Re: semi-OT: can Rev pre-populate data on a web form?
Just wanted to write and say thanks to Trevor, Ben, and Jim. Using the
web form is working great. I just needed a little push in the right
direction, and I got it here. So thanks for the suggestions.
Chris
On Sep 5, 2008, at 3:28 AM, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
Chris Sheffield wrote:
So my main question is, can Rev send data to a web form like this
in such a way that whatever fields we specify will be populated
when the browser/form opens? Not sure if something like this is
even possible. I haven't done enough web development to know. Is
some special JavaScript required to accomplish this? In thinking
this through a little more, if we have a web form that's already
set up to send an email, can't I take advantage of that in Rev by
creating my own form and then sending the data straight to the cgi
behind the form? Once again, I haven't done much web dev, so I may
not even know what I'm talking about. :-)
If anyone can help or can offer any other suggestions for how to
accomplish something similar, it'd be much appreciated.
If I've understood your request correctly, you really want a Rev
stack to
collect some information from the user, and have it arrive at your
server in
the form of an email. There's a simple way to get what you want, I
think.
Using the SMTP libraries should make this possible, but has some
issues, in
particular your rev stack then needs to know the address of a mail
server it
can use from within the user's network to send email. But if you
have a web
form on your server that's successfully sending email where you want
it,
there's no need to open a user's browser to view it. Instead, Rev can
effectively be that web form.
(Apologies if what follows is teaching my granny to suck eggs.) If
you look at
the source of the web page, it will contain a "form" element with an
action
and a method. The action is the address of a server-side resource
(a script
etc) which receives the values entered into the form and processes
it, in this
case by sending an email. The method is either POST or GET. If
it's GET,
then the resource expects the values in the URL string, eg if I fill
in this
simple form
my browser will next fetch a URL like this:
./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein
(the first part of the URL being constructed based on the URL of the
page
holding the form, adjusted by the 'action' of the form.)
Lecture over; the point is that executing
put "./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein" into tURL
get URL tURL
or perhaps more likely
put "./formmail.cgi" into tScriptURL
put tScriptURL \
& "?first=" & tFirstName \
& "&last=" & tLastName \
into tURL
get URL tURL
in your Rev stack will have exactly* the same effect on the
'formmail.cgi'
resource as the user entering those details into their browser. At
this point
Rev is acting like a browser, making a request of the web server.
So no need
to open an actual browser.
If the form uses the POST method instead, then it's only slightly more
complicated. Instead of get URL, you need to use the "post"
command, which
will look something more like this:
put libURLformData("first", tFirstName, "last", tLastName) into tData
post tData to tScriptURL
There will be a few complications along the way; you should read the
(splending new in 3.0) docs, check out functions like URLencode, and
above
all, test. But either way, given that you have the web form
already, this is
probably the simplest route to achieve what you want.
HTH,
- Ben
*pedants please leave now
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Chris Sheffield
Read Naturally, Inc.
www.readnaturally.com
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Re: semi-OT: can Rev pre-populate data on a web form?
Ben is right on the mark with the 'submit a form' directly from Rev, but one
caveat may be that your website setup software may be using a pre-fab
browser detection script for maximum platform compatibility. If this is the
case, Revolution will not look like any of the browsers, like FireFox,
Safari, Explorer and it may simply ignore your form submission.
There are ways to deal with this, so post a message if Ben's advice does not
work out. The browser detection is often done with javascript between the
tags. The browser detection is important for Flash content.
Hope your form goes smoothly
Jim Ault
Las Vegas
On 9/5/08 2:28 AM, "Ben Rubinstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Chris Sheffield wrote:
>> So my main question is, can Rev send data to a web form like this in
>> such a way that whatever fields we specify will be populated when the
>> browser/form opens? Not sure if something like this is even possible. I
>> haven't done enough web development to know. Is some special JavaScript
>> required to accomplish this? In thinking this through a little more, if
>> we have a web form that's already set up to send an email, can't I take
>> advantage of that in Rev by creating my own form and then sending the
>> data straight to the cgi behind the form? Once again, I haven't done
>> much web dev, so I may not even know what I'm talking about. :-)
>>
>> If anyone can help or can offer any other suggestions for how to
>> accomplish something similar, it'd be much appreciated.
>
>
> If I've understood your request correctly, you really want a Rev stack to
> collect some information from the user, and have it arrive at your server in
> the form of an email. There's a simple way to get what you want, I think.
