How to implement a custom fill-out form for your WebCom Web site

The easiest way to get started is to create a form with our Instant Site service. By giving key information, the Instant Site tool will create a custom, correctly formatted form for your account. You can then alter this form to meet your specific needs.

To make a form from scratch, the first step is to add the FORM tag. It should look like this:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="/cgi-bin/form">

PLEASE NOTE: The only permissible uses of the Forms Processor are:

• Invoking the Forms Processor by specifiying it in the ACTION of opening FORM tag as shown above. Other methods of invoking the Forms Processor, including using the Forms Processor in an anchor tag, are not permitted.
• The Forms Processor may only be invoked by forms in your WebCom account. You may not have a Web page on another Web server which invokes the WebCom Forms Processor.

You will also need to include the two required hidden fields which designate the account to which the form belongs, and the name of the form. These look like this:

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME=userid VALUE="your_userid">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME=form_name VALUE="any_name_you_choose">

These fields are essential, as the first tells the Forms Processor which WebCom account this form belongs to, and the second assigns to the form a unique name (which is used later on if a Configuration File is written for the form).

The second step is to insert Input field tags in your HTML page, so that your form can accept data from the Client. A good way to learn how these tags work is to step through our Forms Tutorial. Some standard input field types are:

• Text Areas
  
• Radio Buttons
  
• Check Boxes
  
• Drop-down list boxes

The third step is to include a Submit button, which causes whatever data that has been entered into the form to be sent to the Forms Processor for handling. A basic Submit button tag looks like this:

<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Submit">

The last step is to simply mark the end of your form with a </FORM> tag.

Once you have these elements in an HTML page, then you will have a functioning form! The results of any submissions of this form will be emailed to userid@webcom.com.

The next section of the Form Processor documentation, Creating Basic Forms, will go into more depth regarding the above form elements. The Forms Tutorial is also an excellent resource for seeing how these form elements work. Form Parameters, which provide more options regarding how the Forms Processor handles your form data, will also be explained in the next section.