Academic Information Systems
Columbia University
212 854.1919Email: [email protected]
This script is typically used in web forms that allow users to register for an event (e.g. fun run), to request information, to order a T-shirt, and for a variety of other purposes.
Since March 24th, 2003 this script will only send mail to addresses in the columbia.edu and barnard.edu domains. This limit was imposed to prevent the script being used to send mass mail anonymously. If both local and outside addresses are specified on the web form then the local addresses will be used and the outside addresses will be ignored.
Starting December 10, 2013, spam protection will be provided to all forms using generic-inbox.pl via a captcha challenge.
Look here for a sample web
form that uses the generic-inbox script. After viewing it, you can
save that document in your public_html directory and edit as
appropriate. Or, instead of using a separate document to access the
inbox program, you can insert the form in an existing document. Just
copy everything from <form> to
</form> and then edit as necessary.
You should not use checkboxes on your form since their value is only included when they are checked. Radio buttons can be used if there is a default value: i.e. one of the buttons is initially "checked" in your form.
The form contains hidden variables that are passed to the CGI script along with the data typed by the user. These variables are used to control the actions of the script. In our example we have the following:
<input type=hidden name=mail_dest value="[email protected]"> <input type=hidden name=mail_cc value="[email protected]"> <input type=hidden name=cc_sender value="true"> <input type=hidden name=file_dest value="~aaa888/inbox"> <input type=hidden name=ack_link value="/~aaa888/thankyou.html"> <input type=hidden name=subject value="testing the inbox function"> <input type=hidden name=echo_data value="true"> <input type=hidden name=format value="col_align"> <input type=hidden name=timestamp value="true"> <input type=hidden name=reqfields value="rmail,address,city,state,zip">
The purpose of each variable is explained below.
file_dest, the data
will be appended to the file specified by that variable. If this
variable is missing or null the data will not be appended to a file.
The script will only write to a file in a user's
web_allow directory, which must be a subdirectory of a
user's home directory, not part of the official web space in
/www/data. In the above example the
file_dest variable is set to ~aaa888/inbox
which means the data will be appended to this file:
~aaa888/web_allow/inbox
Note that the words "web_allow" are not included in the value of
the file_dest variable, it contains only
~aaa888/inbox.
You must create the web_allow directory, and you must create the inbox file if you want to use this feature. For security reasons the following requirements are imposed by this script.
Use these commands to create the web_allow directory and the inbox file.
$ mkdir ~/web_allow $ touch ~/web_allow/inbox
Set the reqfields variable to a list of the required
fields on your form. The user will not be able to submit the form
until all required fields have been entered. You can include
rmail as one of the required fields, which has the same
effect as setting rmailreq in your form.
Set the rmailreq variable true if you
want to force the user to enter their email address in the form before
submitting it. Otherwise the email address is optional. Note that
the email address will not be validated, so you can't be sure they are
who they say they are.
Set the mail_dest variable to your email address if
you want the form data mailed to you. You can put multiple addresses
here, separated by commas. If this variable is missing, or null, the
data will not be mailed. Only columbia.edu and barnard.edu addresses
will be accepted. You can omit the "@columbia.edu" in each address
since that is the default host name.
Additional email destinations can be specified using the
mail_cc variable. These recipients will appear in the CC
field of the email message, instead of the TO field. You can enter a
single email address, or multiple addresses separated by commas. This
variable is ignored if the mail_dest variable is missing
or null.
Set the cc_sender variable true if the
user who is submitting the form should receive a copy of the message.
In that case they will receive a CC of the message, as long as they
filled in their email address in the rmail field.
Set the subject variable to the text string that
should be used as the subject of your form mail, for example:
"response to your political survey". When you receive form mail you
will know immediately which document they are responding to by looking
at the subject.
The rmail field should be included in your form if you
want to give the user an opportunity to enter their email address.
The user can leave the rmail field blank unless you made
it a required field by setting the rmailreq variable
true, or by including rmail in the reqfields
list.
As described above the
rmailreq variable should be set true if the
rmail field is a required field.
As described above the
reqfields variable should contain a list of required
fields.
If the ack_link variable is specified it should
contain the URL of a document that will be displayed instead of the
default acknowledgement screen. You can use this feature to point the
user at another web document after they have submitted the form. This
acknowledgement page should say "Thank you for participating in this
survey", or "Thanks for registering for the Fun Run", or whatever is
appropriate.
