Form not sending via mailto due to outlook problems

[UncleMortis]

I have a form that I can only have sent via email as I don't have access to a cgi bin. Now everything was working fine, I was receiving information from the form to my email address. But now apparently people are having trouble due to outlook being unable to sent the info. From what I've managed to gather, outlook is opening up by itself and forcing them to use it. I've never had this problem before, can anyone help?

 

[dsdsdsdsd]

I do not know hardly anything about Outlok;

however I have found that onsubmit="mailto:..." is a mess because indeed it depends on the clients' mailing software's settings;

you mentioned that you do not have a cgi-bin access, but I have to say that I have come to rely on server-side scripting;

ex: onsubmit="

http://www.mydomain.com/my_server_side_mailing_script.php";

I let my webhost do all my emailing;

php is not at all difficult to learn the basics; a $20 book from Barnes and Noble will teach you;

if you want an example of my php script let me know

 

[ChrisHunt]

When somebody clicks on a "mailto:" link, it'll open their email client - e.g. Outlook - with a new, blank message dailogue addressed to your email address. So "outlook is opening up by itself and forcing them to use it" is, it seems to me, proper behaviour.

It's much better to use a form instead of a mailto: link as the surfer's mail client never comes into play. It's possible even if you don't have a cgi-bin - just use one of the third party services listed at

http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Remotely_Hosted/Form_Processing/

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[UncleMortis]

The form is sitting on a free webspace on geocities so I can't do much other than edit etc.

I'm signed up at hosted scripts.com but I think you can only use their scripts once of that nature as I've had no luck using the form processor there for more than one site.

I don't understand why outlook would come into play if people are using another email client, Unless they haven't made it their default. Details are still sketchy on what outlook is and isn't doing but I do know I haven't received a few emails due to whatever is going on.

Anyway thanks for the link Chris, It looks like I'll find what I need there. I've made forms before and this is the first time I've had one go haywire...

 

[tviman]

Uncle,

As Chris pointed out, a mailto: action or link will open up a users default email client and since Outlook compes with every Window version, the odds are that Outlook will be the predominat client.

As far as an action in a form, when you use mailto:, it usually sends your form as an attachment rather than text in the body of the email. So, when a user clicks the submit button and a blank email form pops up, it can be a little confusing.

If you're signed up with hosted scripts, Im sure that they have a script that will process your form. You'll probably have to make a few mods to get it to work but at least your customers won't be confused.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!