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Writing a Simple Form Mailer

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11-Mar-03 00:00

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Elated

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From: Brighton, UK

This is a forum topic for discussing the article "Writing a Simple Form Mailer":

http://www.elated.com/articles/writing-a-simple-form-mailer/

This tutorial will show you how to build a simple form mailer script, so that visitors can send you emails from your site. Along the way we explain some new Perl concepts, including the CGI library module.

08-Oct-09 18:32

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tjstab

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The script works fine and I receive an e-mail but the problem is when I open it it's blank (absolutely no text). Any suggestions??

09-Oct-09 00:12

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

Hi tjstab, and welcome!

Maybe your 'comments' form field name is different to the parameter name in your script?

If you can post your script and HTML form here then I can take a look for you.

Cheers,
Matt

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

20-Dec-10 17:40

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Will

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Posts: 5

From: Barnhart, MO 63012

Finally, I set up a contact form that works! Thank you for your article!

Instead of the "end html" message, can I have the submitter directed to a different html document? Is there a way to insert a link instead of a message?

Thank you

03-Jan-11 03:09

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matt

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From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@Will: Sorry for the delay in replying (Xmas and all that!).

Yes, you could include a link in the output HTML, eg:


<body>Thanks for filling in our form! <a href="page.html">Click here to continue</a></body>

Or you could issue a redirect to take the user to the new page automatically:

http://search.cpan.org/dist/CGI.pm/lib/CGI.pm#GENERATING_A_REDIRECTION_HEADER

Hope that helps

Matt

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

03-Jan-11 14:25

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Will

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From: Barnhart, MO 63012

Thanks! I think I'll try that redirect issue.

I appreciate you help.

Sincerely,
Will

06-Jan-11 14:17

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Will

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From: Barnhart, MO 63012

Matt,

I tried adding a second contact form, and made a second cgi file, but named it differently. And then of course I specified the second file in my form action=" " . But it doesn't work.

Do I have to name the cgi file, "form_mailer.cgi" in order for this to work?

Thanks,
Will

06-Jan-11 23:46

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@Will: Sounds like you did the right things. What error are you getting?

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

07-Jan-11 11:09

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Will

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From: Barnhart, MO 63012

I get Internal Server Error - "The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

Here's the cgi file:



#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI;

my $query = new CGI;

print $query->header ( );

my $name = $query->param("name");
my $phone_number = $query->param("phone_number");
my $email_address = $query->param("email_address");
my $message = $query->param("message");
my $referral = $query->param("referral");
my $email = $query->param("email");
my $phone = $query->param("phone");



$email_address = filter_header_field ( $email_address );
$comments = filter_field ( $comments );

open ( MAIL, "| /usr/sbin/sendmail -t" );
print MAIL "From: $email_address\n";
print MAIL "To: contact\@willjackson.com\n";
print MAIL "Subject: Album Design Form Submission\n\n";
print MAIL "$name\n";
print MAIL "$phone_number\n";
print MAIL "$email_address\n";
print MAIL "$message\n";
print MAIL "$referral\n";
print MAIL "$email\n";
print MAIL "$phone\n";
print MAIL "\n.\n";
close ( MAIL );

print <<END_HTML;

<html>
<head>
<link href="../style.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
<br /><br />
<h1>Thank you!</h1><br /><br />
<p>Someone should be contacting you shortly.  If you don't hear from us within 48 hours, please call, 636-464-9475.  Thank you.</p><br />
<br /><br />
<br /><br />

<div id="footer">
<p>Copyright 
        &copy; Will Jackson Photography, St. Louis MO. All&nbsp;rights&nbsp;reserved.</p>
        </div>
        
</body>
</html>




END_HTML

sub filter_field
{
  my $field = shift;
  $field =~ s/From://gi;
  $field =~ s/To://gi;
  $field =~ s/BCC://gi;
  $field =~ s/CC://gi;
  $field =~ s/Subject://gi;
  $field =~ s/Content-Type://gi;
  return $field;
}

sub filter_header_field
{
  my $field = shift;
  $field =~ s/From://gi;
  $field =~ s/To://gi;
  $field =~ s/BCC://gi;
  $field =~ s/CC://gi;
  $field =~ s/Subject://gi;
  $field =~ s/Content-Type://gi;
  $field =~ s/[\0\n\r\|\!\/\<\>\^\$\%\*\&]+/ /g;
  return $field;
}

07-Jan-11 15:13

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Will

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From: Barnhart, MO 63012

Matt,

I have it figured out. I had forgot to set file permissions on the second cgi file I uploaded.

Thank you

09-Jan-11 19:29

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@Will: Glad it's working now.

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

07-Jun-11 16:52

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kingjazz

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Posts: 1

From: Kiev, but Norwegian

First of all I want to thank you for this tutorial

I have used it for numerous form, applications etc, and it works just fine until I needed to send a copy of the application back to the user

So I want to take the email address of the user from the form and use it for a CC in the script...I thought it would be a simple task

but I was wrong again

I start with getting the form data:


my $recipientCC = $query->param("email_address");

Then I do a little check (and I also try to add the necessary \@ and \n at the end) :


if ($apptype eq "Staff")
{ 
 $recipient = "jazztheblower\@gmail.com\n";
 $recipientCC =~ s/(.*)(@.*)/$1\\$2\n/;
}

and finally I print it to the mail:


print MAIL "CC: $recipientCC";

So here's what happens:

I get the mail fine for my main recipient, but the CC should be webform2010@gmail.com but ends up as webform2010\@gmail.com@myservermailerdemon.com

I am slightly slipping into madness here

I have tried changing a lot of things, like switching from a line feed \n to the actual characters, etc but nothing works

Please o'wise one, do you have any inputs on this problem?

