website booking application form

I'm new to perl and cgi scripts so you'll have to be gentle with me.

I have an hotel in England and I am trying to either write a script to
handle form data from my website or doctor a ready-made.

I have tried using 'bnbform' and 'FormMail' and, whilst I am sure they are
good examples of from handling scripts they won't work for me. I have
dowloaded and run Xitami and I have tried to get the scripts to send me an
email through it, but it won't wotk. I am probably doing something wrong.
The scripts come with read_me files and I have attempted to configure
everything according to their instructions, but I am not gatting any emails
when I 'submit'.

Also, I would like, if possible, a script that sends me an email in a more
useful format than a list of the fields and results. e.g. At the moment,
when I receive a booking enquiry through the form on my website, I am
receiving the following in an email:


Title: Mr.



first_name: Clark



surname: Kent



address1: 29 Letsby Avenue



address2: Littletown



address3: County Up



postcode: DH78 0RG



phone: 1234 56789102



email: someonesideaofanoriginal@joke.co.uk



arrival_day: 28



arrival_month: May



arrival_year: 2008



depart_day: 30



departure-month: May



depart_year: 2008



number_people: 4



number_adults: 4



number_children: 0



single_room: 0



twin_room: 1



double_room: 1



family_room: 0



tariff: BB



diet: Vegetarian



I would prefer something that was already formatted, such as:



Mr. Clark Kent



29 Letsby Avenue

Littletown

County Up

DH78 0RG



1234 56789102



email: someonesideaofanoriginal@joke.co.uk



Arriving: 28 May 2008

Departing:30 May 2008



etc. etc.



I realise thio is a big ask, but I really would appreciate some kind of
idiot guide as to how I can use an existing script or write an original one.



Many thanks in advance,



Phil J.

Re: website booking application form

In message
"Phil Jackson" wrote:

> Also, I would like, if possible, a script that sends me an email in a more
> useful format than a list of the fields and results. e.g. At the moment,
> when I receive a booking enquiry through the form on my website, I am
> receiving the following in an email:
> Title: Mr.

Given that people will not fill out all the fields, wouldn't it be better to
have a field title? You can then write a simple program to remove the
unwanted titles and format your customer input in whatever way you want.

Ken Down

--
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========================================================

Re: website booking application form

On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:51:39 +0100, Phil Jackson wrote:

> I have tried using 'bnbform' and 'FormMail' and, whilst I am sure they
> are good examples of from handling scripts they won't work for me. I
> have dowloaded and run Xitami and I have tried to get the scripts to
> send me an email through it, but it won't wotk.

Xitami is a web server so you can't "send email through it". Though you
could entirely roll your own solution in Perl, most Perl scripts use a
third-party application such as sendmail to send email. You can talk to
this directly or, better still, make use of an appropriate CPAN module
such as MIME::Lite (http://search.cpan.org/~yves/MIME-Lite-3.01/lib/MIME/
Lite.pm).

Most form handler scripts you download are likely to be configured to
ultimately use sendmail and if, as I suspect, you are running this on
your Windows box at home you will not have sendmail, which is probably
why none of the scripts work. If this is the case you should probably
consider using MIME::Lite and sending via your ISP's SMTP server.

> Also, I would like, if possible, a script that sends me an email in a
> more useful format than a list of the fields and results.

If you are after pretty emails, then you may wish to try sending them in
HTML format and putting them in a table. Again, check the docs for
MIME::Lite for how to send HTML emails and also the core CGI module for
HTML output.

Finally, if you are interested in getting into Perl, I suggest you get
hold of a copy of "Learning Perl" by Randal Schwartz (published by
O'Reilly).

--
Dan Otterburn

Re: website booking application form

Thanks Dan,

This was very helpful and has given me a lot to think about.

I will try the book.

Thanks again,

Phil J.

"Dan Otterburn" wrote in message
news:46c4c9db$0$21092$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk...
> On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:51:39 +0100, Phil Jackson wrote:
>
>> I have tried using 'bnbform' and 'FormMail' and, whilst I am sure they
>> are good examples of from handling scripts they won't work for me. I
>> have dowloaded and run Xitami and I have tried to get the scripts to
>> send me an email through it, but it won't wotk.
>
> Xitami is a web server so you can't "send email through it". Though you
> could entirely roll your own solution in Perl, most Perl scripts use a
> third-party application such as sendmail to send email. You can talk to
> this directly or, better still, make use of an appropriate CPAN module
> such as MIME::Lite (http://search.cpan.org/~yves/MIME-Lite-3.01/lib/MIME/
> Lite.pm).
>
> Most form handler scripts you download are likely to be configured to
> ultimately use sendmail and if, as I suspect, you are running this on
> your Windows box at home you will not have sendmail, which is probably
> why none of the scripts work. If this is the case you should probably
> consider using MIME::Lite and sending via your ISP's SMTP server.
>
>> Also, I would like, if possible, a script that sends me an email in a
>> more useful format than a list of the fields and results.
>
> If you are after pretty emails, then you may wish to try sending them in
> HTML format and putting them in a table. Again, check the docs for
> MIME::Lite for how to send HTML emails and also the core CGI module for
> HTML output.
>
> Finally, if you are interested in getting into Perl, I suggest you get
> hold of a copy of "Learning Perl" by Randal Schwartz (published by
> O'Reilly).
>
> --
> Dan Otterburn
>

Re: website booking application form

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:34:35 +0100, Phil Jackson wrote:

> Thanks Dan,
>
> This was very helpful and has given me a lot to think about.

You're very welcome.

PS: comp.lang.perl.misc is a far more active Perl newsgroup, where some
of the true Perl luminaries hang out (including Randal Schwartz who co-
wrote the book I recommended). If you use that group you may even get an
answer from the man himself! (Though I'd make sure you consider your
questions very carefully before you post, http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-
questions.html is a great guide if you've not come across it before.)

PPS: You're not in the West Yorkshire area are you as we are considering
trying to set up a Perl User Group?

--
Dan Otterburn