Design changes to the 'Contact Us' form

[ArtyMiss]

You know those 5 min jobs that end up taking hours.....

Well, I have already driven teclan mad with this one this afternoon. Iain, you will be please to know I am now 99% there!

Basically, I am using the 'contact us' form to get customers to reister. Have a look @ www.artymiss.co.uk. Click on the register button on the top menu.

The thing is, I have inserted a drop down menu in 'where did you find us', including all the places we advertise etc, to monitor how effective the advertising is.

When I choose any option, it is coming up saying that the 'Where did you find us' field is required, even though I have made a selection.

I wondered if turning off the 'required' bit would help, and if so, how do I do it?

Any thoughts??

[magicalwonders]

Hi Amanda,

It seems to be working O.K. for me. I'm using IE on Windows XP SP2

You have got a couple of typos. Fourth one down and last but one in the drop down list. Thought you would want to know.

Myles

[ArtyMiss]

Thanks Myles. I will look at the typos now!

I don't suppose you would do a test registration for me, so taht I can see what happens Pretty Please.

[magicalwonders]

Ah, cancel that last statement. I see what you mean. I didn't click on register when trying it out.

Myles

[ArtyMiss]

I'm still fiddling, but I can't seem to get it right!

[magicalwonders]

Hi Amanda,

Tried to register, but the message

"Where did you find us?" is required.

Is still appearing. So I assume the details aren't getting through.

Myles

[ArtyMiss]

I know as a short cut I can just take out the drop down list, but I really want that info.

Otherwise people just put in Craft Mag or something and I can't tell how effective our advertisng is

Perhaps a solution will emerge over the weekend.

Thanks for the help though Myles.

[magicalwonders]

Amanda,

Your code is compacted, which makes it difficult to see what's going on. However, check out this resource: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/forms/_FORM.html

It explains what is going on and what is required for forms to work. It might help you see what has gone wrong with the one you're working on.

Good luck

Myles

[ArtyMiss]

I had a look thanks Myles, but I got confused, because the drop down lists were links etc.

The list works fine, it is just how actinic accepts it. Obviously it is not seeing it as a vailid data enrty.

That's why I thought, if I could turn off the requirement that that field be filled, it should work.

I have tried looking in the Design|text menu, but there are no boxes to tick to say if something is required or not

If it helps, my html for the page is pasted below. I can't see anything here that makes it a required field though

<!-- Act_ContactUs HTML begin -->
<style type="text/css">
<!--
.style3 {font-size: 14px}
-->
</style>

<Actinic:VALIDATIONERROR/>

<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="15">&nbsp;</td>
<td colspan="2"><strong><font size="2"><br>
</font>
</strong><font face="Verdana"><span class="style3"><strong>
<font size="2">To register with ArtyMiss, please fill in the information
below.</font></strong></span></font><p><font face="Verdana">
<span class="style3"><strong><font size="2">Registered customers will
receive email notifications of exclusive offers as well as advance
notification of special offers &amp; new products.</font></strong></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana"><span class="style3"><strong><font size="2">You can
opt out of this service at any point by replying to any of our emails with
'unsubscribe' in the subject line.</font></strong></span></font><font size="2"><br>
</font> <br> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td width="190">NETQUOTEVAR:NAME</td>
<td width="300"> <input type="TEXT" name="Name" size="50" maxsize="125" value="NETQUOTEVAR:NAMEVALUE">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>NETQUOTEVAR:SUBJECT</td>
<td>
<select size="1" name="NETQUOTEVAR:SUBJECT">
<option>Returning ArtyMiss Customer</option>
<option>Crafts Beautiful Magazine</option>
<option>Crafts Beautiful A5 Quick and Crafty Cards Supplement</option>
<option>Quick and Crafty Magazine</option>
<option>PaperCraft Inspirations Magazine</option>
<option>Making Cards Magazine</option>
<option>Card Making and Papercraft Magazine</option>
<option>Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine</option>
<option>Ebay Customer</option>
<option>Ebay Link</option>
<option>Recommendation</option>
<option>Other</option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>NETQUOTEVAR:EMAIL</td>
<td>
<input name="EmailAddress" size="50" maxsize="125" value="NETQUOTEVAR:EMAILVALUE">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
<td valign="top">NETQUOTEVAR:MESSAGE</td>
<td><textarea type="TEXT" rows="10" cols="45" name="Message">NETQUOTEVAR:MESSAGEVALUE</textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
<td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
<td><input type="SUBMIT" name="ACTION" value="NETQUOTEVAR:SENDBUTTON"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
<td colspan="2" valign="top">NETQUOTEVAR:REQUIREDFIELDS NETQUOTEVAR:HIGHLIGHTED.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- Act_ContactUs HTML ends -->

[wjcampbe]

You seem to be missing the form tags - should be something like this
[code]<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://yourdomain/cgi-bin/mf00000x.pl" >[code] (where yourdomain is replaced with the actual path to your cgi-bin deirectory, and mf00000x.pl is replaced by your installation script name) after the beginning ot your table cell, but before the collection of data starts, then add a closing </FORM> tag before you close the table cell with </TD>

[Tonyo]

Missing option values

I looked at your html in your previous post.
I've filled in the first option line as it should appear. Your values will need to be parsed by the script, so they need to be reflected in the cgi.

If this doesn't work then post your script here so we can see it or email it to me.

<td>NETQUOTEVAR:SUBJECT</td>
<td>
<select size="1" name="NETQUOTEVAR:SUBJECT">
<option value="qwerty">Returning ArtyMiss Customer</option>
<option>Crafts Beautiful Magazine</option>
<option>Crafts Beautiful A5 Quick and Crafty Cards Supplement</option>
<option>Quick and Crafty Magazine</option>
<option>PaperCraft Inspirations Magazine</option>
<option>Making Cards Magazine</option>
<option>Card Making and Papercraft Magazine</option>
<option>Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine</option>
<option>Ebay Customer</option>
<option>Ebay Link</option>
<option>Recommendation</option>
<option>Other</option>
</select>
</td>

[ArtyMiss]

Whoosh! That went right over my head!

[ArtyMiss]

Tonyo,

I just didn't get this bit:

Your values will need to be parsed by the script, so they need to be reflected in the cgi.

[Tonyo]

Parse is what perl does to a script with variables assigned values. In your case its the option value. Basically your option tag has no value hence the error everyone gets when they run your script.
Look at the html included in your own post. The first variable NETQUOTEVAR:NAME has an input tag 'text' with a name "Name" and a value NETQUOTEVAR:NAMEVALUE.

Now look at the next NETQUOTEVAR:SUBJECT this has a tag 'select' that has options but no values. These are not variable but fixed values. Write the values in as they appear and run the script. I used qwerty as an example for you to try.

Regards