[HandleX]

I am trying to make a page on my website that will allow a person to put in their e-mail address, if they would like me to send them updated newsletters.

Ideally, i would like them to enter their email address and then click a submit button. This action would send the email address to me via my email address. I would get it, then add it to our mailing list.

Is there any easy way of doing this? I am thinking it can not be HTML so .... lay her on me.

Thanks a lot.

[dizzle_deasy]

Do you have any server side technology?

[Chroder]

You can do it with HTML, but ultimately it'll just be like a normal mailto: link (thus the user will be using their email client to send the message, which might not even be set up).

So using a technology like PHP will be your best bet. There are many pre-made mailing list scripts available for free on sites like HotScripts.com that you might want to look into. Otherwise, it is fairly simple to just send an email with the address.

[thecoalman]

Look to see if your host supports e-mail lists. The basic idea is they can self subscribe or unsubcribe to it themselves to it by sending an email to yourlist-request@yourdomain.com with subject subscribe.

You would only have to crete a mailto link.... You create a moderator for the list which allows you too send an email to everyone on the list by emailing the newsletter to the list.

May sound a little complicated but it's quite easy to set up, at least on my server it is.

Edit: To do it where they insert a email address ionto a form see here: http://forums.techguy.org/web-develo...rm-script.html

[redivivus]

You can also do it through a script hosted for free on another site.

Ive tried response-o-matic, and it works fine. Basically when they submit a form, it sends it to response-o-matic. The form contains your email and other values as hidden inputs . Response-o-matic then emails you automatically.

Never use mailto.

The problem with response-o-matic is that once they click submit, it redirects them to their page!

What i did was created the form in a seperate window, and then had that window redirect back as soon as it redirected away, so the user would just see the page refresh. :P

http://www.response-o-matic.com/

[covert215]

"mailto:" only works if the user has Outlook configured

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by covert215

"mailto:" only works if the user has Outlook configured

The mailto link will open up whatever the user has selected as their default e-mail program. It's not a outlook only link.

[covert215]

But it still requires a program to be configured. Most people use the web to view their emails.

[dizzle_deasy]

Originally Posted by redivivus

You can also do it through a script hosted for free on another site.

Ive tried response-o-matic, and it works fine. Basically when they submit a form, it sends it to response-o-matic. The form contains your email and other values as hidden inputs . Response-o-matic then emails you automatically.

Never use mailto.

The problem with response-o-matic is that once they click submit, it redirects them to their page!

What i did was created the form in a seperate window, and then had that window redirect back as soon as it redirected away, so the user would just see the page refresh. :P

http://www.response-o-matic.com/

Or you could be smart and just write your own script and not have to worry about what the other site wants to do. Writing your own script will allow you to have full control over what happens when the user subscribes. You can also find such a script for free at phpclasses.org. You have to subscribe to the site but you get so much out of it. And if you write scripts you can post them so that others can use them as well. We call this sharing. If you don't know how to write a PHP script go to www.w3schools.com and learn. It is very easy. then you can read the script that you get from phpclasses.org and figure out how it works.

[covert215]

That is another easy option...once you understand php and a tad of MySQL

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by covert215

But it still requires a program to be configured. Most people use the web to view their emails.

True that could be a problem but you could just supply directions for people using web based email clients. BTW I just saw redivivus's comment about mailto, mailto shouldn't be used in a form as the action as the user gets a nasty warning.... The mailing lists I mentioned are different.

[HandleX]

hmm i may go through HTML but im doubtful.

Does anyone know where i could score cgi-bin directories for IIS or even php scripting capabilities for IIS?

[dizzle_deasy]

You could get php from php.net and get apache and run it on windows. if you want I can send you the install files for apache and PHP that I use on windows. The install package has pretty good instructions on how to install and configure apache and PHP on windows. you could also get a free webhosting account at http://tripod.lycos.co.uk/ which runs PHP under apache. From there it should be pretty easy to learn.