Form Processor

FormCGI is a flexible and secure form processor, which you can use to receive form results by email, or write form output to a file. FormCGI includes an extensive feature set, including validation of required fields, support for regular expression matching, and verification of credit card numbers.

The following guide provides an introduction to creating forms, and posting input to the form handler. Those already familiar with this process may wish to skip the introduction, and proceed directly to the list of available form parameters.

A form processor sample is available:

Protecting Your Email Addresses

Email addresses you include on your site, whether visibly on the page, or within the HTML code, are vulnerable to malicious email harvesters. This includes email addresses specified in forms. If you wish to receive form results by email, please make sure you read our Email & Spam FAQ before adding your form to your site. This FAQ includes detailed information about this issue, as well as steps you can take to protect your email addresses.

Receiving Form Results by Email

You can receive form results by email as follows (replacing "you@yourname.com" and "Message Subject" as appropriate):

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-t/form.cgi">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="to" VALUE="you@yourname.com">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="from" VALUE="you@yourname.com">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="subject" VALUE="Message Subject">
{ continue with the form elements you require }
<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE=" Submit ">
</FORM>

Your form must include "to" and "from" email addresses.

To prevent abuse of this script, the "to" value must be a local address on your domain. To receive form results via a 3rd party email address, simply configure an email forward that points to the 3rd party email address, and enter the forward as the "to" address.

Email forwards are easily configured from the "Email" area of your account control panel.

Receiving Attachments by Email

You can also receive attachments along with your email results as follows (replacing "you@yourname.com" and "Message Subject" as appropriate):

<FORM METHOD="POST" ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data"
ACTION="/cgi-t/form.cgi">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="to" VALUE="you@yourname.com">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="from" VALUE="you@yourname.com">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="subject" VALUE="Message Subject">
{ continue with the form elements you require }
Attachment: <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="userfile">
<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE=" Submit ">
</FORM>

As with the previous example, your form must include "to" and "from" email addresses, and the "to" value must be a local address on your domain.

If you use this option, you should add a required field for the sender's email address. Do not open attachments from senders (or for file types) that are not known to you.

Writing Form Results to a File

You can write form results to a file as follows (replacing "yourfilename" as appropriate):

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-t/form.cgi">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="filename" VALUE="yourfilename">
{ continue with the form elements you require }
<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE=" Submit ">
</FORM>

Form results are saved to your "cgi-out" directory, which is one level above your document root ("htdocs"). ".fileform.txt" will be appended to the "filename" value, so you do not need to specify a file extension.

If you wish to be notified by email whenever form results are written to your file, simply add the following field to your form (replacing "you@yourname.com" as appropriate):

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="notifyto" VALUE="you@yourname.com">

Using FormCGI with SSL (Secure Server)

FormCGI functions identically on your normal web server (http://www.yourname.com/) and your secure server (https://www.yourname.com/). However, there are certain guidelines you should follow. For details, please see the Secure Server Guide.

Advanced Options

FormCGI includes an extensive feature set, including many additional parameters. Once you are familiar with basic functionality, you can also learn about FormCGI's advanced features, including additional form parameters, regular expression matching, and verification of credit card numbers.