I'll Give Help With: Web Design, Tips & Useful Knowledge

[Sinister]

Welcome readers!

Many are aware of my pressence on the CalPolyOnline.com Forums. In this Thread of mine. I'll be willing to help ya out in questions anything dealing with WebDesign, PHP and Domain & Hosting Server Plans. Whats best to go with to what I would suggest or personally used. Are you new to webdesign but would like to obtain profession, experience help? Ask me.

Reason why I'm offering to share what I know to those up coming or may have questions about the feild. Is because I remember and recall the days I started off. I learn alot of it through self teaching befor I went and got my degree in it. So i understand how it feels to wanting to learn enough to get ya started or to learn about those "Oh that looks so Cool!" designs or effects you see on some sites and you would like to be able to create the same for your own.

On this thread. No question is stupid and I'm willing to respond to all questions. Even with some questions, i'll give ya a script to work with. Also while useing this thread. I'll post up some most used scripts in protecting your site (such as scripts that would disable people from stealing and saving your site and toally compying it and posting it up as their own) and also great menu scripts that flash is not required (Tho some menus look like they are made with flash) and many other ways.

I'll also point out pages on where to start, if your tally new to the area but intrested in learning it. I'll hand out and point links to pages that I used when I was starting off on learning. What was useful. However.. it will take years to learn what I know. So don't get fustreated! Remember this, Webdesign is an art and a art that is highly enjoyed by all, even your self when its completed. A well worth task in the end and thats where the fun starts!

So if you have any questions. Feel free to ask me.

However.. I have a special thanks to give out. I'm sorry I don't have their names since they were not given to me. I recived a private message today.. that I was suggested to someone else (not going to say names due to me not having their permission to give out their names) but if you knwo who you are. I thank you for it.

Yours Truly
Sinister

[boister77]

first off...thanks for offering help! i created a very basic html website, www.realmofexcursion .com, and i need help trying to create a page where users can upload files to my ftp server. thanks!

[Keng]

Usually your server plan has build in upload tool, you should look into that first.

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by boister77

first off...thanks for offering help! i created a very basic html website, www.realmofexcursion .com, and i need help trying to create a page where users can upload files to my ftp server. thanks!

There is two ways going about it. PHP upload or by Perl Documentation . Perl is used for what you wish to do with your site. However your hosting plan or server must support perl. if you are unsure of this, see your help support for futher answering on that.

perl is a common script used in web design (for interactive between user and site) and is common as php is for message boards / forums and through out site design and gallary. However.. the method your going about. I'd advise PHP. Perl scripts have to be writen up.. and I'm here to give tips and useful knowlage on how to obtain it. Not only your learn it but also.. I can help you if you get stuck on codeing.
Any of the O'Reilly books are great to learn from as well if you wish to learn Perl. Its what I used to learn and keep up to date with perl. Not only is it easy to understand but the bookw ill guide you through everything you need and need to know about Perl.
(explaineing it would take too long.. so i advise the books. Check them out and read up on it. Its good to know both sides. Perl and PHP.)

However.. for now. I can suggest a php script. you'll need MySQL database set with your host server and have that up and runing. I'll include a Zip file for you to download to obtain these files you'll need. the readme file will explaine the reast you need to know and what the funcutions do. Make sure to have php 5.0 or higher. If you don't. go to www.php.net and get it.

http://www.dreamzcatcher.com/Siniste...PHP_Script.zip

Yours Truly
Sinister

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by Keng

Usually your server plan has build in upload tool, you should look into that first.

the upload tool I think you talk of is for if your useing ftp.domain.com & yourpassword that is used with one of the common FTP programes like COffeeCup FTP (one I perfer to use, easy to use and great for uploading)

he wants the script that is used for interactive useage between use and site. To allow his users to upload their own images to his site for others to be able to see and share with each other. Something like what MSN groups do.

Yours Truly
Sinister

[tweetyhack]

Right. If you don't have php, perl, or any other facility to allow users to upload to your server, then you are out of luck. Maybe email file to you and you manually upload it.

From your post, I was thinking anonymous uploads. For that you don't need a mySQL database. If you need to keep track of users and files they upload, it starts getting complicated and you will need heavy coding. You'd need a login system, db inserts, selects, updates, security, etc.

Good luck.

Ah. Looked at your site. WFTP is good. I use CoreFTP(supports SSL).

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by tweetyhack

Right. If you don't have php, perl, or any other facility to allow users to upload to your server, then you are out of luck. Maybe email file to you and you manually upload it.

From your post, I was thinking anonymous uploads. For that you don't need a mySQL database. If you need to keep track of users and files they upload, it starts getting complicated and you will need heavy coding. You'd need a login system, db inserts, selects, updates, security, etc.

