Help with forms in FrontPage (Mailto etc)

[rich at richardwiggins.com]

I tend to agree with Thomas that a server-side script is the better answer here.  But no approach is foolproof. We have a comments page at:

http://search.msu.edu/help/contact/

This offers users both the Mailto option and the alternative of filling in a form that is handled by a server-side script.

We get a fair number of messages from folks with ill-formed or impossible email addresses.  The worst case is when people do get the message to us, but we don't have a good address to reply to.  They think we don't answer our mail. We think most of those are people who manage to get a mail client to handle the Mailto, even though their return address is wrong or ill-formed. 

Our server side script does rudimentary parsing, and objects if it doesn't see an at-sign or a dotted host, but it is also just as easy for people to enter a wrong email return address using the form. 

Bottom line: there's no one good answer, but we're probably going to yank the Mailto hyperlink and force users who don't want to fill in our form to launch their email client program manually and then copy-and-paste our email address.

/rich

 
> What you need is a server-side script to do this.
> 
> There are serious problems in using mailto as the action for a 
> form.  Depending on the user's browser and/or e-mail client, the form 
> submission may work, not work, not work *right*, or--worst of all--appear 
> to work while silently leaving the mail unsent.  The same holds true for 
> mailto links that are tricked out with Cc: and Subject: headers as part of 
> the URL.
> 
> 
> 
> Thomas Dowling
> OhioLINK
> tdowling at ohiolink.edu

_____________________________________________________

Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on the Internet
rich at richardwiggins.com  http://richardwiggins.com