html forms ouput to html?

ryko

hello all,

i have some html forms that are using the simple sendForm function to email the results to me. this is all working fine with no problems, but i want to be able to control the output of the info submitted.

is it possible to have the info submitted on the form to be outputted as html? or even have the info fit nicely into a dreamweaver template?

basically what i am doing now is retrieving all of this text info through email. then saving and organizing all emails into 1 big word doc. then from there i copy/paste the text info into my existing template. every email i recieve becomes a new webpage.

can i automate this process somehow? it would be nice if once the submit button is clicked, the info was passed directly to my dreamweaver template and output as a new html page. can anyone help? thanks!

GooD

I dont think this could be done in the way you wanna do it.

If you want to create a new page for each submit im almost sure you cant with a html page.

The best way to do it would be with server-side page and save every submit in a database, then have one page use as a 'reader' to read & show every submited data in the DB. This page would show the data in the way you want to...

To do it with simple form & submit client-side code will be very tough cuz i don't think there's a way to create an html page with javascript or anythng like that.

Howewer if someone here think there's a way around here i wanna know it

Good luck and sorry for the bad news

ryko

Thanks for the reply! i wasn't sure anyone was going to answer b/c it is a strange request.... anyway i don't know much about databases, but i do know that i could make the submits go directly to an access database pretty easily (b/c this is what they were doing before) but from there i don't have any idea what to do with the .dat file or how to get the .dat file to play nicely with dreamweaver.

can you explain what you mean below? how would i make 1 page a "reader?" thanks!

GooD wrote:

...The best way to do it would be with server-side page and save every submit in a database, then have one page use as a 'reader' to read & show every submited data in the DB. This page would show the data in the way you want to...

GooD

You can't do it in html For this kind of reader you need server-side code, when i say server-side i mean .php or .aspx or anything like that, those page can 'POST' on the server each time you do something and then you can you pretty much whatever you want, like read data in a database and build a html output (template) to show on the 'client-side' (html)

In fact i was not helping you when i said that, cuz that's not what you were asking for... You wanna do it in a 'simple' html form on the client-side and then i don't think it's possible so i was just saying how 'i would do this'. Doing a server-side web application is much more complicated compare to doing a HTML page. It's even more true if you don't know anything about programmation. But server side web application allow you to do pretty much whatever you want

but i do know that i could make the submits go directly to an access database pretty easily

Well i've never try to do that... Even if it's possible with to write data with submit button and have it stored in a database with some attributes, you won't be able to 'read' it and make a 'reader page' with basic html. This kind of thing require programmation, so you need to be on the server-side.

Sorry again, as i said... in most situations pure HTML is just 'too basic' to do anything special :shakehead

I know what you ask seems 'logical' but i highly doubt this can be done in a basic html way

ryko

ok, so forget the html....what do i need to learn? .php, .asp, or what?

or should i just hire a database programmer?

GooD

In fact any web programmer should be able to do the application and the database.

For the language, for a basic web application i would go with php maybe... Aspx is the way to go if you have money (Visual Studio is a pricy product to buy if you want to buy it )

I've not done so many php in my life, i only see it realy fast at school but i've done a lot of ASP.NET (.aspx) with Visual Studio 2000, 2003 & 2005 and this langage rocks when you want to build good application really fast.

If you can manage to have it for a low price (or free ) i would go with ASP.NET , you can try to learn C# as it is the best (and easiest for me) langage 'til now for web application You could go with VB.NET too if you have already done some Visual Basic in the past. With Visual Studio you'll be able to chose in wich langage (c#, vb.net, j#) you want to do your application.

But chosing a language and kind of web application is a kinda personnal question, you'll maybe try C# and find it the worst langage in the world, when i found this is just GREAT

I don't like the syntax of php, but if you like it then go for it. For what you need to do ANY server-side web application will do. If you chose php or C# there's a LOT of tutorials on the net to help you out at the beginning.

EDIT : btw just watch the server options where your web site is... If this is a free host then maybe it's not supporting any type of database on the sever. If you pay for it then you surely have this kind of support. For you database you could go with mysql as it is free and quite easy to use.

Also, as this is a thing (change your site to a server-side web application) that will takes some times to do, you can ask you if it's realy worth it. If you can do this copy/paste thing manually and it doesnt take much time, maybe you're best to stay with that. If it cost you a lot of bucks simply to avoid this copy/paste trick it's not a great deal in the end.

Shorty

I don't have much more to add to GooD's posts as he has answered tremendously well

Im a total PHP zealot. I love the PHP syntax and as a starter language, it's exceptional and very easy to get into. For what you want, it's an elegant and extremely fast way to get into a more dynamic site. It also scales very well (especially with PHP5 and it's proper object support)

I would recommend you buy a book-> http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpmysql1/

This book was what got me started on PHP and it actually covers exactly what you want to achieve

Once you feel more confident, you may well get the programming bug. I know I have certainly. I am now heavily into C#. Just as GooD is. It's a beautiful language, hard to grasp at first but very flexible. Goes onto the web too (but Il stick to PHP for that!)

A little bit of patience, the right source material and you can learn something that is very useful

ryko

thanks for the replies!

i will definitely check out that book shorty....looks very good.

i just hope i can learn how to do this before my boss goes and hires somebody else!

GooD

Good luck !

When you'll see all of what you can do with a web application on the server side, you'll never go back to simple html Cuz in fact you can do pretty much whatever you want The only problem comes from costumers when they ask you to do an internet version of a windows application that can do the SAME thing (or more).

In fact, the only big problem of todays web application technology is 'printing'. Product quality reports for printing with a web appplication is very hard if you want flexibility, need to turn ur back and product a PDF on the server-side and send it to the client, but i don't like this solution as a pdf is kinda 'read-only' so it can't be modified :shakehead (Im actually working on this problem at work to find better solutions with new technology like VS 2005 & Framework 2.0 )

But for anything else i'm sure you'll begin to try many things you was thinking you could not do before Do your best and you'll impress your boss for sure

ryko

i am going to pick up a few books like the one shorty suggested after the holidays....and then i am shooting for a feb. 1st launch of this server side app.

that gives me roughly 30 days to learn the process.....i will report back to let you all know how it goes.

thank you so much for your input...it has been invaluable. i love how you can count on the very knowledgable and kind peeps here at short-media to point you in the right direction! thanks again!