| Adding a simple email form or contact form to a | | | | website that does not include code to prevent |
| website can often be a tough task for a first-time | | | | spammers from utilizing the form to send spam to |
| programmer or small business website. A lot of | | | | hundreds or even thousands of people. As a result, |
| people who start a website or a small internet | | | | the owners of these websites often have to endure |
| business use simple templates to put a website online | | | | an unfortunate consequence - the web hosting |
| while having little or almost no knowledge of HTML | | | | company cancels their account once those who've |
| programming. | | | | been spammed complain to their internet service |
| Creating a functional email form or contact form, as | | | | provider, who then directs the complaint to the |
| simple as the form itself may be, is almost impossible | | | | hosting company that handles your website. This can |
| for an inexperienced programmer that doesn't have | | | | be a huge problem. |
| more advanced knowledge of PHP and HTML | | | | All of this can be very complicated for a first-time |
| programming. Many beginning programmers or small | | | | programmer, but there are now many companies |
| business websites simply include a clickable link using a | | | | around the internet that have sprung up to help |
| "mailto" tag that pulls up the user's email client | | | | programmers add an email form or other more |
| software so that the user can simply send a regular | | | | complicated HTML form to their website. These |
| email to the webmaster. | | | | companies usually provide the HTML code for the |
| So, what does a programmer have to do to install an | | | | form, which the programmer must insert into his/her |
| email form on their website? First, the form itself | | | | webpage, but the PHP code that processes the form |
| must be created using HTML. That's the easy part. | | | | remains on the server of the company that provides |
| After that, the programmer must create a very | | | | the HTML code and the form is thus processed |
| complicated and lengthy PHP file to process the form | | | | remotely. Simply input the words "email form" into |
| and email the answers to the form back to the | | | | any major search engine and you will be able to |
| website owner. The name of the file that is most | | | | locate a plethora of resources and companies that |
| commonly used to process email forms is "Formmail." | | | | make email forms easy. The most popular website |
| Formmail has been used to process and email the | | | | that provides this service is freedback.com, which |
| results of web forms for over nine years. Since 1997, | | | | receives as many as 300,000 hits per day, but there |
| it has been downloaded more than two million times. | | | | are many other reliable services out there that |
| In creating this PHP file (often referred to as | | | | provide this service, but usually for a monthly fee if |
| "formmail.php"), the programmer should include code | | | | the form is going to be used frequently. However, |
| that blocks spammers from using the email form to | | | | there are many online tutorials available that teach |
| send spam through the form. Many times, | | | | programmers how to build a form from scratch and |
| inexperienced programmers will put a form on their | | | | install the script to process it. |