Html Form Router/Mailer Documentation

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Please see http://chico.nss.udel.edu/mailto/

HTML Form Routing/Mailing

This CGI processing program is used to route html pages through electronic mail (or back to the browser), either

A) in a text format similar to the original page, or
B) in html format (replica of the original page).

Both of the above methods will include all data filled out prior to submittance granted that the form fields of the original page are named.

Note: All fields listed below, except "X-Mailto-" are case insensitive. So "Subject" and "subject" are the same field to the purposes of this program.

Name Required Default Value Possible Values Short Desc

mailto Yes None Valid e-mail address* Form recipient

replyto Yes None Valid e-mail address* Recipient of a mail reply-to

reply No Thank You any text or html message Text acknowledgment sent to submitter

html_source No Referral page any valid URL Web page source to be substituded for submitting page

suppress No None any combination of
a) answer
b) returnpage
c) mailto
d) serverinfo Suppress (format) the reply sent to the submitter

mailformat No see below a) text
b) html Format of the page (text or html version)

subject No Routed html form any text message Subject line of the mailed message

returnpage No http://www.udel.edu/ or
University of Delaware's Homepage URL or text/html message Suppressed answer--> link passed to submitter
Unsuppressed--> html displayed to submitter

cc[1-9] No None Valid e-mail address* Carbon Copy Form recipient(s).

X-Mailto- No None header text for sendmail (see rfc788) Pass informational headers to sendmail.

bounce No None 1 or more characters 'Bounces' the page back to the browser after filling in the form fields.
Note: 'html_source' can be used

only_sub_if_passed No Off 1 or more characters Only modify html fields supplied by the post or get.

*E-mail address will be verified.

Name	Required	Default Value	Possible Values	Short Desc
mailto	Yes	None	Valid e-mail address*	Form recipient
replyto	Yes	None	Valid e-mail address*	Recipient of a mail reply-to
reply	No	Thank You	any text or html message	Text acknowledgment sent to submitter
html_source	No	Referral page	any valid URL	Web page source to be substituded for submitting page
suppress	No	None	any combination of a) answer b) returnpage c) mailto d) serverinfo	Suppress (format) the reply sent to the submitter
mailformat	No	see below	a) text b) html	Format of the page (text or html version)
subject	No	Routed html form	any text message	Subject line of the mailed message
returnpage	No	http://www.udel.edu/ or University of Delaware's Homepage	URL or text/html message	Suppressed answer--> link passed to submitter Unsuppressed--> html displayed to submitter
cc[1-9]	No	None	Valid e-mail address*	Carbon Copy Form recipient(s).
X-Mailto-	No	None	header text for sendmail (see rfc788)	Pass informational headers to sendmail.
bounce	No	None	1 or more characters	'Bounces' the page back to the browser after filling in the form fields. Note: 'html_source' can be used
only_sub_if_passed	No	Off	1 or more characters	Only modify html fields supplied by the post or get.

Notes on validation of email address's

This program will automatically authenticate the mailto & reply fields. For various reasons, this authentication is not guaranteed, and addresses for the composer accounts (user@udel.edu) in particular may be missed. (This is a large scale problem that is being addressed.) As a workaround any address that is erroneously reported invalid can be registered with the office of System Security and Access, by sending an email to access@udel.edu and include your name, ssn, and email address.

Mailto field

This field specifies the form recipient if the form is to be mailed.
Corrosponds to the 'To:' field of an email.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="mailto" value="hector@udel.edu">

Replyto field

This field is for who is sending the message, or who should receive a reply to this message.
Corrosponds to the 'Reply-To:' field of an email.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="replyto" value="hector@udel.edu">

Reply field

Text/html reply/acknowledgement to display on the submitter's web browser. Will not appear if the form is bounced or suppressed.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="reply" value="<h2>Thank you, your form has been sent.</h2>">

