Response Forms Tutorial - Getting Started Step 4 From Smart Web Center Quick Tutorial Series

4. Getting Started — Response Forms

Welcome to our Getting Started quick tutorial series. This is a step-by-step overview of the basic information that any website owner needs to know about the web and websites in general.

This information is very basic and is written in non-technical language so that a beginner can get up to speed on website know-how.

Table of Contents
What is a website response form?
How does a response form work?
What do you need to have to use response forms?

What is a website response form?

A website response form is just like a paper form except it is online. If you were doing a survey online at your site, your website visitors would type-in the information on the form and then click on a button that either says "Send or Submit". These results are then sent back to you by email. You can use response forms for many things on your website such as company or product information requests, logging in to secure parts of your website or for a search at your website.

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How does a response form work?

Your visitor fills out the form and then clicks on the Submit or Send button. Clicking on this button tells your web server, like Earthlink or wherever you have your website hosting account to come and get the information they've just filled-out, it collects the information and then emails it to you.
There is a special program that does this job. This program can be set up to do many different things, like send copies of the information to different email addresses or it can also be set up to make sure your visitors fill in certain parts of the form. These are often marked with a little asterisk which means the information is required before the Send or Submit button will work. You can even have your visitor sent to a "Thank You for filling out our Form" page after they have sent the information.

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What do you need to have to use response forms?

You need a CGI Script which is a program written in a computer language like Perl to handle the information collected by the form. Some web servers already have these CGI scripts available, while others don't. If a script isn't installed, you'll need to install one. Some hosting services are restricted so that you cannot use CGI scripts at all. You will need to contact your website administrator, or the company providing you with your website hosting to find out if you can run CGI scripts.

Smart Web Centers has a variety of these kinds of scripts available.

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