Formmail Instructions

How to use the Web Communications Formmail script

General requirements:

• Forms using the formmail script must be located at a URL with a "tufts.edu" address.
• Use of the script must be arranged with Web Communications, otherwise form submission will not work.
• Browsers must correctly identify referring pages in order for forms to submit.
• Multiple select fields must use names ending with "[]" in order to be processed correctly. For example:
  <select name="comments[]" multiple>
• Submitted forms will be sent via email as HTML. You must have an HTML-aware/enabled email client in order to read submissions.

Step 1: Notify Web Communications

Fill out the Formmail Request Form. You will need to provide your full name, campus phone number (if applicable), email address, email address where you wish to receive the form submission, and the name and URL of the site on which you wish to use the formmail.

Web Communications will reply with a confirmation and a numerical recipient code that you will use in your HTML form. This code is required for formmail use.

Step 2: Set the "method=" and "action=" attributes in your form.

The <form> tag must have a method="post" and an action="http://scripts.web.tufts.edu/formmail/formmail.php" attribute. For example:

<form name="myform" method="post" action="http://scripts.web.tufts.edu/formmail/formmail.php">

Note: the "name=" attribute is optional but it is good practice to include it.

Step 3: Add "email" field

Formmail requires that form users enter a valid email address:

<input type="text" name="email">

Note: you may add other attributes as desired.

Step 4: Add "recipient" field

Formmail also requires that you enter your numercial recipient code in a hidden field. Example:

<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="12345">

DO NOT use 12345 (it is not valid). You will receive your own recipient code which you will put in this field once you've filled out the Formmail Request Form.

Other features

The following are optional features that you can customize to your preference.

Custom redirect

The custom redirect is a page that you create on your site to which form users will be redirected after form submission. Typically this is a page with a "thank you" message of some sort. If not specified, a very basic, default thank you page will display upon successful form submission. You should take advantage of this feature so that the user experiences consistent navigation, look and feel, etc. as much as possible. The input should use the following format. Note that "http://" should be omitted from the redirect value, but otherwise a full URL including machine name should be supplied:

<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="someserver.tufts.edu/somedir/thanks.html">

Required fields

The script can check for required fields you specify and alert the form user if any of them are not filled in. The alert will be displayed in a separate page, with a very basic design. This is not a substitute for client-side validation in Javascript, which can do much more, but serves as a basic check for empty text, textarea, radio, multiple select and checkbox fields. Please note that the script accepts "0" and one or more empty spaces as text input and will not produce an error in these instances. Also, single select elements always have one default selection so they will always pass this check. Required fields should be specified as comma-separated words that match required input field names exactly, for example:

<input type="text" name="first name" size="25">
<input type="text" name="last name" size="25">
<input type="text" name="age" size="5">
<input type="hidden" name="required" value="first name,last name,age">

Notes: When specifying multiple select names as required fields, do not include the "[]" as part of the name, for example:

<select name="novels[]" multiple>
<input type="hidden" name="required" value="novels">

Formmail automatically requires the "email" text field to be filled in, so it is not necessary to specify it as a required field.

Email Subject

You or the form user can specify a subject for the email message, which will show up in the "Subject:" header of the submitted message. Follow the appropriate format below based on your preference. Note that in both cases a name="subject" attribute is necessary:

Watch Out for Spam! Because of the increase in spam via web submission forms, Web Communications has implemented agressive spam filtering of form submissions. That means you should avoid subject lines that contain popular "spam words." Your forms will not work if the subject is "hello" (any case) or if it contains the word "casino" (any case).

You specify the subject:
<input type="hidden" name="subject" value="Submission from comments form">

Form user specifies a subject:
<input type="text" name="subject">

Notes

When entering form element names containing spaces, these will be encoded into underscores in the received email. For example:

<input type="text" name="email address"> produces:
email_address

More Information:
Formmail Overview Formmail SLA Formmail Instructions Formmail Request Form