Html_source field

If this field is not included, the program will merge the form variables with the original page that submitted the form and either email it or bounce it back. Any html page may be substituted in place of the original html page with the html_source field. All data of form fields (input, textarea) with matching names (name="yatta") will be included. This is the only field that does not replace if passed in the url or posted.
For example, you bounce with the url /mailto.cgi?bounce=y&html_source=page1.html.
'page1.html' has html_source defined as a hidden field with the value 'page2.html'.
For all other fields, as 'page1.html' is being pulled up, the field in the souce page would be replaced with the value that was passed into the cgi. 'html_souce' is the exception and will not be replaced. Therefore when 'page1.html' is submitted, 'page2.html' will be used as the new source page.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="html_source" value="http://www.mis2.udel.edu/~hector/mailto/mailto_test.html">

Suppress field

After a form has been submitted, the program will by default display an acknowledgement. 'Suppress' can be used to format this acknowledgement.
The suppress field may either be left off, have the value of "mailto" and/or "returnpage" and/or "serverinfo" or have the value "answer". If "answer" is used, the returnpage value must only contain a URL and not additional HTML. This flag suppresses the answer HTML page and goes directly to the HTML page defined by returnpage.

mailto -> suppresses displaying the 'Your form has been sent to (mailto field)' message
returnpage -> suppresses displaying the returnpage field.
serverinfo -> suppresses displaying the some informative (to developers) server information.
answer -> takes the user to the link supplied by the returnpage field.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="suppress" value="serverinfo mailto">
e.g. <input type=hidden name="suppress" value="answer">

Mailformat field

Specifies if a form is to be returned as an html file or as a plain text file. Defaults to text if the page is to be mailed, html if the page is bounced. Currently, the 'text' version of mailformat doesn't mesh well with bounce or only_sub_if_passed.
text -> return as text
html -> return as html
e.g. <input type=hidden name="mailformat" value="html">

Subject field

The subject of a mailed message.
Corrosponds to the 'Subject:' field of an email.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="subject" value="some request">

Returnpage field

If 'answer' is suppressed, will bring up the 'returnpage' in the users browser. Otherwise will just display the text.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="returnpage" value="http://www.udel.edu/">
e.g. <input type=hidden name="returnpage" value="University of Delaware's <a href="http://www.udel.edu/">Homepage</a>>

CC field(s)

This field takes advantage of the carbon copy (Cc:) feature available in the sendmail protocol (rfc788). 'cc1' through 'cc9' are available for sending up to nine carbon copies of the form.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="cc1" value="hector@udel.edu">
e.g. <input type=hidden name="cc2" value="someuser@udel.edu">
e.g. <input type=hidden name="cc3" value="person@udel.edu">

X-Mailto- field

Any field name beginning with "X-Mailto-" will be passed as a header to the sendmail program. These fields will be listed below "Subject:", "From:", "To:", etc. in the resulting mail message. The value for this field must be text that won't goof up sendmail (see rfc788).
The prefix "X-Mailto-" is the only case sensitive field(s).
e.g. <input type=hidden name="X-Mailto-Message" value="hi bob">

Bounce field

Bounce extends the program a little past it's original intention of emailing forms. Bounce gives us pretty much the same functionality, only the form is returned to the users browser. Obviously, any field that deals with modifying some attribute of a mail message will be ignored. The fields html_source, only_sub_if_passed, and mailformat will be considered.
If one or more characters are present in the field, the form will be 'bounced'. Otherwise the form will be emailed as usual.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="bounce" value="y">
e.g. <a href="http://www.mis2.udel.edu/cgis/mailto.cgi?bounce=y&mailformat=html&replyto=bounce_example&html_source=http://www.mis2.udel.edu/mailto_test.html&only_sub_if_passed=y">

Only_sub_if_passed field

If this field is present, the cgi will only replace/modify html fields if the corrosponding field is passed to the program through the cgi interface as a post or a get.
Commonly used with bounce to allow default values of a form to survive through the bounce.
e.g. <input type=hidden name="only_sub_if_passed" value="y">

A sample form can be found at http://www.mis2.udel.edu/mailto_test.html.