Good luck.

Ah. Looked at your site. WFTP is good. I use CoreFTP(supports SSL).

indeed.

Your right. If the site does not support either. he is out of luck. There is one other way of doing it and its a big secuity risk. Thats with <form> tags with the hidden commands for ftp upload and that alone to set it up requires major scripting. Also alot of time and not worth it in the end.

Yours Truly
Sinister

[Keng]

Originally Posted by Sinister

the upload tool I think you talk of is for if your useing ftp.domain.com & yourpassword that is used with one of the common FTP programes like COffeeCup FTP (one I perfer to use, easy to use and great for uploading)

he wants the script that is used for interactive useage between use and site. To allow his users to upload their own images to his site for others to be able to see and share with each other. Something like what MSN groups do.

Yours Truly
Sinister

I write ASP myself...I know what he wants

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by Keng

I write ASP myself...I know what he wants

Coo' I look forward to one day maybe working together on a script to help improve on a site or perhaps doing something for the forum. Who knows, it may happen. I welcome working with new people and those alike in the same areas I work in.

Yours truly
Sinister

[Admin]

Did you learn how to play with Macromedia Flash?

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by KayCee

Did you learn how to play with Macromedia Flash?

Yes. Flash is covered in graphic Design. beside being tought how to use it to its full extents, there is alot of useful tutorials on the internet that go into deph that explaine how to use it well as well and can also best explaine how to use it.

Alot of it is really easy but when you really have no idea on it, it can be very confuseing. I can even suggest a few books worth buying and reading to learn it. Over all Macromedia Flash MX and 7+ I sworth getting when it comes to web design but I over all perfer DreamWeaver with flash clashed together.

So yes I've tinkered with it and personally used it.


Yours Truly
Sinister

[Mike]

Yo Sinister, I am trying to come up with a simple email page. Rather than posting up my email, customers can feel out their name, email address, contact info and their inquiry and comments in the text field. Can you show me how to do this? And of course, after completing the form, they hit enter and all the information is sent into my inbox. And they do not see my email address and returned back to the index page. Thanks in advance

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by Mike

Yo Sinister, I am trying to come up with a simple email page. Rather than posting up my email, customers can feel out their name, email address, contact info and their inquiry and comments in the text field. Can you show me how to do this? And of course, after completing the form, they hit enter and all the information is sent into my inbox. And they do not see my email address and returned back to the index page. Thanks in advance

There is two ways going about it.

One: IF you own your own domain name And Have a paid hosting server. Doing it this way, your able to hide your e-mail address from ever being obtained.

Two: If you don't. (Example if you use angelfire) There is no way to hide your e-mail address and people can obtain it and form to be filled out will not work as the same and not as well if you owned your own domain name.

I'm taking it you own your own domain name. If you don't. Please post back and inform me what free service your with and I'll give you the codeing to use for that free servce.

Here is the folowing code. I'll point out where you should fill in the following blanks.

This following Code of FORM tags must be done in Caps.
<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://toolbox.YOUR SERVER YOU ARE WITH.com/bin/formmail.pl">(The Server you are with may use a different contact for the CGI Bin, you will need to obtain what they use for your paid domain.)
<input type=hidden name="recipient" value="Your Email@Whatever.com"> (Another Note. Some Paid Servces MAy require you to use your domain e-mail address YourName@YourDomainN Ame.com. Dubble check to ensure yours does not require such)
<input type="hidden" name="title" value="Title of Form">
<input type="hidden" name="subject" value="Your Subject">
Your Name
<br>
<input type="text" name="realname" value="">
Your E-mail
<br>
<input type="text" name="email" value="">
Your FeedBack
<br>
<textarea name="feedback" cols=25 rows=15></textarea>
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="other.htm">
<input type=submit value=submit name=submit>
</FORM>


Now I'm going to break down the code for you. Just in case you wanna change it later for other Forms. There is other ways of useing forms as well. You can obtaina persons host, IP, etc when they fill out a form. You can also make the form have Required Feilds to fill out as well. I've just given you a basic form and Now I'm going to explkaine what it does.

The "Hidden" you see in the code. makes those feilds hidden to users. This way the users can not change those certain feilds. I've added the name with each form tags. (i.e. Your name, Your E-mail Your FeedBack) but that can be changed if you want it to look nicer with table tags.

Now I'll use this code from the script and break down its parts
<input type="text" name="email" value="">

<input type="text" (This is to ensure what you will recive is text and nothing else.
name="email" This can be changed. it will show next to it, the persons email address if they place in their e-mail address for you to reply to (thats if thewy want a reply)

Value="" If you leave it blank between the "" it will show a blank text area for them to fill out. Its better to put a name to each text box. This way they don't have to delete the current text to fill it out.

