FormMail appropriate for me?

[Ryn]

Hey guys!

Spent some time looking at the FormMail site. I'm not amazing at programming but I've managed to build my site using php and a mysql backend. My shopping cart works well and on the last page prior to submission, i have a form where the user is required to fill out details, and their shopping cart is displayed.

I've tried converting my current form using that feature in the wizard, but it's returning errors. It's stating an invalid character being "<". I'm pretty sure it's from the php tag im embedding in my form. I'm basically having some inputs values pulled across from the previous page(s) and entering them into those fields.

I guess my questions are:

- If I create a whole new form using FormMail wizard, will I be able to go back later and add in the PHP to help it fill out my form?
- I also have hidden data I'd like it to send as well (the shopping cart values - the items and prices), can I do this too?

If the above are indeed possible, do I just create a new form, then edit the php/html after?

Many thanks guys, for what looks to be an excellent product.

Ryan

[russellr]

Hi,

Spent some time looking at the FormMail site. I'm not amazing at programming but I've managed to build my site using php and a mysql backend. My shopping cart works well and on the last page prior to submission, i have a form where the user is required to fill out details, and their shopping cart is displayed.

Well done!

I've tried converting my current form using that feature in the wizard, but it's returning errors. It's stating an invalid character being "<". I'm pretty sure it's from the php tag im embedding in my form. I'm basically having some inputs values pulled across from the previous page(s) and entering them into those fields.

No, the Wizard is fine with uploading PHP scripts containing forms.

There must be a serious HTML syntax error in your form that's causing this. Maybe you're missing a closing '>' on an HTML tag.

The error message should contain the line and column number for you to investigate.

I guess my questions are:

- If I create a whole new form using FormMail wizard, will I be able to go back later and add in the PHP to help it fill out my form?

Yes.

- I also have hidden data I'd like it to send as well (the shopping cart values - the items and prices), can I do this too?

The Form Designer doesn't currently allow you to add your own hidden fields, but you can always add them afterwards.

If the above are indeed possible, do I just create a new form, then edit the php/html after?

Sure, but I reckon you should persevere with your existing form and convert it using the Wizard.

[Ryn]

Hi Russell

Thanks mate. Here's the error I'm getting from the wizard:

File 'fmtest.php' contains errors: An invalid character was found inside a tag.
The invalid character found was '<'.
The tag was '<input name="Suburb" type="text" class="form_inputs" id="Suburb" '. Line 75, column 89. A total of 2 errors were found.

This file appears to contain invalid HTML. Please use the HTML
validator at http://validator.w3.org to validate your HTML before conversion.

Here's my line of code for that area....

<input name="Suburb" type="text" class="form_inputs" id="Suburb" <?php if ($DeliveryPickup == "Delivery") {echo 'value="'.$ArrayData["Suburb"].'" disabled="disabled"';}  ?> /></td>

Any idea?

[russellr]

Hi,

Right, that's a problem.

The Wizard doesn't like seeing another < inside an HTML tag.

Outside of HTML tags, you can use PHP without a problem.

We'll put it on the TO DO list to deal with this particular scenario.

If you're good with editing files, you can do this:

1. Replace all <?php with "STARTPHP".
2. Replace all ?> with "ENDPHP".
3. Upload for conversion.
4. Reverse steps 1 & 2.

If some of your PHP is complicated, that might not workaround everything.

Otherwise, you're back to adding in the PHP later after designing the form.

[Ryn]

Hi,

Right, that's a problem.

The Wizard doesn't like seeing another < inside an HTML tag.

Outside of HTML tags, you can use PHP without a problem.

We'll put it on the TO DO list to deal with this particular scenario.

If you're good with editing files, you can do this:

1. Replace all <?php with "STARTPHP".
2. Replace all ?> with "ENDPHP".
3. Upload for conversion.
4. Reverse steps 1 & 2.

If some of your PHP is complicated, that might not workaround everything.

Otherwise, you're back to adding in the PHP later after designing the form.

Thanks Russell. This worked perfectly.

Another quick question, is there a limit as to how many characters I can send using a hidden input? It seems to truncate it....

[russellr]

Hi,

Most fields are subject to a limit.

The setting to control the limit is called MAXSTRING.

[Ryn]

Hi,

Most fields are subject to a limit.

The setting to control the limit is called MAXSTRING.

Ah yeah I was just coming back to say I found the answer in the forum. My apologies.

Thanks Russell!

P.S. I'm loving FormMail btw. Great stuff.

[Ryn]

Sorry Russell, another question.

In another thread I read that the limit was there for security. Do you think it's safe/ok to set the limit to something like 50,000? I'm sending a bunch of HTML data through a hidden field and the length of which is variable based upon the size of the customer's order. So I just want to make sure I'm well and truly going to receive it.

[russellr]

Hi,

Yes, it's really just to try to prevent access to bugs in PHP or the webserver.

If you send too much the PHP has limits anyway.

50K should be fine.