Simple comments form
A web site wouldn't be complete without some simple method of sending
comments or requesting information. A small form and simple CGI can be
designed to facilitate such a task. The comments form and CGI source are
presented below.
HTML source for the comments form
The HTML source below represents a
simple comments form.
This form can be customized for your Virtual Server by simply changing
the occurrences of the email address (shown in bold) to the
address that you would like to use in the form. It may be necessary
to add an e-mail alias or e-mail mailbox if you use an e-mail address
that does not currently exist on your Virtual Server.
<html>
<head>
<title>Send Comments / Request Information</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Send Comments / Request Information</h3>
<hr>
<p>
Feel free to send us your comments, suggestions, and/or questions.
We value your input and desire to make these pages as useful as possible.
Please leave an E-mail address so we can reply to you.
<p>
If your web client supports the "mailto" URL, you can use your
<A HREF="mailto:email-address@your-domain.name.">local mail app</a>
to compose and send a mail message. Otherwise, you can use
the form below.
<p>
For those using browsers that do not support forms such as this,
send mail to: <em>email-address@your-domain.name</em>
<p>
<hr>
<form method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/library/comments/comments.pl">
<input name="recipient" type="hidden" value="email-address@your-domain.name">
<font size="+1">Your Full Name:</font><br>
<input name="name" size=50>
<p>
<font size="+1">Your E-mail address:</font><br>
<input name="email" size=50>
<p>
<font size="+1">The Subject of Your Message:</font><br>
<input name="subject" size=50>
<p>
<font size="+1">Your comments, suggestions, and/or questions:</font><br>
<textarea wrap=physical name="comments" rows=8 cols=50></textarea>
<p>
<input type="submit" value="Send comments">
<input type="reset" value="Clear">
<p>
</form>
<hr>
</body>
</html>
The form shown above represents the minimum amount of information that
a comments form should contain- namely "recipient, name, email, subject,
and comments". Other information can be added to the form above.... this
information will also be sent to the "recipient" specified.
If you are unfamiliar with the FORM HTML element, or would like to
learn more about forms, the following URL is an excellent resource:
Mosaic for X version 2.0 Fill-Out Form Support.
How to Install the comments CGI
To install the comments CGI on your Virtual Server you will need to
do the following:
- Download the comments form
You will need to download the comments
form HTML source and store it somewhere in your
usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs directory structure. Feel free to customize
the form, add graphics, etc. But be sure that the variable name
for each input field is not altered.
- Untar the Simple Comments CGI source code
-
Telnet or SSH to your Virtual Server.
- change directories to your home directory
(type "
cd" and hit return)
- type "
tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/comments.tar"
This will install the comments.pl and util.pl files into
your www/cgi-bin/library/comments directory.
- Customize the Appearance of the Comments CGI
Two subroutines in the util.pl
file are used to print out header and footer information. These
functions are print_header_info and
print_footer_info. Feel free to modify these functions
such that the CGI outputs pages that are in synch with the motifs
of the rest of your site.
Once you have completed the installation successfully, you will have a
working comments form like the one shown below (go ahead and test it).
