Publish Web Pages at UVM:

Create a Web Form

Search engines, commercial sites, guestbooks and many other web sites use forms to collect and process information you provide.

Forms require two pieces: 1) a web page with text boxes or checkboxes where people type the information, and 2) a separate computer program to take that information and process it.

Creating the form that collects the information is fairly easy. Web editors like DreamWeaver or GoLive can help you create the form. Other web editors, like Netscape Composer, can't create forms, so you will have to learn a few HTML tags to create the form.

The tricky part comes when you want the form to actually do something. When, for example, you click on the "Submit" or "Send" button and expect some action to take place. What actually happens? When you fill out and send information in a web form, a command is sent to the server to start a completely separate program to process that information. Such programs are known as "Common Gateway Interface" programs, or CGI scripts and are written in a variety of programming languages, depending on the server that will house them.

So, while you can create forms like you create any other web page, in order for your form to collect information and do anything with it, you need an additional program to process it. Yes, a computer program, written by a programmer, and installed on the server in a special area. If you are programmer and would like to write your own cgi scripts, you can create and store them on zoo. For more information see http://www.uvm.edu/webguide/advanced/?Page=cgi.html&SM=advancedmenu.html.

Not a programmer? No problem. CIT has made a few useful form programs available for your use.

This tutorial will introduce you to the e-mail form, formmail.pl. This form allows you to create a web page to collect information that is then sent to you as an e-mail message.

The formmail.pl Script

Formmail.pl allows you to create a form with any number of checkbox, button, text, and drop down fields to collect your information. When someone fills in the form and clicks on the "Submit" button, it gathers that information and sends it to you, or anyone you specify, in an e-mail message.

Several other CGI programs are also available through CIT including a web page counter, a short answer test creator and a Campus Calendar generator. Information about these programs, and about CGI at UVM are available at http://www.uvm.edu/cit/web_publishing/.

To learn how to create a form to use with formmail.pl, continue to:

Creating a Form with Formmail.pl

Go to the beginning of the Web Tutorials