Re: Creating a simple feedback form
Egg, without knowing what the script looks like. Many hosts simply use(d) their own "flavour" of Matt's script (with the limitations mentioned). Depending on the site... If few people find their way to a site = even less bots will find their way to the script on that site. Basically, if nobody visits the site, there will be no spam from bots either...
tectite and the dbmaster scripts, as mentioned by ckh and amoore, looks to do the trick (based on the description (and they are free...)) but I'm not sure how easily Tim can implement and try them "from within" XaraXtreme, which was the original question? Anyone?
w00dy, I'm sure your suggested wysiwygwebbuilder works as well as the hundreds of free, cheap or expensive editors out there, but Tim was not looking to dump Xara Xtreme - he was asking how he could do it in Xara Xtreme, no?
The last two links by amoore:
- The toos4php script ("wizard") costs $28 (with spam included) or $44 (with spam protection).
- The bebo script costs between $30 and $70 (depending on the license).
There are all kinds of open source CMS solutions (with plugins) but none will help Tim, or other users who look to do it in Xara Xtreme.
I never got any spam with the most excellent cformsII for Wordpress. It's free - updated regularly - takes 5 minute to implement. It has been downloaded 330,000 times since last year (about 12000 last week) = great user base for feedback on security and spam. Unfortunately it WILL NOT help Tim or other Xara Xtreme users/lurkers looking for a Xara Xtreme solution.
Risto
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ss-kalm
To someone who is not familiar with them, they may as well be in a foreign language.
Keith, That is a true statement, but to learn a foreign language you grab a language translation dictionary. To learn to write a script, one just has to grab/download the translation dictionary. To make it even easier the code uses the english language. Let's translate english to english...
It isn't rocket science. Loops and decision statements are the only part that might intimidate a person who never wrote a program before. Don't let the amount of code intimidate you. Just decode it one instruction at a time, the same as a 'puter does. Hey.. if I can learn it with just the dictionary, then anybody else can.
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
Quote:
Originally Posted by
raynerj1
Hey.. if I can learn it with just the dictionary, then anybody else can.
Well, I'm sure few people would dispute that.
However, this wasn't about questioningt Tim's intellectual capacity, but if there was a "simple solution for his simple web site" (paraphrased) available that he could use in Xara Xtreme (any simply website (by extension), I guess).
Risto
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Risto
tectite and the dbmaster scripts, as mentioned by ckh and amoore, looks to do the trick (based on the description (and they are free...)) but I'm not sure how easily Tim can implement and try them "from within" XaraXtreme, which was the original question? Anyone?
Risto
Risto, there isn't a solution to do it in XX or any html editor. html isn't a programming language, it's a hyper text markup language. You turn bold on or off, make a table, choose a font, etc. There isn't any 'coding' in html, there isn't any code, you just use html tags to display pages the way you want, similar to what's done in a word processing document. No formulas, comparisons, functions, variables, etc. so the most you can do is pass the information to something that is a programming language, php, perl, asp, etc. that can take can perform the actions you want with the info.
So, there isn't a way to do it in XX or an html editor. You must use a script to process the form.
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
I know... :rolleyes: I was hoping that somebody could show how a form could be implemented in Xara Xtreme to be processed by any (perhaps mentioned) non-spam-fest scripts. Isn't that the topic of this thread?
Risto
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
Hi Risto, I'd no idea who created cgiemail so I did a bit of searching. It was created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology many moons back from looking at their pages on it.
As I said earlier it's just a script already on my web host's server and all I need to do is write a very simple text file for it to work. Getting the path to it is the hardest part. The variables are the bits inside the square brackets.
Example of the text file:
From:Your Website
To:me@mysite.com
Subject: Relace this with whatever you want to appear in the subject line:
For the attention of [name]
CLIENT DETAILS:
Name: [data1]. [data2] [data3]
Address: [data4], [data5], [data6], [data7]. [data8]
Daytime Telephone: [data9]
Evening Telephone: [data10]
Mobile Telephone: [data11]
Email: [data12]
I don't try to pretend for a minute to understand security problems etc but I have had problems in the past with bots running other cgi scripts even when they're restricted by robot.txt files but I've never had a problem using cgiemail. I can only speak as I find.
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
Egg,
2002?! Isn't that script from before "the internets wuz invented?" :eek: Maybe the trick to stay away from bots, is to go retro?! :D *kidding* ;)
I'm sure ckh or remi (if he sees it, can pitch in) about your script. John might even want to use his dictionary if he wishes... who knows, he might just find something?
That thread would make for a sweet spin-off thread in the site design forum.
I'm curious about the topic of this thread and the original question asked by Tim (post 1). Maybe I'm having a browser refresh issue? This thread is still in the Xara forum, regarding forms in Xtreme and how it can plug in to a script, right? So when it comes to Xara = how to make it work?
Seeing what Tim did as a first design... in this thread: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=35343 (great stuff!) Combined with (possible) sane solution regarding forms/no-spam-scripts from this thread...
... isn't that what many people are looking for?
Risto
Re: Creating a simple feedback form
I don't think a form can be implemented in Xara, you need to add the text boxes and names which I believe is going to be outside the scope and intent of Xara. You could make the page, leave an area for a form, then either use an html editor to create the form or do it by hand.
I'd say the template that Egg posted would be pretty secure. The reason is that the To/From/Subject fields are hard-coded into the template, they aren't changed or subject to any of the variables being passed on. This is where the header injection would be a problem.
By putting all of the user inputted information in the body, you won't have that problem. The form can still be filled out by a bot to send you spam, but, that's a lot better than a bot being able to fill it out to send other people spam. The bots will find the form and attempt to find any vulnerabilities, that's just a fact of life. If you try to not make it available to the bots then it won't be available for real visitors either.
So, I guess the answer is that Xara can't create forms. Sure, it will output html but on the same note, you can make drawings in MS Word but it certainly wasn't meant to be a drawing program.