Telemicus — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 15:56:56 +0000

That's great guys. Let me try that out over the weekend and I'll get back to you to let you know my success or otherwise.

Thanks a bunch.

andy206uk — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 15:29:49 +0000

All together with validation it would look something like this:

<?php

if($_POST['firstname'] && $_POST[lastname] && $_POST[email]) {

//create data line to go into database
$data = "$_POST[firstname]\t$_POST[lastname]\t$_POST[email]\n";

//Open data file for writing
$filename = "data.txt";
$filepointer = fopen($filename, a);

//Write data to file
fwrite($filepointer, "$data");

//Close file
fclose($filepointer);

//redirect to thankyou page
header("Location:http://www.yourwebsite.com/thankyou.html");

} else {

//redirect to error page
header("Location:http://www.yourwebsite.com/error.html");

}

?>

CptAwesome — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:30:35 +0000

Yeah, and you can throw in some validation too like

if($_POST['firstname'] && $_POST[lastname] && $_POST[email])
{
// the rest of the code;
}

totally simple validation, but makes sure the fields aren't empty.

andy206uk — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 21:50:49 +0000

Right... ok firstly you need a form, I'm guessing you know how to build them. Let's say the fields are called "firstname" "lastname" and "email" and we're going to store them in a text file one on each line with the data seperated by tabs (for easy importing into excel and then into a mail merge).

At it's most basic level when the user submits the code you need to do something like this:

Firstly, you need the form to POST the data to the php script, for example call it "emailcollector.php". Second, you need to create a file on the server in the same directory as emailcollector.php and call it "data.txt". The permissions (chmod) need to be set to 777.

(just so you know, \t is a tab character and \n is a newline).

This goes in your "emailcollector.php" file.

<?php

//create data line to go into database
$data = "$_POST[firstname]\t$_POST[lastname]\t$_POST[email]\n";

//Open data file for writing
$filename = "data.txt";
$filepointer = fopen($filename, a);

//Write data to file
fwrite($filepointer, "$data");

//Close file
fclose($filepointer);

//redirect to thankyou page
header("Location:http://www.yourwebsite.com/thankyou.html");

?>

And thats all there is to it. Simple huh?

Telemicus — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:18:50 +0000

Actually Andy, any of the above would be fine. I would prefer them to be sent to some sort of database but this could be nothing more than just a CSV file.

andy206uk — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 15:14:37 +0000

Where do you want the details to end up? Do you want them to be emailed to you? put in a database? put in a text file? or something else?

Telemicus — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 14:02:45 +0000

I had another look at my hosting package and yes it does mention PHP support and Perl Support. I don't see anything about ASP support. Would PHP be easier - I'm afraid I don't currently know anything about it either.

It has Formmail as a Free Plugin and also mentions PHP Nuke? All new territory for me but I am always willing to learn.

Let me know if you think you know the route I should go.

Thanks,

Busy — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 10:27:06 +0000

Are you able to use server side, such as PHP or ASP ?

You can email the content direct to your email (by using the action field), but with server side you can do validation (can with javascript but if its disabled your up the creek), send usewhere are and other things.