>
> Using the SMTP libraries should make this possible, but has some issues, in
> particular your rev stack then needs to know the address of a mail server it
> can use from within the user's network to send email. But if you have a web
> form on your server that's successfully sending email where you want it,
> there's no need to open a user's browser to view it. Instead, Rev can
> effectively be that web form.
>
> (Apologies if what follows is teaching my granny to suck eggs.) If you look at
> the source of the web page, it will contain a "form" element with an action
> and a method. The action is the address of a server-side resource (a script
> etc) which receives the values entered into the form and processes it, in this
> case by sending an email. The method is either POST or GET. If it's GET,
> then the resource expects the values in the URL string, eg if I fill in this
> simple form
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> my browser will next fetch a URL like this:
>./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein
>
> (the first part of the URL being constructed based on the URL of the page
> holding the form, adjusted by the 'action' of the form.)
>
> Lecture over; the point is that executing
>
> put "./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein" into tURL
> get URL tURL
>
> or perhaps more likely
> put "./formmail.cgi" into tScriptURL
> put tScriptURL \
> & "?first=" & tFirstName \
>& "&last=" & tLastName \
>into tURL
> get URL tURL
>
>
>
> in your Rev stack will have exactly* the same effect on the 'formmail.cgi'
> resource as the user entering those details into their browser. At this point
> Rev is acting like a browser, making a request of the web server. So no need
> to open an actual browser.
>
> If the form uses the POST method instead, then it's only slightly more
> complicated. Instead of get URL, you need to use the "post" command, which
> will look something more like this:
>
> put libURLformData("first", tFirstName, "last", tLastName) into tData
> post tData to tScriptURL
>
> There will be a few complications along the way; you should read the
> (splending new in 3.0) docs, check out functions like URLencode, and above
> all, test. But either way, given that you have the web form already, this is
> probably the simplest route to achieve what you want.
>
> HTH,
>
> - Ben
>
>
> *pedants please leave now
>
>
>
> ___
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution@lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
> preferences:
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Re: semi-OT: can Rev pre-populate data on a web form?
Thanks for the response and good explanation, Ben. This may be exactly
what I need. I'll be giving it a try today.
Chris
On Sep 5, 2008, at 3:28 AM, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
Chris Sheffield wrote:
So my main question is, can Rev send data to a web form like this
in such a way that whatever fields we specify will be populated
when the browser/form opens? Not sure if something like this is
even possible. I haven't done enough web development to know. Is
some special JavaScript required to accomplish this? In thinking
this through a little more, if we have a web form that's already
set up to send an email, can't I take advantage of that in Rev by
creating my own form and then sending the data straight to the cgi
behind the form? Once again, I haven't done much web dev, so I may
not even know what I'm talking about. :-)
If anyone can help or can offer any other suggestions for how to
accomplish something similar, it'd be much appreciated.
If I've understood your request correctly, you really want a Rev
stack to
collect some information from the user, and have it arrive at your
server in
the form of an email. There's a simple way to get what you want, I
think.
Using the SMTP libraries should make this possible, but has some
issues, in
particular your rev stack then needs to know the address of a mail
server it
can use from within the user's network to send email. But if you
have a web
form on your server that's successfully sending email where you want
it,
there's no need to open a user's browser to view it. Instead, Rev can
effectively be that web form.
(Apologies if what follows is teaching my granny to suck eggs.) If
you look at
the source of the web page, it will contain a "form" element with an
action
and a method. The action is the address of a server-side resource
(a script
etc) which receives the values entered into the form and processes
it, in this
case by sending an email. The method is either POST or GET. If
it's GET,
then the resource expects the values in the URL string, eg if I fill
in this
simple form
my browser will next fetch a URL like this:
./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein
(the first part of the URL being constructed based on the URL of the
page
holding the form, adjusted by the 'action' of the form.)
Lecture over; the point is that executing
put "./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein" into tURL
get URL tURL
or perhaps more likely
put "./formmail.cgi" into tScriptURL
put tScriptURL \
& "?first=" & tFirstName \
& "&last=" & tLastName \
into tURL
get URL tURL
in your Rev stack will have exactly* the same effect on the
'formmail.cgi'
resource as the user entering those details into their browser. At
this point
Rev is acting like a browser, making a request of the web server.
So no need
to open an actual browser.
