up the form so that when they clicked the submit button it would send what is filled out to my email address. 
 
The problem is, it is difficult to actually fill out the form through the email window and when I click submit I get an error message that says the form was empty, even if I managed to fill it out. 
 
Is it at all possible to make a form that they can fill out and submit through the email that I send or should I just keep the form online and send them to the page? 
 
Thanks for your help.

~~Malt~~I would think that if this was possible, we'd all have seen numerous emails in our own mailboxes with forms to fill out. But, hey! Maybe this is just one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" ideas. 
 
Does your submit button call the cgi script with an absolute path to your server, or is it using a relative path? 
 
What makes it difficult to fill out the form in email? 
 
What does a person do if their email app doesn't support HTML?Here's another idea. 
 
You're sending a form in an email, asking to have it filled out, then processed via cgi & emailed to you. What if you attacked it from a different direction? 
 
Send an email that includes a mailto: hyperlink. Set up the link to create a form in the body of the new message. Then the user completes the form there & just sends the message. I don't know if you could create a true 'form' that way, but you could format the message in such a way that would allow space for the user to fill in the blanks.That's a good idea, I will have to try that. I imagine it would require a script of some sort? Unfortunately I don't think I'm familiar with writing those enough to do that. I was thinking that my last resort is to just send them to a web page to fill it out. That's what would happen if their email doesn't support html. 
 
The difficulty with filling it out is that it won't let you type in the fields... I don't know what I did the one time that I was able to type in there, but it would be too annoying for the recipiant when my intension was to make things easier. 
 
Here is the code if it helps to see it for the form (it's just a test one for now while I was trying to get it to work): 
 
<FORM METHOD="POST" action="http://www.edpress.org/cgi-bin/gmailer.asp" onSubmit="" webbot-action="--WEBBOT-SELF--"> 
 
<input type="hidden" name="TGsubject" value="Board Ballot Vote"> 
<input type="hidden" name="TGredirect" value="http://www.edpress.org/board/votethanks.htm"> 
<input type="hidden" name="TGorder" value="name,title,company,email,approve,notapprove"> 
 
<BLOCKQUOTE> 
<TABLE> 
<TR> 
<TD ALIGN="right"> <a name="Name">Name</a></TD> 
<TD> 
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="name" SIZE=35> 
</TD> 
</TR> 
<tr> 
<TD ALIGN="right"> Title</TD> 
<TD> 
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="title" SIZE=35> 
</TD> 
</tr> 
<TR> 
<TD ALIGN="right"> Company</TD> 
<TD> 
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="company" SIZE=35> 
</TD> 
</TR> 
<TR> 
<TD ALIGN="right"> E-mail</TD> 
<TD> 
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="email" SIZE=25> 
</TD> 
</TR> 
</TABLE> 
</BLOCKQUOTE> 
 
<label></label> 
<label> 
<input name="approve" type="checkbox" id="approve" value="I 
approve"> 
I approve</label> 
<label></label> 
 
 
<label> 
<input name="notapprove" type="checkbox" id="notapprove" value 
"I do not approve"> 
I do not approve</label> 
<label></label> 
 
 
<INPUT name="SUBMIT" TYPE=SUBMIT VALUE="Vote"> 
<INPUT name="RESET" TYPE=RESET VALUE="Reset"> 
 
</FORM> 
 
 
Thanks, 
~~Malt~~

Hmmm, now that I think of it, I have seen a usuable form in an email before. It was set up at the bottom and you could fill in your friend's email and click the submit button and it would forward it on to your friend. I think php may have been involved somehow? However, I know absolutely nothing about php. 
 
~~Malt~~Did some research on the web, but didn't find anything. I know there has to be someway.

HTML email cgi Form?

liunx

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