Need to post a mailto to a variable address from form

[Jasonwcs]

Need to post a form to the sender through mailto(?). They fill in their email address among other details, and the form is emailed to them (for confirmation) and also to one other (as an order).
Any help greatly appreciated! (My first time using this site)

[TWTCommish]

Let me see if I have it straight:

You want a form where the user enters their email - and collects other information (comments, name, etc)...and then emails a copy of this information both to an email address you specify, as well as the email they entered?

BTW: sounds like this, for future reference, would be better placed in the "Server Side Scripting & Database Development" forum.

[dndpavlik]

The best way to do this is via server-side scripting, this way you can have the variable/form fields that the user filled in and send an email to the client, plus send another email to where ever you want.

I know how to do this in Coldfusion which is serverside, but for javascript I am not to sure.

[TWTCommish]

JavaScript can do lots of things, but I'm not sure if sending email is one of it's capabilities - could an expert like Vinny weigh in on this? I'd be curious to know if I'm missing something.

But yes, Cold Fusion, Perl, PHP and ASP can all accomplish this without too much trouble. Odds are your host supports, at the very least, Perl.

[Vincent Puglia]

Hi,

Presuming the address is in a field called 'email' and you are using a regular button with an onClick instead of a submit button:

<form ...no action...>
....blahblha
<input type='button' onClick='sendForm(this.form)'>
</form>

function sendForm(formObj)
{
var emailAdd = formObj.email.value;
formObj.action = 'mailto:' + emailAdd;
formObj.submit();
}

BTW: Happy Turkey Day

Vinny

[Jasonwcs]

Thanks Vincent - exactly what I needed! One question however - when I tap on the text fields it tends to treat it as a 'mailto' link, and opens my mail app instantaneously. How can I get around this, or have I done something wrong?

[Vincent Puglia]

Hi,

Unfortunately, that is what 'mailto:' does. Also, if you are sending the form field values and/or message, you may have problems with some versions of Outlook/AOL mail program in that the form fields and other information will be dumped in the subject line.

As everyone else above said, cgi may be better solution.

Vinny