option for prospects to request reports by name

[leonard55]

I am going to offer a large number of reports [on home page] to prospects, around 15 or 20.
Would like suggestions for best way for prospect to request which one[s] they want.
Are there other options than these?
1. below list of reports put "to receive your Special Report(s), go to ‘contact us’ and include a key phrase from the report(s)."
2. Or, in 'contact us" section, have a list of reports they can check
3. Or, [do you agree with my] preferred method: when they click on the name of a report, it goes to the 'contact us page' AND the name of the report is automatically filled in for them
So all they need to do is fill in their email address.
But can this be done in xara?
If not, would it be simple to have someone write code to accomplish this?
Or is there a way to accomplish this with one of the external form suppliers?

thanks, leonard

[Acorn]

I am going to offer a large number of reports [on home page] to prospects, around 15 or 20.
Would like suggestions for best way for prospect to request which one[s] they want.
Are there other options than these?
1. below list of reports put "to receive your Special Report(s), go to ‘contact us’ and include a key phrase from the report(s)."
2. Or, in 'contact us" section, have a list of reports they can check
3. Or, [do you agree with my] preferred method: when they click on the name of a report, it goes to the 'contact us page' AND the name of the report is automatically filled in for them
So all they need to do is fill in their email address.
But can this be done in xara?
If not, would it be simple to have someone write code to accomplish this?
Or is there a way to accomplish this with one of the external form suppliers?

thanks, leonard

Leonard, a simple way, avoiding forms altogether, is to use a Link with mailto:.
Experiment with http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit....ml_link_mailto.
When happy, copy the mailto part into the object's Web Properties > Link > Link to Web or Email address box and set Link > Open link to Same window (_top).
You can add ?body= to include content and use %0A to move to a newline.
All this depends on a prospect having an email client.

Sounds if you are using something like MailChimp or JotForm where you can use the Link to pass parameters: http://www.jotform.com/help/71-Prepo...URL-parameters.

Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

I'd go about it using a php form. You can view an example here:

http://parkeston.com/form-tests/checkbox/

Attached is a screengrab of the email received.

If you're interested in this route let me know, and I'll give you a copy of the php form.

[leonard55]

Egg and Acorn, thanks.
Reserved risking it with email client, as may lose prospect if someone has not set theirs up. although that would be cleanest route i think.
As you guys know, i am a beginner with this, so not very familiar with php forms. seems like jotform can do the same with the prepopulated forms. Correct?
Yes, i am using Jotform. So, Seems like this would be the simplest route to prepopulate the report choice. leonard

[leonard55]

Egg, thanks for the offer of the php form.
If using Jotform, and designing a form, are those forms php forms?

[Egg Bramhill]

If using Jotform, and designing a form, are those forms php forms?

I couldn't say for sure, I'm just a php novice (and going no further).

JotForm and similar form builders have far more features than just using your own adapted php form but I often find them even more difficult to implement.

[pauland]

I think I've yet to see a general form implementation that doesn't use PHP. It's not that other technologies aren't up to it, but that PHP is pretty ubiquitous on web hosts and popular for this task.

Jotform is a service, so form processing is being done by the jotform server. Jotform licence their technology and their requirements include PHP.

[nobbyy]

Hi all

Sorry to gatecrash this thread, but I am really interested in being able to create and use my own forms, and PHP may be the answer.

I would be happy to buy a license from the likes of jofrom, but my concern is that, from what i can see the form would only work whilst a license was in force, so say I decided that I did not use the service enough any forms that were on existing sites that I created would stop working when the license period ran out? Happy to be corrected on this if its not the case.

The other thing that draws me to a jotform type of service is the inclusion of security measures eg captcha - is a simple PHP form vulnerable to misuse?

Egg - Would you be willing to let me have a look at your PHP form to see if I could customise it to suit my requirements please?

[Egg Bramhill]

No problem nobbyy, I'll get back asap.

[nobbyy]

Thanks Egg - very much appreciated.