If the form uses the POST method instead, then it's only slightly more
complicated. Instead of get URL, you need to use the "post"
command, which
will look something more like this:
put libURLformData("first", tFirstName, "last", tLastName) into tData
post tData to tScriptURL
There will be a few complications along the way; you should read the
(splending new in 3.0) docs, check out functions like URLencode, and
above
all, test. But either way, given that you have the web form
already, this is
probably the simplest route to achieve what you want.
HTH,
- Ben
*pedants please leave now
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--
Chris Sheffield
Read Naturally, Inc.
www.readnaturally.com
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Re: semi-OT: can Rev pre-populate data on a web form?
Chris Sheffield wrote:
So my main question is, can Rev send data to a web form like this in
such a way that whatever fields we specify will be populated when the
browser/form opens? Not sure if something like this is even possible. I
haven't done enough web development to know. Is some special JavaScript
required to accomplish this? In thinking this through a little more, if
we have a web form that's already set up to send an email, can't I take
advantage of that in Rev by creating my own form and then sending the
data straight to the cgi behind the form? Once again, I haven't done
much web dev, so I may not even know what I'm talking about. :-)
If anyone can help or can offer any other suggestions for how to
accomplish something similar, it'd be much appreciated.
If I've understood your request correctly, you really want a Rev stack to
collect some information from the user, and have it arrive at your server in
the form of an email. There's a simple way to get what you want, I think.
Using the SMTP libraries should make this possible, but has some issues, in
particular your rev stack then needs to know the address of a mail server it
can use from within the user's network to send email. But if you have a web
form on your server that's successfully sending email where you want it,
there's no need to open a user's browser to view it. Instead, Rev can
effectively be that web form.
(Apologies if what follows is teaching my granny to suck eggs.) If you look at
the source of the web page, it will contain a "form" element with an action
and a method. The action is the address of a server-side resource (a script
etc) which receives the values entered into the form and processes it, in this
case by sending an email. The method is either POST or GET. If it's GET,
then the resource expects the values in the URL string, eg if I fill in this
simple form
my browser will next fetch a URL like this:
./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein
(the first part of the URL being constructed based on the URL of the page
holding the form, adjusted by the 'action' of the form.)
Lecture over; the point is that executing
put "./formmail.cgi?first=Ben&last=Rubinstein" into tURL
get URL tURL
or perhaps more likely
put "./formmail.cgi" into tScriptURL
put tScriptURL \
& "?first=" & tFirstName \
& "&last=" & tLastName \
into tURL
get URL tURL
in your Rev stack will have exactly* the same effect on the 'formmail.cgi'
resource as the user entering those details into their browser. At this point
Rev is acting like a browser, making a request of the web server. So no need
to open an actual browser.
If the form uses the POST method instead, then it's only slightly more
complicated. Instead of get URL, you need to use the "post" command, which
will look something more like this:
put libURLformData("first", tFirstName, "last", tLastName) into tData
post tData to tScriptURL
There will be a few complications along the way; you should read the
(splending new in 3.0) docs, check out functions like URLencode, and above
all, test. But either way, given that you have the web form already, this is
probably the simplest route to achieve what you want.
HTH,
- Ben
*pedants please leave now
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Re: semi-OT: can Rev pre-populate data on a web form?
On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 3:58 AM, Chris Sheffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We want our customers to go through a registration process. So the > standalone would open a url to a form on our web site. The only reason we're > going to a web form instead of using a form in the application is because we > want an email message sent to us upon submitting the information. I've > explored Sarah's smtp library for sending email from Rev, which I'm sure is > great, but for some reason I can't get it to work. I can't get it to connect > to our smtp server. Anyway, that's a different topic. Hi Chris, In the SMTP Library Demo stack, make sure Verbose logging is turned on, try connecting and then email me the contents of the log field off-list. I'll try to work out why you are unable to connect. Cheers, Sarah ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: semi-OT: can Rev pre-populate data on a web form?
On Sep 4, 2008, at 1:58 PM, Chris Sheffield wrote: So my main question is, can Rev send data to a web form like this in such a way that whatever fields we specify will be populated when the browser/form opens? Not sure if something like this is even possible. I haven't done enough web development to know. Is some special JavaScript required to accomplish this? A simple approach would be to append a query string to the URL you open. For example, let's say you want to tell the web form script the default first name to use. You could do something like this: launch url "http://www.mydomain.com/path/to/script.php?first_name=FIRST_NAME It is then up to the web page (script.php in this case) to look for values in the GET query string and then populate the fields with default values. Regards, -- Trevor DeVore Blue Mango Learning Systems www.bluemangolearning.com-www.screensteps.com ___ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