If ack_link is not specified then the default
acknowledgement page will be displayed. Included in the display are
the contents of the file_dest and mail_dest
variables so you can see where the data was sent.
If the ack_link variable is not specified and the
echo_data variable is true, the form data
will be displayed on the acknowledgement screen. This feature is
available to help you verify that your form is working correctly.
If echo_data is
missing or null you will get an acknowledgment screen but it will not
display any data. The echo_data variable is ignored if
the ack_link variable is set.
When format is blank or unspecified the default output
format is used for mail and for the inbox: one field per line with
equal signs separating the field names and field values. The
timestamp variable defaults to 'true' but timestamps can
be suppressed by setting timestamp to 'false'.
begindata=Tue Jul 27 17:10:04 1999 ---------------------------------------- seldate=Sep 9, 1995 seltype=apple seltext=Hi there. [email protected] address=Watson Hall city=New York state=NY zip=10025
When format is set to col_align field
names and values are displayed in two columns when sent via mail or
appended to an inbox. The timestamp variable defaults to
'true' but timestamps can be suppressed by setting
timestamp to 'false'.
Time submitted Fri Jul 16 14:12:53 1999
seldate January
seltype apple
seltext Hi There.
rmail [email protected]
address Watson Hall
city New York
state NY
zip 10025
When tab_delim format is specified the data values for
each submision are appended to your inbox, on one line, separated by
tabs. In this format the field names are not included. For
example:
Sep 16, 1995 apple Hi there. [email protected] Watson Hall New York NY 10023
This format makes it easy to import the data into a spreadsheet
application. All tabs typed by the user will be converted to spaces
so the only tabs in your inbox will be the field separators. email
will be sent in the default format, only the inbox file will have the
tab deliminated data. The timestamp variable defaults to
'true' but timestamps can be suppressed by setting
timestamp to 'false'.
The output is sent with html code to present a two-column table.
The first column contains the field names and the second column
contains the field values. If the person filling in the form left any
item blank, the words "user left blank" are inserted into that table
slot. The timestamp variable defaults to 'false' but
timestamps can be included by setting timestamp to
'true'.
<table border=1> <tr><td>seldate</td><td>Sep 16, 1995</td></tr> <tr><td>seltype</td><td>apple</td></tr> <tr><td>seltext</td><td>Hi there.</td></tr> <tr><td>rmail</td><td>[email protected]</td></tr> <tr><td>address</td><td>(user left blank)</td></tr> <tr><td>city</td><td>New York</td></tr> <tr><td>state</td><td>NY</td></tr> <tr><td>zip</td><td>10025</td></tr></table>
When inserted into an html document the table would look like this:
| seldate | Sep 16, 1995 |
| seltype | apple |
| seltext | Hi there. |
| rmail | [email protected] |
| address | (user left blank) |
| city | New York |
| state | NY |
| zip | 10025 |
The output is sent with html code to present a single table row.
The variable names are not included, only the values. The
<table> </table> tags are not included. If the person
filling in the form left any item blank, the words "user left blank"
are inserted into that table slot. The timestamp
variable defaults to 'false' but timestamps can be included by setting
timestamp to 'true'.
<tr><td>Sep 16, 1995</td><td>apple</td><td>Hi there.</td> <td>[email protected]</td><td>(user left blank)</td> <td>New York</td><td>NY</td><td>10025</td></tr>
If the form contains a variable named timestamp and
the value is true, the time of submission of the form
will be included in the email message and in the data appended to the
inbox. Timestamps are included by default when the output format is
default, col_align, or tab_delim.
The example uses a textarea field that allows the user to type past the right margin using most browsers. The text will scroll to the left, allowing them to keep typing. When they hit <RETURN> the cursor moves to the next line.
The textarea field in the example is 3 rows high and 60 columns wide. You might want to display a text area of a different size. A smaller text area will encourage shorter responses.
You can insert prompting text inside the textarea field, between
the <textarea> and </textarea>
tags. In the example we use the prompting text "Dear Mr. Jones,".
When someone uses your form to send you mail you will receive an email message. In that message, the From: field will contain "www" and the Reply-To: field will contain their email address, if they typed it in the form. You should be aware that they might have typed someone else's address in that field, so beware of phony messages. When you reply to that message your mail program should automatically use the address in the Reply-To: field. If the user sends you mail without a Reply-To: field you will be unable to reply to them.
| Last modified 12/03/13 15:35 Academic Information Systems Columbia University |
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Help Line: 212 854.1919Email: [email protected] |