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Web Information: cgiemail

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CGIEMAIL

cgiemail is an easy-to-use cgi program that handles fill-out web forms by e-mailing form data to a specified recipient. To use cgiemail, no additional programming or setup is necessary beyond an HTML file and an e-mail template.

Quick Guide For Using cgiemail

1. Create an HTML file containing a FORM that "calls" cgiemail. The ACTION attribute of the FORM tag should point to the cgiemail program, with the web server path of your template file appended.
   • For Personal Page areas, assuming your login is "me" and your template file is named "myfile.txt", the FORM tag would be:
     
     <FORM METHOD="post"
     ACTION="/cgi-bin/UWM/cgiemail/~me/myfile.txt">
     
     
   • For Departmental Page areas, assuming your department is "Best" and your template file is named "bestfile.txt", the FORM tag would be:
     
     <FORM METHOD="post"
     ACTION="/cgi-bin/UWM/cgiemail/Dept/Best/bestfile.txt">
   
   
   Hint: Start by copying the example HTML and template files into your own directory:
   
   
   • cd   www   (change to your web directory)
     
     
   • cp   -p   ~WWW/html/info/cgiemail/example1.html   .
     Note that there is a "space" and a "period" at the end of the command. You may replace the "period" with a different filename if you prefer.
     
     
   • cp   -p   ~WWW/html/info/cgiemail/example1-template.txt   .
     Note that there is a "space" and a "period" at the end of the command. You may replace the "period" with a different filename if you prefer.
     
     
   • Using your favorite text editor, edit the "example1.html" file for this step;
     then edit the "example1-template.txt" file for the next step. If you use the example template file, you should replace "nobody@uwm.edu" with your own e-mail address.
   
   
   
2. Create a template file which tells cgiemail what to do with your FORM input fields.
   
   
3. Optionally, create a "success" and possibly a "failure" response file (see example 2).
   
   
4. Put all of these files in the same directory of your web area (not in cgi-bin).
   
   
5. Make sure the directory and files are world readable (mkpub command).
   
   
6. Try it out...

• Our local UWM examples:
  
  
  • Example 1
    
    
  • Example 2 (with custom replies)
  
  
• MIT cgiemail Documentation:
  
  
  • MIT cgiemail user guide
    
    
  • MIT cgiemail FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
    
    
  • MIT cgiemail examples

UWM uses version 1.6 of cgiemail.

cgiemail is from MIT, see the MIT cgiemail home page for more info.

Parts of the UWM cgiemail documentation were originally authored by Penny Rohr in May 1996.

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Last update: July 5, 2000. --- URL: http://www.uwm.edu/info/cgiemail/
Copyright 2000 by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, all rights reserved.
If you have questions or comments about this page please send e-mail to: www@uwm.edu