Email form sumittal

[Buddy Bradley]

Sending a form using:

<form method="post" action="mailto:me@work.com" enctype="text/plain">
<input type="text" name="stuff" value="">
<input type="submit">
</form>

This works fine in IE (fires up Outlook and sends the email with the form fields as plain text), but in Netscape 6, it just opens up the blank email with no content and refuses to send it.

Is this a NS6 problem? Is there a way around it?

[meow]

Dunno. But action=mailto is unreliable anyway. Better use CGI. If you don't have CGI you can use a remotely hosted service.

[Buddy Bradley]

Don't have access to the CGI, and the company concerned are unwilling to use a web-based email-re-router.

[lucifer]

as meow said use a remote one

[meow]

The only thing that happens is that the form input is sent to a cgi script on another server. The script chews it and sends it to your preferred email address. Email is open to spying eyes anyway, if that is the company's concern.

With mailto you will always have the risk of getting empty posts (you've seen that) and also the possibility that the post get lost in cyber space altogether. If this is for business purposes you also have to take into consideration that mailto looks unprofessional. It's also slow and irritating for the customer to have his email application started by you. He can cancel the operation or decide to send the input later and forget all about it. Altogether a bad solution for business.

Tell them it will make them look like amateurs. That should do the trick. ;)

[lucifer]

meow speaks the truth. though it's always good to have an email address somewhere so that you can email people if you want. I don\'t like these sites where you have to email them through a cgi script all the time and they don\'t let you have their address but - not having to launch your email app is nice plus you don't have to give out your email address which may incurage some to contact you who otherwise wouldn't. I'm wittering

[meow]

ƒùt Th3 5huÇk up! :p

[Buddy Bradley]

Never mind folks; I've done it in ASP hosted on our own site now.

Thanks anyway.