Getting Feedback from your users

• What you need for to get feedback from users   
  • create a form
  • write a perl program to gather the information (cgi)
  • use your unix skills to place the program on the web server
  • get permission from the web administrator to run a cgi
• What you have available on the web server
  • a perl program (cgi)
  • located on the web server
  • all permissions set for the program
• What you need to do to get feedback from your users
  • create a form
  • point it at the perl program (cgi)
  • read the feedback

Forms

• Forms on the web allow you to get feedback from the visitors to your web site.
• A person can leave comments, request information, or even fill out applications right from the web browser.

mailer2.cgi

• designed for forms used on personal homepages
• Formats the data in the form in field-name/field content pairs and mail them to you. The following instructions explain how to set up a form on your web site and have the contents e-mailed to you after a visitor fills it in.
  Section 1 contains general instructions
  Section 2 contains a sample page
  Section 3 contains examples for creating input fields for your form
  Section 4 contains a sample e-mail response

   

  Section 1

  The form should be contained in a standard html page and should have the following structure:
  
  1. Start the form with this line
     <FORM ACTION="http://www.wesleyan.edu/cgi-bin/mailer2.cgi" METHOD="POST">
     

  2. The following two lines are required:
     • define the username (leave off the @wesleyan.edu) of the person who will receive the form
       <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="TO" VALUE="username">
       
     • define the subject heading of the mailed form
       <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="SUBJECT" VALUE="My Fill-Out Form">
       

  3. The following lines are optional:

     • define the username (leave off the @wesleyan.edu) of the person used as the Reply-To address
       <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="REPLY-TO" VALUE="username">
     • define the name of the file that will be used as the online response to the user. this response file must be stored in the personal directory of the user defined in the TO field. It must be in the /html/username/public_html/response directory.
       
       <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="RESPONSE_FILE" VALUE="response.html">
     
     
  4. Insert the various fields you want to have returned to you. Section 3 contains examples of the different types of fields you can use in an online form. Be sure each input field hase its own name. This name is e-mailed together with the data the user entered.

  5. Place a submit button at the bottom of the form:
     <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit Form">
     

  6. End the form with this line:

  Section 2

  <!-- SAMPLE HTML PAGE --> </ul> </a> <FORM ACTION="http://www.wesleyan.edu/cgi-bin/mailer2.cgi" METHOD="POST"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="TO" VALUE="user1"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="REPLY-TO" VALUE="user2"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="SUBJECT" VALUE="My Fill-Out Form"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="RESPONSE_FILE" VALUE="home.html"> <INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" NAME="Wes Student" value="ON">Wesleyan Student?<P> <B>Class Year</B><BR> <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Frosh">Frosh <BR> <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Sophomore">Sophomore <BR> <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Junior">Junior <BR> <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Senior">Senior <BR> <P> <INPUT SIZE="40" TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Name Field"> Name<BR> <P> Your Comments Here <BR> <TEXTAREA NAME="Comments Field" COLS="60" ROWS="10"> </TEXTAREA> <P> <p> <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit Form"> </FORM>
  
  The actual page looks like this to the user. Wesleyan Student?

  Class Year
  Frosh
  Sophomore
  Junior
  Senior
  

  Name
  

  Your Comments Here
  

  Section 3

  Text Field Example:
  
  <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" SIZE="40" NAME="Sample Text Field">Text Field Label
  Text Field Label

  SIZE specifies the width (in characters) of the field.
  

  Text Area example:
  Field Label

  <TEXTAREA NAME="Comment Area" COLS="60" ROWS="5" <P <P <P <P> </TEXTAREA
  
  COLS and ROWS specify the dimensions of the text area in characters.

  
  
  

  Checkbox example:
  

  <INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" NAME="Work-Study Student" value="ON"> Checkbox Label
  Checkbox Label

  
  
  

  Radio button example:

  <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Frosh"> Label 1 <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Sophomore"> Label 2 <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Junior"> Label 3 <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="Class Year" VALUE="Senior"> Label 4
  Label 1
  Label 2
  Label 3
  Label 4
  

  Only one of the buttons with the same NAME may be checked.
  The return e-mail gives:
  

  the NAME (Class Year)
  the VALUE (Frosh, Sophomore, etc.) of the chosen button.
  

  Section 4

  Sample e-mail from filling out the form in section 2.
  
  

  Wes Student : on
  
  Class Year : Frosh
  
  Name Field : John Smith
  
  Comments Field : I am typing my comments into this text field:
  make a fill-out form on your web page today!