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Simple Guest List Form

A simple way of interacting with clients that visit a web site is to allow them to sign a guest list and leave some comments. A small form and custom CGI can be designed to facilitate such a task. The guest list form and CGI source are presented in two sections below.

HTML source for the guest list form
The HTML source below represents the skeleton of a guest list which will store the guest entries. It is recommended that the part of the guest list in bold be left intact. The remainder of the page can be customized to your own liking.

<html>
<head>
<title>Guest List</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Guest List</h3>
<p>
Feel free to add your name, E-mail address, and
comments to the guest list by using the Guest list Entry Form.
<p>
<p align=center>
<font size = "+1">
<b> G U E S T L I S T </b>
</font>


<p>
</body>
</html>

The guest list entries are placed between the lines:

The HTML source below represents the guest list entry form. This form can be customized for your server by simply changing the occurrence of MAXENTRIES (shown in bold) to be the number of entries that will be displayed on the guest book For example, if MAXENTRIES is set to 100, only the latest 100 entries in the guest book will be displayed. If MAXENTRIES is set to negative or zero (or not included in the form at all), no entry restriction will be applied.

PATHNAME represents the pathname of the guest list file relative to the "htdocs" directory of your server. For example, if your guest list file was named "guestlist.html" and was located in a subdirectory "guest" of your main "htdocs" directory, you would set PATHNAME to be "/guest/guestlist.html". If the file "guestlist.html" is located in your main "htdocs" directory, you would set PATHNAME to be "/guestlist.html".

ADDRESS should be set to the e-mail address where a copy of guest list entries which include a return e-mail address are sent.

<html>
<head>
<title>Guest List Entry Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Guest List Entry Form</h3>
<hr>
<p>
Thank you for taking the time to sign our guest list Feel free to add your name, E-mail address, and comments to the guest book by entering them in the form below.
<p>
<hr>
<form method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/Scriptorium/guest list/guestlist.pl/PATHNAME">
<input name="recipient" type="hidden" value="ADDRESS">
<input name="maxentries" type="hidden" value="MAXENTRIES">
<font size="+1">Your Full Name:</font>
<br>
<input name="name" size=50 maxlength=64> <p>
<font size="+1">
Your E-mail address (optional):</font>
<Br>
<input name="email" size=50 maxlength=64> <p> <font size="+1">
Your comments (optional):</font>
<Br>
<input name="comments" size=50 maxlength=256> <p>
<input type="submit" value="Sign Guest list">
<input type="reset" value="Clear"> <p>
</form>
</body>
</html>

If you are unfamiliar with the FORM HTML element, or would like to learn more about forms, see Mosaic for X version 2.0 Fill-Out Form Support.

Installation
To install the comments form on your Virtual Server you will need to do the following:

Download the Guestlist and Guestentry Forms
You will need to store the Guest list Form and Guestentry Form and store it somewhere in your "usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs" directory structure. Feel free to customize the two pages, add graphics, etc. Be sure that the variable name for each input field in the Guestentry Form is not altered.
Untar the Guest list CGI source code
1. Telnet or SSH to your Virtual Server.
2. Change directories to your home directory (type "cd" and hit return)
3. Type "tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/guestlist.tar"
  This will install the guestlist.pl and util.pl files into your "www/cgi-bin/Scriptorium/guest list" directory.
Customize the Appearance of the Guest list CGI
Two subroutines in the util.pl file are used to print out header and footer information. These functions are print_header_info and print_footer_info. Feel free to modify these functions such that the CGI outputs pages that are in synch with the motifs of the rest of your site.

Once you have completed the installation successfully, you will have a working guest list form.

SEE ALSO:

Installing CGI Scripts

CGI Security Issues

CGI Scriptorium

About Perl

Perl Modules

Server Side Includes

Mime Types

About Apache Server

BOOKS TO HELP YOU:

CGI Programming 101
$24.95

CGI Programming With Perl
$26.36

Web Security:
A Step-by-Step Reference Guide
$23.96

Official Guide to Programming With CGI.pm
$27.99

Javascript Bible,
3rd Edition
$34.99

Core Web Programming
$34.39

Apache:
Web Server Directives Guidebook
$15.95