How Do I Submit a Form to a Server?

Question

Overview
- I am working on forms for two seperate websites.
- I have the server information for website1, but I don't
have the information for website2's server at the moment.
- I set up a form on dreamweaver 8.0 and I am trying to get
the user to submit it to my server.
Questions:
1. Do I make the form a PHP file since I want the user to
submit it to a server? If so, I have PHP/ MySQL set up on my
webserver for website1. I hear that email is a very unreliable/
unsafe way to submit forms.
2. What is the code for this or is there a tutorial one of
you might know?
3. Website1 is an FTP and I believe that website2 is a local
server. Would there be a difference in the code besides the
rootfolder?
4. When someone submits a form to the server, is there a new
file that is created in the rootfolder or is it manifested in the
database somehow? I am very unfamiliar with databases.
I have searched over and over again in google and these
forums. All I can find is how to email a form. Even when I tried
that, all I get attached in the email is an .att file that I can't
open unless I download some rogue program that I really don't
trust. I feel submitting to a database is the way to go. Please
help me.
-- Carrion Misery

Answer 1

What you need to find out is what server side scripting can
be used on the
hosting. ASP or PHP or ?
What does the hosting's FAQ/support pages say about form to
email scripts?
Is there a hosting control panel or CPanel? If yes- look in
there.
If you can use PHP scripting, here's a quick list of
instructions for a
particular script:
If you don't want to create the php script yourself- here's a
very short set
of instructions to get a free script working in a few
minutes. Refer to the
docs folder in the expanded zip file for more info.
1)go to
http://boaddrink.com
-->phpformmail
download it.
extract the ZIP file.
2) open formmail.php in dreamweaver
Make the following changes (in code view, turn line numbers
on)
2a)
line 4,
define('CHECK_REFERER', true);
change to:
define('CHECK_REFERER', false);
reason: too many people use a firewall or Norton security to
restrict this.
2b)
Line 43
$referers = array('www.example.com', 'example.com');
change to the url address of your web site.
reason: this probably isn't needed since we just turned the
referrer
checking off. but change it anyway.
2c)  *this is to hard-code the recipient address into
the php
file, where it is totally invisible *
Line 46
$recipient_array = array();
change to:
$recipient_array = array('me' =>
'[email protected]);
**of course, replace [email protected]  with
the email address
you want to receive the form data
reason: this sets the email address the form results will be
sent to.
2d) give the script a default "From" address to use.
Go to line 41
Change:
define('FROM', null);
to:
define('FROM', 'Example Name <[email protected]>');
substituting your name and email address.
3) now do a File-->Save As and save this file to within
this Local Site
folder. save it as anythingyouwant.php
4) in dw's File Panel, find anythingyouwant.php and upload it
to the remote
site.
5) Now open your form html file in dreamweaver,
5a)click the mouse into the form area, and select the
<form> tag on the
lower left margin of the design window.
In the Property Inspector, it should now show the properties
of the <form>
tag. In the Property Inspector, to the right of the ACTION
line, click the
folder icon and browse to and select the anythingyouwant.php
file
you've saved to within this site.
5b) now go to dw menu-->Insert-->Form
Objects-->Hidden Field
This inserts a hidden form field.
In the property inspector, change the NAME/ID of this field
to: recipient
And the VALUE of this field to: me
the code should look like:
<input name="recipient" type="hidden" id="recipient"
value="me">
This tells the script to use the "me" recipient_alias value
as the email
address to send the form to.
5c: Do you have a form field to collect the user's email
address?
If yes, if this field is named exactly "email" then the
script will use the
user's email as the reply to in the outgoing email
6) Save and upload the form page.
Try the form from the website.
Optional:
1-make a new page for a thank you for submitting message.
In the form, insert another hidden field.
Name: redirect
Value:  the full absolute
http:// address to the new thank you page.
If you don't set a redirect value- the form script will build
a "thank you,
here is what you submitted" page. If you want to use that
dynamic page-
upload the .css file that it uses.
2- If you have a field in the form to collect the visitor's
email address,
IF you name this field  in the form exactly  
 email   then the visitor's
email address will be the Reply To address in the outgoing
email.
There are 30 or so other optional form fields to control the
form- see the
readme in the docs folder. One of those optional control
fields is
verification.
Alan
Adobe Community Expert, dreamweaver
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/