e-mail form with copy e-mail

[moonlander]

I have designed a form on my website which captures name, surname, e-mail address etc. and then includes a text box so that someone can enter details to send me their comments / complaints etc.
BUT
I want it to send a copy back to the individual if they tick a box eg. E-mail a copy of this message to your own address.
Does anyone know of some code, HTML, Javascript or Vbscript that would do this, please.

Many thanks in anticipation

[jscher2000]

I have designed a form on my website which captures name, surname, e-mail address etc. and then includes a text box so that someone can enter details to send me their comments / complaints etc.
BUT
I want it to send a copy back to the individual if they tick a box eg. E-mail a copy of this message to your own address.

There are server-side scripts to do this, but caution is required. Look at your form from the perspective of someone responsible for dispensing 10,000 spam messages per day through a willing mail server. How can you stop the spammer from using your form with their automated tools to send out their pitch messages to their list of email addresses? The usual approach is to use a CAPTCHA image, but I don't know how foolproof that is.

[Paul T]

Catchpa has been broken by the baddies for years. The only real solution is to only send random content to a single address - yours.

cheers, Paul

[moonlander]

Thanks guys. It's a minefield out there!

What is the best option on a website to enable users to e-mail it's owner - I thought the e-mail form was better than just a link to start the user's own e-mail programme?

[jscher2000]

What is the best option on a website to enable users to e-mail it's owner - I thought the e-mail form was better than just a link to start the user's own e-mail programme?

If you want information in a certain format, yes, using an online form is much better than asking the visitor to send you an email. And there's no problem letting visitors send you spam; my concern was letting them send anyone spam because they control the address for the confirmation copy.

If you expect a high volume of comments and it's not urgent to reply to them, you might consider saving them on the server rather than having them sent to you. They could be saved in a database or in a text file. You then could review them at your leisure.

[Paul T]

Mail forms are best as they give the users some anonymity if they want and they're easy to use and format. Make sure it's a secure mail form, some leak like sieves and are an invitation to spammers.
Putting your own address up is always a bad idea, you should use a disposable one with big spam filters.

cheers, Paul

[moonlander]

Again, many thanks to you guys.

OK, so if I've got this right using a form is better than an e-mail link.
Ideally do not include a 'send a copy to me' tick box on the form.
Do not include my own e-mail address in the code for the form.

I vaguely remember something about hidden values - does anyone have a piece of code to enable my e-mail address to be used but not be seen in the form?

[jscher2000]

I vaguely remember something about hidden values - does anyone have a piece of code to enable my e-mail address to be used but not be seen in the form?

Your email address will be in the ASP code that generates the email, not in the form submitted by the user. Unfortunately, a hidden input in a web page is only hidden from humans, not bots that harvest email addresses...

[Paul T]

A search for "mail form asp" or "mail form php" will provide what you required.

cheers, Paul

[moonlander]

Paul & Jscher,

Many thanks - I'll take a look at the mail form asp over the weekend.