Send Form Action

Type of Action: Page and Item Action (to use it, make sure nothing is selected on the page, go to Page>Page Actions to choose the Action from the list; or select a parent item containing all your form items, then go to Item>Actions and choose the Action from the list).

What the Action can do: This Action lets you do the following:

  • It lets you create a feature-rich reply form to offer visitors on your website.

Note: To see the form working correctly you will need to upload the page so it is live on the web (it will not work when previewed locally as it requires PHP for the functionality to work). The page must be uploaded to a server running PHP 5.2 or above to work.

Creating a reliable reply form on a website was once quite tricky - but the Send Form Action makes it very quick and easy for Freeway users to offer a reply form that visitors can fill in to send information back to the site owner. This can be a request to be placed on an emailed newsletter list, or it can be used to let visitors choose different categories of interest, etc., depending on which form items are used.

For the reply form to work you need to create a page on which you will build the form itself, but you also need to create two additional pages - "Success" and an "Error" pages which will tell the visitor if the form information was sent successfully or if there has been a problem.

Unless you have a particular reason to do so (for example if you wish to use multiple forms on the same page - see below), we recommend you use the Page Action version of the Send Form Action. To do this, select the page on which the form will be used, go to Page>Page Actions and choose Send Form.

If you wish to use multiple forms, you will need to create a "parent" HTML or table item, inside which you need to use all the form items and labels as "child" items. Using a table can help with alignment of your form items and any labels used, by double-clicking inside each table cell then going to Insert menu and choosing a form item or an HTML/Graphic item for label items. To apply the Action, select the parent item, go to Item>Actions and choose Send Form.

For the Page Action, make sure nothing is selected on the page; for the Item Action, select the parent item - then look in the Actions palette to see the options:

  • This site is hosted by GoDaddy: You might need to select this option to use the GoDaddy hosted scripts. We recommend that you try it first without switching this option on - then if you find that the form doesn't work correctly you should try switching it on. Can't find the scripts?
  • Recipient Details: This area lets you specify one or more email addresses to send the completed form to. If you only want to use a single recipient email address, enter the email address in the Recipient Address field. To add multiple addresses, separate each address with a comma (such as: support@softpress.com,sales@softpress.com) in the Recipient Address field (but note that this will send the email to all email addresses, rather than offering a choice - see later). Need to specify an email address for GoDaddy?
  • Use Item for Recipient Address List: In addition to specifying single or multiple email addresses you can create a Menu/List form item on the page (see http://www.softpress.com/kb/questions/449/) so the visitor can click on a popup to choose the recipient they wish to contact. If you set up a Menu/List containing (for example) support@softpress.com and sales@softpress.com the visitor can choose the value they wish and the form will only be sent to that specific address. To do this, click and hold on the Use Item for Recipient Address List popup and choose the Menu/List form item name. Note that the email addresses will be hidden from spammers using this method.
  • Sender Details: This area lets you specify whether you are sending the form to a specified person (full name) entered in the Sender Name field or two Text Field items for the sender's name (so one field is the First Name and another is the Family Name), which is done by selecting the Text Field item names for each name in the Use Item for Sender Name popups 1 and 2 respectively. Note that the Sender Name (or Names) used here will be the name which appears in the From: field in the email message.
  • Sender Address: The address that's used as the reply-to address in the email that's received. Use this option only if you always want the reply-to address of the emails received from your form to be the same. This can be handy if you're using rules to filter the emails received.
  • Use Item for Sender Address: Allow the visitor to specify the address to use as the reply to address by using a Menu/List item on the form page. Using this option will mean you can easily reply to emails received without having to copy and paste the email address into a new email. To do this, click and hold on the Use Item for Sender Address popup and choose the Menu/List form item name.
  • Subject: Specify the subject of the email in this field.
  • Use Item for Subject: Allow the visitor to specify the subject of the email when they fill out the form on your site and send it, by offering a choice of subjects in a Menu/List item. To do this, click and hold on the Use Item for Subject popup and choose the Menu/List form item name.This could be a Description field, for instance.
  • Supplemental Message: Add a supplemental message to the end of the email. You can use this to put a message that simply reminds the recipient of the email where the email was sent from. For instance "This message has been sent from http://softpress.com/support/"
  • Error Page: A page to redirect to if there are any problems sending the message. Click and hold on this popup and choose the error page you created for your site file.
  • Success Page: A page to redirect to if the message was sent successfully. Click and hold on this popup and choose the success page you created for your site file.

Notes and troubleshooting:

  • The page must be uploaded to a server running PHP 5.2 or above to work. You will need to get in touch with your web host regarding the version of PHP if you see this error: "Fatal error: Call to undefined function: filter_has_var()"
  • The script will fail if PHP is set to run in safe mode. Safe mode has been deprecated and removed from the most recent version of PHP so it's (ironically) safe to turn it off. If you cant do this, contact your host.
  • Most options are not available to GoDaddy users - so use only Recipient Address, Sender Name, Sender Address, Email Subject and the Error/Success Pages.
  • If using HTML5 pages, the Required option can be applied to text fields to tell the script that a certain field is required. If the field is required but not filled out, some browsers will prevent the form from being sent, or the form will redirect to the error page.