You can create a web page on your web site to allow visitors to send you e-mail messages. With an e-mail form, you can allow users to register for conferences, send feedback, or answer an on-line poll. With additional tools supplied by the Math Department, you can import these messages into a spreadsheet or database.

• Creating an E-mail Form
• Configuring procmail
• Manipulating the messages

Creating an E-mail Form

To create an e-mail form, simply use a text editor to create a web page in your space on the Math Department web server. The process will not work from outside the department. Create a form on the page with the action attribute of the form tag set to https://www.math.wisc.edu/formMail/formMail.php. You can have any number of fields on the form however certain fields have special meaning. The following form fields are required:

• recipient This field is used to specify the recipient of the e-mail message. normally, this would be your e-mail address. The address must be a valid Math Department e-mail address. You cannot use this service to send e-mail to addresses outside the Math Department. You can have the message sent to more than one address by listing the addresses seperated by a comma. Example:

   <INPUT name="recipient" type="hidden" value="jheim@math.wisc.edu">
   

• subject The message subject. You will probably want to set this to something distinctive so that you can filter your mail based on the subject. Example:

   <INPUT name="subject" type="hidden" value="Conference registration">
   

• email This field is the sender's e-mail address. The message will appear to have come from this address. Example:

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

• realname This field is used to allow the user to enter his real name. Example:

    <INPUT name="realname" type="text">
    

• required This field allows you to specify that certain fields are filled out when the form is submitted. If a visitor to your site clicks the submit button without filling out a field, an error message is displayed and he is asked to return to the form to fill out the field. Example:

    <INPUT name="required" type="hidden" value="realname">
  

• sort This field is used to allow for a custom sort order of the form fields. The syntax is each field name separated by commas. If you omit a field name in the list, but it's a valid form field, the field will NOT be shown in the email.
  
• env_report This field is used to specify that you wish to receive additional environment settings to be included in the form results. Valid values are REMOTE_USER, REMOTE_ADDR, and HTTP_USER_AGENT. These values should be separated by commas.
  
  • REMOTE_USER: If the user is in an authenticated zone of your site, this would be the username they are logged in with.
  • REMOTE_ADDR: This is the IP address of the users computer.
  • HTTP_USER_AGENT: This is the user agent field as set by the users browser, which typically has the browser type in it.
  
  Example:

                  <INPUT name="env_report" type="hidden" value="REMOTE_ADDR,HTTP_USER_AGENT">
                  

• redirect This field is used to specify which URL you wish to be displayed to the user upon a successful form submition. This can be a relative or absolute pat. There is a default Thank You page built in.
  
• errror_redirect This field is used to specify which URL you wish to be displayed to the user upon encountering an error. This does not include missing fields, but rather just errors with field data and errors pertaining to submitting the form. This can be a relative or absolute path . there is a default Error page built in.
  
• missing_fields_redirect This field is used to specify what URL you wish to be displayed to the user upon encountering a missing field. This can be a relative or absolute path . there is a default missing field Error page built in. >

<FORM action="https://www.math.wisc.edu/formMail/formMail.php" method="POST">
<INPUT name="recipient" type="hidden" value="jheim@math.wisc.edu">
 <INPUT name="subject" type="hidden" value="Computing Feedback">
  <INPUT name="env_report" type="hidden" value="REMOTE_ADDR,HTTP_USER_AGENT">
Your email:  
<INPUT name="email" type="text">
<BR>

Your name:
  <INPUT name="realname" type="text">
  <BR>

  Your comments:
  <TEXTAREA name="comments"> </TEXTAREA>
  <BR>

  <INPUT type="submit" value="Submit">

  </FORM>

Configuring procmail

:0:
* ^Subject: Online form: Computing Feedback
.feedback/

1. Create a new mail folder with your email program of choice.
2. Send yourself a test message with your on-line form. Transfer the test message into your new mail folder.
3. Log onto login.math.wisc.edu and run the newrule program. You must pass the newrule program the name of your mail folder. For example if your new folder is named 'feedback', you would type this:

   newrule feedback
   

Manipulating the Messages

Once you have created an e-mail folder containing the messages from your web form, you can import them into a database or spreadsheet via the mbox2csv program.

1. log onto login.math.wisc.edu
2. Run the mbox2csv command redirecting the output to a file. For example, if you have saved all the messages from your form in a mail folder named feedback, you could create a file named feedback.csv by typing the following:

    mbox2csv feedback > feedback.csv
    

   This file can then be imported by many database and spreadsheet programs. For example, if you use Windows, double-clicking on the file will launch Microsoft Excell and open the file.
   
   By default, mbox2csv tries to discover the data fields in your messages and displays them in alphabetical order in the CSV output. You can change this behavior by supplying a comment separated list of fields when you run mbox2csv. For example, the following command will display just the realname, email, and comments fields.

    mbox2csv feedback realname,email,comments