Thanks in advance

[Edited by kingjazz on 07-Jun-11 17:15]

20-Jun-11 05:23

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@kingjazz: Hmm, it could be an anti-spam mechanism inside your mail server. Is it escaping the '@' symbol like that? (\@)

Maybe try just sending 2 copies of the email, one to the main recipient and another to the CC recipient (using TO: instead of CC:)?

Also your regex might be messing things up (not sure). Try commenting it out and see if it works maybe?

Matt

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

08-Aug-11 03:34

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tomnorman

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Posts: 1

From: Twizel, New Zealand

Hi, thanks for that fantastic and very simple explanation.

I think I've done everything right, and I'm hoping what I'm about to ask is reasonably simple.

When I press 'send' I get this error:

"Not Found

The requested document was not found on this server.
Web Server at massageyou.co.nz"

the URL points to www.massageyou.co.nz/cgi-bin/formmailer.cgi as per the HTML. My CGI script is in the cgi-bin of my hosting account. However, my site is in the HTTPDocs folder of my hosting account. So I think the problem is one of two things:

1) My path is wrong. In which case, is it safe for me to move the cgi-bin folder into my HTTPDocs folder? Or is that likely to destroy things in the background that I can't fix? Or, do you know what the path might be? (Sorry, I know the path could be anything, but I'm just assuming that my hosting account is set up in a fairly standard way.

2) I'm doing something else wrong - in which case - any ideas?

Thanks.
Tom

[Edited by tomnorman on 08-Aug-11 03:35]

09-Aug-11 05:10

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@tomnorman: Check with your hosting company to see what setup they recommend for running Perl CGI scripts. It may be that you need to set certain permissions, use a different file extension such as .pl, or, as you say, move your cgi-bin folder into your document root.

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

18-Nov-11 07:47

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imokhaijoseph

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Posts: 1

From: Ikorodu

Hi,
Thanks for this tutorial.
I tried running this form mailer from my local system and i got this error.

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

I don't know what to do.

20-Nov-11 17:56

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cordovad88

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Posts: 2

I can feel it, I am insanely close! Unfortunately i am having the same issue as tjstab and am getting a blank email...

here's the form code:


									<form action="/form-mailer.cgi" method="post" enctype="text/plain">
										<input type="text" name="mail" value="Your Email" />
										<input type="submit" value="Join">
									</form>

and here's the cgi:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl

use CGI;

# Create the CGI object
my $query = new CGI;

# Output the HTTP header
print $query->header ( );

# Capture the form results
my $email_address = $query->param("email_address");

# Filter the form results
$email_address = filter_header_field ( $email_address );

# Email the form results
open ( MAIL, "| /usr/sbin/sendmail -t" );
print MAIL "From: $email_address\n";
print MAIL "To: subscribe\@disstory.com\n";
print MAIL "Subject: Form Submission\n\n";
print MAIL "$comments\n";
print MAIL "\n.\n";
close ( MAIL );

# Thank the user
print <<END_HTML;
<html>
<head></head>
<body>Thanks for filling in our form!</body>
</html>
END_HTML

# Functions for filtering user input

sub filter_field
{
  my $field = shift;
  $field =~ s/From://gi;
  $field =~ s/To://gi;
  $field =~ s/BCC://gi;
  $field =~ s/CC://gi;
  $field =~ s/Subject://gi;
  $field =~ s/Content-Type://gi;
  return $field;
}

sub filter_header_field
{
  my $field = shift;
  $field =~ s/From://gi;
  $field =~ s/To://gi;
  $field =~ s/BCC://gi;
  $field =~ s/CC://gi;
  $field =~ s/Subject://gi;
  $field =~ s/Content-Type://gi;
  $field =~ s/[\0\n\r\|\!\/\<\>\^\$\%\*\&]+/ /g;
  return $field;
}

any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thank you!

21-Nov-11 23:59

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@imokhaijoseph: Use CGI::Carp to view the exact error message:

http://perldoc.perl.org/CGI/Carp.html


use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

@cordovad88: You seem to have missed out the lines of code relating to the comments field. This is why your message is blank.

eg:


my $comments = $query->param("comments");

is missing.

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

22-Nov-11 17:28

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cordovad88

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Posts: 2

Thanks for the quick reply!

i added the lines to the code but.. no luck... any other ideas?

Thanks so much for your help.

23-Nov-11 21:19

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@cordovad88: By "no luck" you mean you're still getting a blank email?

Your form doesn't seem to have a "comments" field in it either. You've also renamed the "email_address" field to "mail" in your form, which will break the script.

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

04-Feb-13 12:34

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brookln

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Posts: 1

Hi, Can you explain how the filters work? (breakdown of the code) Thank you!

11-Feb-13 02:22

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matt

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Posts: 3328

From: Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia

@brookln: filter_field should be self-explanatory. The last regular expression in filter_header_field filters out various unwanted characters that shouldn't be in email headers: NULLs (\0), line feeds (\n), carriage returns (\r) and so on.

--
Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/