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PGP FormMail

FormMail is a generic WWW form to e-mail gateway, which will parse the results of any form and send them to the specified user. This script has many formatting and operational options, most of which can be specified through the form, meaning you don't need any programming knowledge or multiple scripts for multiple forms. This also makes FormMail the perfect system-wide solution for allowing users form-based user feedback capabilities without the risks of allowing freedom of CGI access.

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), originally developed by Phil Zimmerman, is a high security cryptographic software application for MSDOS, UNIX, VAX/VMS, and other computers. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with privacy, authentication, and convenience.

Installing PGP FormMail

To install PGP FormMail, connect to your virtual server via Telnet or SSH and do the following:

  1. Install PGP 5.0

  2. Install the PGP FormMail software by running the following command:

    % vinstall pgp5formmail

    This command installs two files, pgp5formmail.pl and pgp5formmail.README.txt, into your ~/www/cgi-bin directory.

Using PGP FormMail
  1. Create a form that you would like the contents mailed to some address. The form should include the following fields (at the very least):

    • recipient = specifies who mail is sent to
    • pgpuserid = specifies your PGP user ID

    Other optional fields can also be used to enhance the operation of FormMail for you site, for example:

    • subject = specify the subject included in e-mail sent back to you
    • email = allow the user to specify a return e-mail address
    • realname = allow the user to input their real name
    • redirect = URL of page to redirect to instead of echoing form input
    • required = list of field names that are required input (comma delimited)

    Several other fields are supported, please see the pgp5formmail.README.txt document for a complete presentation of the supported fields.

    For example, the HTML source for your form may look like this:

    <form method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/pgp5formmail.pl">
    <input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="order@yourdomain.com">
    <input type="hidden" name="pgpuserid" value="your_userid">
    <input type="hidden" name="subject" value="Order Request">
    <input type="hidden" name="required" value="realname,email,phone">

    <p>
    Your Name: <input name="realname" size="40">
    Your Email Address: <input name="email" size="40">
    Your Phone Number: <input name="phone" size="40">
    </p>

    .
    .
    .

    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
    <input type="reset" value="Reset">
    </form>

    your_userid is the user ID for your public key. If your user ID contains characters that could be misinterpreted by a web browser, such as '<' and '>', you will want to replace these characters with the proper escape sequences. For example if your user ID were:

    John Q. Smith <12345.6789@compuserve.com>

    represent the user ID with the following string (note the &lt; and &gt; escape sequences):

    John Q. Smith &lt;12345.6789@compuserve.com&gt;
  2. Set the referer information such that only your server will have privileges to use the pgp5formmail.pl script. Near the top of the pgp5formmail.pl script you will find the following line:

    @referers = ('YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME','YOUR.IP.ADDR.ESS');

    Substitute your domain name and Virtual Server IP address for the values YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME and YOUR.IP.ADDR.ESS respectively.

Tip

One way to modify the pgp5formmail.pl script is have it "autorespond" to the client filling out the form. You can do this by simply uncommenting out the call to "autorespond" located near the top of the script. The autorespond function is placed at the end of the file and can be modified to suit your needs.

 

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