These are basicly the basics. If you don't understand something within the form code. (i.e. such as textarea or to learn how to get other features) please feel free to ask

Yours Truly
Sinister

[Mike]

I got my own domain. Looks confusing and I'll see what I can get out of the code. Thanks.

[Keng]

I am pretty sure you need a small program to handle the form too...

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by Mike

I got my own domain. Looks confusing and I'll see what I can get out of the code. Thanks.

Here is the break down on writeing up a form code. I kept thinking and thinking. Of the best way to explaine so you can understand yet for it be useful. So here it is.

Form Mail info
FormMail is a universal WWW form to E-mail gateway. There is only one required form input tag which must be specified in order for this script to work with your existing forms. Other hidden configuration fields can also be used to enhance the operation of FormMail on your site. Version 1.6 of FormMail contains a few minor bug fixes, optimized code and more comments. The biggest change in this version is that by default, form fields are now sorted as they appear in the form. Error pages were also beautified a little and two new configuration fields were created. Read the History for a more complete list of changes.

Form Mail Config
The action of your form needs to point towards this script, and the method must be POST in capital letters. FormMail offers many new ways to code your form to tailor the resulting HTML page and the way the script performs. Below is a list of form fields you can use and how to implement them.
An example usage would be:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://Whatersveris/bin/formmail.pl">
...
<input type=hidden name="recipient" value="email@yourdom ain.com">
<input type=submit value=submit name=submit>
</FORM>

This will result in the contents of your form being emailed to the user specified in the recipient field. This is the simplist, and most basic way to use the formmail.pl script.

Necessary Form Feilds
There is only one form field that you must have in your form, for FormMail to work correctly. This is the recipient field.
Field: recipient
Description: This form field allows you to specify to whom you wish for your form results to be mailed. Most likely you will want to configure this option as a hidden form field with a value equal to that of your e-mail address.

*NOTE* This email MUST be an email address hosted by domain Network (more than likely). Not allow formmail to send to email users outside of your network to prevent Spammers from abusing your formmail.
Example: <input type=hidden name="recipient" value="email@yourdom ain.com">

Optional Form Fields
Field: subject
Description: The subject field will allow you to specify the subject that you wish to appear in the e-mail that is sent to you after this form has been filled out. If you do not have this option turned on, then the script will default to a message subject: WWW Form Submission.
Example: If you wish to choose what the subject is:
<input type="hidden" name="subject" value="Your Subject">

To allow the user to choose a subject:
<input type="text" name="subject">

Field: email
Description: This form field will allow the user to specify their return e-mail address. If you want to be able to return e-mail to your user, I strongly suggest that you include this form field and allow them to fill it in. This will be put into the From: field of the message you receive. If you want to require an email address with valid Example, add this field name to the 'required' field.
Example: <input type="text" name="email" value="">

Field: realname
Description: The realname form field will allow the user to input their real name. This field is useful for identification purposes and will also be put into the From: line of your message header.
Example: <input type="text" name="realname" value="">

Field: redirect
Description: If you wish to redirect the user to a different URL, rather than having them see the default response to the fill-out form, you can use this hidden variable to send them to a pre-made HTML page.
Example: To choose the URL they will end up at:
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="http://your domain.com/to/file.html"> To allow them to specify a URL they wish to travel to once the form is filled out:
<input type="text" name="redirect">

Field: required
Description: You can now require for certain fields in your form to be filled in before the user can successfully submit the form. Simply place all field names that you want to be mandatory into this field. If the required fields are not filled in, the user will be notified of what they need to fill in, and a link back to the form they just submitted will be provided. To use a customized error page, see 'missing_fields_redi rect'
Example: If you want to require that they fill in the email and phone fields in your form, so that you can reach them once you have received the mail, use a Example like:
<input type="hidden" name="required" value="email,phone">

Field: env_report
Description: Allows you to have Environment variables included in the e-mail message you receive after a user has filled out your form. Useful if you wish to know what browser they were using, what domain they were coming from or any other attributes associated with environment variables. The following is a short list of valid environment variables that might be useful:

REMOTE_HOST Sends the hostname making a request.
REMOTE_ADDR Sends the IP address of the remote host making the request.
REMOTE_USER If server supports authentication and script is protected, this is the username they have authenticated as. *This is not usually set.*
HTTP_USER_AGENT The browser the client is using to send the request.

