Expression® Web Design
Frontpage Form Properties
Monday, November 06, 2006
If this is your first stop at out site, this page is a continuation of our Custom Form Tutorial.It isn't necessary to view it first, but as we move on to validation, the fields we are working with come from there.
Now it is time to set the form properties! By setting your form properties, you are telling the extensions how to handle your form input.
Right click in the form (inside the dotted or dashed lines) and select "Form Properties"
Set up your form properties like the example below, except substitute your website email instead of mine. The "File name:" should read something like _private/form_results.txt This could also be _private/form_results.htm either way, direct the save to the _private folder in order to protect the users input.
To create this file if you don't already have it, open a blank Notepad. Go to Save As, naming it like we did oin this case, form_results and direct the save to the _private folder. If you have used a form template such as the form wizard, FP will automatically create a file and place it in _private for you.
For now, leave the form name alone. It is of little importance at this point.
Click on "Options" and change the "File format:" to Formatted text by using the Drop Down Menu as in the example below. If you are sending to .htm location, you might try HTML or HTML definition list as options.
Notice we have kept the check in "Include field names". This isn't absolutely necessary, but it is easier to keep track of input for ambiguous fields.
Now select the E-mail results tab. Make sure your website email is visible and set the Subject line to "Custom Form Results" as in the example below. It is best to use site mail if you have it e.g. webmaster@example.com If not then, try using a Yahoo address. Yahoo mail is compatible with formmail, whereas AOL and some other accounts are not. Of course, if your host offers this option, you can send the results to site mail and have it forwarded to your personal email account.
As you can see above, our site address is showing along with the format set to Formatted text, same as file results. Custom Form Results is showing as the subject line and "Form field name" is unchecked. We will address this later.
If you wish a custom confirmation page, go to "Options" again and choose the "Confirmation Page". Use a site URL e.g. (confirm.htm) or if you want a full URL for an external site, depending on the purpose of your form. Whatever name you use for the custom confirmation page, be sure to create a new page with that same name. The custom confirmation page can be a simple Thank You page or it can be set up to display the users input for viewing or printing. More on this later.
Now click "Saved Fields" and select your preference. The example displays my personal choice. You can leave the "Form fields to save:" area alone. FrontPage automatically selects all fields.
I like to check the Additional info and choose a Date and Time format.
Now when you click OK you will see the infamous "Disk based web" message.
When prompted with a message to remove the email recipient...The answer is "No". The message is simply a reminder that the FrontPage Server Extensions or FPSE are properly installed on the destination server in order for the form to work.
Keep in mind, that you must also use the built in "Publish Web" method to http:// location. To access this go to File >> Publish Web.
Click "No" and save your page.
Frontpage Form Wizard Tutorial
One of the easiest ways to create your user forms in FrontPage is to use the Form Page Wizard.The tutorial here is generated with FrontPage2000.
Start by opening your FrontPage 2000 program.
Now open one of your current webs for practice. Since we want to publish this form page to the web or your intranet, be sure to develop it in a publishable web.
Go to "File", "New", "Page"
Don't worry at this point about navigation to this page. Just leave everything else alone until we publish and then test the form.
Select "Form Page Wizard"
You will now see the Wizard window. Click "Next"
As you can see now, the window space is blank because we need to select questions. Click on "Add".
From this menu there are a number of selections you can make. Highlight "contact information" and click "Next".
Leave the default checks in place and in addition to these check "Home phone" and "Postal address" then click "Next".
Now click on Add again and select "personal information" leave the default checks in place and in addition, check "Height, Weight, Hair color and Eye color" then click "Next".
You will now see the "Presentation Options" page. Leave this as is and click "Next".
You will now see the "Output Option" page Check save results to a text file and click "Next".
Notice formrslt shows as the file name. FrontPage has just created this file and stored it in the _private folder for us.
Now click "Finish". The wizard will now produce the form on the current page.
Your form should now look like this....Our example here does not include the form border. Yours should show the dotted or dashed form border. This form is for appearances only. It has no form tags, so it doesn't submit.
Please provide the following contact information:
Name Date of Birth Sex Male Female Height Weight Hair Color Eye Color
Preview in browser and hit the submit button. In all likely hood you will see the following in your browser window. It should definitely appear if you use IE, but won't swear to it appearing in other browsers.
FrontPage Run-Time Component Page
You have submitted a form or followed a link to a page that requires a web server and the FrontPage Server Extensions to function properly.This form or other FrontPage component will work correctly if you publish this web to a web server that has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed.
Click the
This is not a bad message. It simply means your form needs to be published to a web server with Front Page extensions properly installed. In fact, to me this is a sign I actually built a form rather than a mucked up combination of form fields instead.
Our next step is to examine the form properties.
Joe Rohn
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Special thanks goes out to Joe Rohn who operates Time for Web. He also has Expression Web and Frontpage Forum which I am a pretty active participant.Joe nominated me for Frontpage MVP and Microsoft approved me for this award. It has been a great honor to have been recognized for this.
Amysticweb
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Some of you might be aware of Michael, aka Amysticweb. He ran a website that helped users create Frontpage forms. A few years ago, he emailed me saying his computer crashed and he lost his data on one of his personal websites. I told him about Internet Archive, and that website saved the day.A few years ago, he stopped responding on the forums. And his Frontpage forms website was down, along with his person wrbsite. I tried to locate the hosting company to pay his hosting bill to get the website back online but unfortunately I could not. His domain name was automatically renewed so I gave up trying to get his domain name.
Frontpage Forms
I created a category on Loud Expressions just for Michael and tried to gather as much archived date of his Frontpage form website to post in hopes that it helps others, just like it helped me.
Microsoft Frontpage MVP
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
I was nominated this year for the
Microsoft Frontpage Most Valuable Professional and
accepted for this award.
I know that a lot of people
do not care for Microsoft® but I have always enjoyed their products and have
used a version of Frontpage since the Frontpage Express days.
