Send_Note is a quick browser interface to a send a short email message to someone.

There are a number of different methods to obtain the information to be sent. Three methods, JavaScript, PHP, and Perl, will be presented here. All are just examples of how to configure yours HTML form, either with hard-coded values or with more generic values that are filled in with data from the URL query string. Some require more or less code to put into your HTML page, and, similarly, allow more or less customization of how the page looks.

The JavaScript method is the preferred method because it provides the most opportunities for customization and uses the least resources on the server. Copy the HTML + JavaScript code and replace the MY_* variables (and the page layout) to best suit your needs. The only minor limitation is that if someone does not have a JavaScript capable browser (very unlikely), AND if you specify a Subject in the URL query string, then the specified subject will be lost and the user will be prompted to fill in the Subject line in the form.

For those who want to do the least amount of code (i.e. none), a generic version of the above template has been made available at http://www.netspace.org/scripts/sendnote.html Just create a link from your web page to this URL and add appropriate values to the query string, as in http://www.netspace.org/scripts/sendnote.html?u=my_account_name If the user does not have a browser that supports JavaScript (very unlikely), this script has a more severe limitation than copying and modifying the template above: the user will not only be prompted for the Subject line, she will also be prompted to fill in your email address (to whom to send the form), which she probably do not know.

The PHP and Perl versions of Send_Note are server-side processed and do not have the same minor limitations as the JavaScript above. However, they do use more server resources, and therefore may be slightly slower. The PHP code may be copied and customized to your needs. The Perl code takes all of its arguments from the URL query string and is located at /cgi-bin/utils/sendnote on any domain on NetSpace (e.g. http://your.domain.com/cgi-bin/utils/sendnote?u=my_account_name or http://www.netspace.org/cgi-bin/utils/sendnote?u=my_account_name).

Depending on which option is chosen above, the values of certain form elements may passed in the URL query string. Even for the more generic code above, the user to whom to send the email ('u') is often the only required parameter.

u

user account name of person to whom to send email (local-part of email address, or complete email address)

h

host name of person to whom to send email (domain part of email address)

n

name of person to whom to send email

s

pre-defined value of subject

m

pre-defined value of message

c

URL to which to send web visitor after the form is submitted. The default URL is the page from which the visitor came to this page (i.e. the HTTP referrer)

Send_Note is a Perl module (Send_Note.pm) that is designed for use with mod_perl under Apache, although it also works as a CGI program under any web server (that supports Perl CGI programs). Send_Note uses Mail_Form to process and send messages, so see the Mail_Form documentation for additional HTML form elements that can be used to configure its behavior.