There are others, but these are a few of the most useful. For more information on environment variables, see:
http://www.cgi-resources.com/Documen...ent_Variables/

Example: If you wanted to find the remote host and browser sending the request, you would put the following into your form:
<input type="hidden" name="env_report" value="REMOTE_HOST,H TTP_USER_AGENT">

Field: sort
Description: This field allows you to choose the order in which you wish for your variables to appear in the e-mail that FormMail generates. You can choose to have the field sorted alphabetically or specify a set order in which you want the fields to appear in your mail message. By leaving this field out, the order will simply default to the order in which the browsers sends the information to the script (which is usually the exact same order as they appeared in the form.) When sorting by a set order of fields, you should include the phrase "order:" as the first part of your value for the sort field, and then follow that with the field names you want to be listed in the e-mail message, separated by commas. Version 1.6 allows a little more flexibility in the listing of ordered fields, in that you can include spaces and line breaks in the field without it messing up the sort. This is helpful when you have many form fields and need to insert a line wrap.
Example: To sort alphabetically:
<input type="hidden" name="sort" value="alphabetic">

To sort by a set field order:
<input type="hidden" name="sort" value="order:name1,n ame2,name3,etc...">

Field: print_config
Description: print_config allows you to specify which of the config variables you would like to have printed in your e-mail message. By default, no config fields are printed to your e-mail. This is because the important form fields, like email, subject, etc. are included in the header of the message. However some users have asked for this option so they can have these fields printed in the body of the message. The config fields that you wish to have printed should be in the value attribute of your input tag separated by commas.
Example: If you want to print the email and subject fields in the body of your message, you would place the following form tag:
<input type="hidden" name="print_config" value="email,subject ">

Field: print_blank_fields
Description: print_blank_fields allows you to request that all form fields are printed in the return HTML, regardless of whether or not they were filled in. FormMail defaults to turning this off, so that unused form fields aren't e-mailed.
Example: If you want to print all blank fields:
<input type="hidden" name="print_blank_fi elds" value="1">

Field: title
Description: This form field allows you to specify the title and header that will appear on the resulting page if you do not specify a redirect URL.
Example: If you wanted a title of 'Feedback Form Results':
<input type="hidden" name="title" value="Feedback Form Results">

Field: return_link_url
Description: This field allows you to specify a URL that will appear, as return_link_title, on the following report page. This field will not be used if you have the redirect field set, but it is useful if you allow the user to receive the report on the following page, but want to offer them a way to get back to your main page.
Example: <input type="hidden" name="return_link_ur l" value="http://Your Domain.com/main.html">

Field: return_link_title
Description: This is the title that will be used to link the user back to the page you specify with return_link_url. The two fields will be shown on the resulting form page as:


return_link_title


Example: <input type="hidden" name="return_link_ti tle" value="Back to Main Page">

Field: missing_fields_redir ect
Description: This form field allows you to specify a URL that users will be redirected to if there are fields listed in the required form field that are not filled in. This is so you can customize an error page instead of displaying the default.
Example: <input type="hidden" name="missing_fields _redirect" value="http://Your Domain.com/error.html">

Field: background
Description: This form field allow you to specify a background image that will appear if you do not have the redirect field set. This image will appear as the background to the form results page.
Example: <input type="hidden" name="background" value="http://Your Domain.com/image.gif">

Field: bgcolor
Description: This form field allow you to specify a bgcolor for the form results page in much the way you specify a background image. This field should not be set if the redirect field is.
Example: For a background color of White:
<input type="hidden" name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF">

Field: text_color
Description: This field works in the same way as bgcolor, except that it will change the color of your text.
Example: For a text color of Black:
<input type="hidden" name="text_color" value="#000000">

Field: link_color
Description: Changes the color of links on the resulting page. Works in the same way as text_color. Should not be defined if redirect is.
Example: For a link color of Red:
<input type="hidden" name="link_color" value="#FF0000">

Field: vlink_color
Description: Changes the color of visited links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is.
Example: For a visited link color of Blue:
<input type="hidden" name="vlink_color" value="#0000FF">

Field: alink_color
Description: Changes the color of active links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is.
Example: For a visited link color of Blue:
<input type="hidden" name="alink_color" value="#0000FF">


Any other form fields that appear in your script will be mailed back to you and displayed on the resulting page if you do not have the redirect field set. There is no limit as to how many other form fields you can use with this form, except the limits imposed by browsers and your server.
Some of the possible uses of this script are:
1) You want to have a form that will be mailed to you, but aren't sure how to write the CGI script for it.
2) You are the webmaster of your site and want to allow users to use forms, but not to have their own cgi-bin directories, which can cause security risks to your system. You can set this script up and then allow all users to run off of it.
3) Want to have one script to parse all of your html forms and mail them to you.

I've broken it all down for you. So this way you can learn and make good use to it. Enjoy!

Yours Truly
Sinister

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by Keng

I am pretty sure you need a small program to handle the form too...

No. Just a cgi bin / cgi folder. it works like the db folder but its for form mail. Most hosting servers have such features.


Yours Truly
Sinister