Configuring the Submit button to go to an email address

[DWuser973]

Hi All,

I desinged a form in DW and just need to tell it what email address to go to when a visitor clicks on the Submit button.

how Do I tell the form to submit to info@mycompany.com?

Thanks

[Nancy OShea]

DO NOT publish your e-mail address online.  MAILTO: links are not safe.

1. It promotes spam.

2. It's unreliable. Only users with an e-mail client like Outlook or Apple Mail can send mail.

3. It puts your site, your server and your e-mail address at risk for exploitation by spambots and robot harvesters.

4. If your e-mail address gets out in the wild, your site could be blacklisted for spamming even if you never spammed anyone.

Use a secure contact form & processing script that hides your e-mail address and stops robots in their tracks. 

Contact your host and ask them if they have form-processing scripts on the server.  If not find out which server-side language you can use with your hosting plan.  Or use a 3rd party service like JotForm,  Wufoo or Mailchimp.

[DWuser973]

Thank you for the great info

is having a processing script the only way to send the form from the website to a receipient?

I already designed the form in DW and was hoping there's a field on the form where I can fill in an email address where the form needs to go

Thanks again

[Nancy OShea]

"I already designed the form in DW and was hoping there's a field on the form where I can fill in an email address.. "

As I said before, Mailto: is not safe or reliable.  Contact your host.  A secure script is necessary because contact forms are a lot more complex than people realize.  What goes on behind the scenes matters a lot! 

If your hosting plan supports PHP, use this sending library available on GitHub.

https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer

See simple contact form example. 

https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/blob/master/examples/simple_contact_form.phps

[DWuser973]

Thank you.

I contacted Godaddy and Hostway and they both do not offer Form Processing Scripts on their servers.

they said, that is my responsiblity, however they support PHP.

Thanks again

[DWuser973]

Thank you,

Yes my host supports PHP,  how do I get hold off the much simpler scripts to submit form data to an email address?

Thanks again

[osgood_]

Have a look at the below video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ5eUgOxITE 

The code is also available to download.

[Nancy OShea]

Simpler scripts will require your hosting plan to support not just PHP code but the PHP send mail () function which contains several vulnerabilities.  Many hosts stopped allowing send mail () because it puts their servers at risk.  Nowadays, a SMTP relay-server with authentication is the "new normal."

Given that GoDaddy killed off their in-house form mailer scripts  -- perhaps because the whole business of safe, reliable contact forms is a major headache -- I guess you'll need to find your own script and hope it works the first time.  

See GoDaddy Help. 

https://ie.godaddy.com/help/send-form-mail-using-an-smtp-relay-server-953

To prevent e-mail blocking by exchanges, be sure to set your domain's SPF records properly.  Getting this right is critically important for sending mail that gets received.

https://ie.godaddy.com/community/Managing-Email/What-are-the-correct-GoDaddy-SPF-Settings-For-DNS-to...

To thwart bots, be sure to include re-Captcha in all your forms.  You will need to obtain a Google key and ID to use re-Captcha.

https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/v3.html

https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq

Finally if all of this seems daunting, that's because it is.  These days opting to use 3rd party services is quicker & often the safest  path to take.  Good luck!

[osgood_]

'the PHP send mail () function which contains several vulnerabilities.  Many hosts stopped allowing send mail () because it puts their servers at risk'.

That is complete rubbish, there are many, many hosts that allow the use of the php mail function. All of my websites use it and every single host that I've worked with allow the use of the mail function. I've encounterd zero vulnerabilties in 20+ years doing this. If a host did not allow it I wouldn't use them. I call the shots not the host.

All these myths are based on hackers trying to compromise large websites, in fact any kind of bloody workflow these days is based on massive coporation websites that may well need the workflows they implement but some nerd developers, wet behind the ears, decide to apply them to their tuppenny-hapenny

website that gets less than a 1000 hits a month.

[osgood_]

It's amazing what tripe you can find when doing some research:

''PHP’s built-in mail function () is very simple, but it provides limited functionality for sending emails. You won’t be able to add attachments to your email, and building a beautiful HTML template with embedded images will be a tricky task as well''.

Really, you cant send an attachment when using the php mail function, this geek needs to learn php before they start trying to teach it. I put this statement down to a complete lack of coding knowledge - I've been sending attachments for years using the mail function.

Really, building a beautiful HTML template with emedded images will be tricky as well, what a load of utter nonsense. I put this statement down to a complete lack of coding knowledge - building an html email has zero to do with the mail function. The mail function is what sends it, not builds it.

I cant believe the rubbish I read sometimes, it really is bewildering at times. All I can say is a lot of this garbage is written by green-horn developers who do not know how to code their way out of a paper bag.

[Nancy OShea]

Some folks think Covid-19 is a lot of rubbish, too. That doesn't make it so. 

Read the PHP manual.  Send mail() has lots of gotchas.  🙂

https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php

If you're able to use it and mitigate the gotchas in every situation, great.

If not, find something else that can deliver what you need.

I'm done here.

[osgood_]

For simple email data collection like name, email, comments etc there are no 'gotchas'.

You do know the real reason why some hosts feel they CANT offer the php mail() function as a solution - yes that's correct - too many poor developers and amatuer developers who can't code and who dont validate the form input fields, which then leads to possible spamming and insecure workflow. It's not because there is any issue with the php mail function, the issue is with the lack of the developers knowledge.

[osgood_]

Does your hosting package support php because php is going to be the most popular choice in terms of most people around here who can help you out with formmail scripts.

mailto: as has already been said is not reliable so you really need to use a form mail script to collect the information from your form and send it back to an email address of your choice.

PHP Mailer is probably going to be a bridge too far for you to implement, there are much simpler scripts to get you started IF your server supports the php mail function.