simpleContact Support Forums

simpleContact Support Forums » Recent Posts http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ simpleContact Support Forums » Recent Posts en-US Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:33:22 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/search.php janderson on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Lite)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-lite#post-306 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:05:08 +0000 janderson 306@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Works perfectly!!! Thanks Alex Alex on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Lite)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-lite#post-305 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:15:04 +0000 Alex 305@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I've updated the post and the demo. You should find that it works as expected now :) The correction was to the last chunk of code in step 2. janderson on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Lite)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-lite#post-304 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:29:21 +0000 janderson 304@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Thanks, I will be waiting for it, please post here to let me know it has been updated. Alex on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Lite)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-lite#post-303 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:27:12 +0000 Alex 303@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Thanks for pointing this out. Reading the tutorial over, I think I know what I have missed out. I'll correct the tutorial and demo as soon as possible, and incorporate the correction into the original post. janderson on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Lite)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-lite#post-302 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:44:15 +0000 janderson 302@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I have done as you say above, I see the recaptcha. But it does not matter if I add the correct/incorrect/ or no info in recaptcha box it always lets it through with a thank you. Your demo does the same thing as well? Alex on "Sloppy words cleaner" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/sloppy-words-cleaner#post-301 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:32:12 +0000 Alex 301@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Thanks for your suggestion. I think this is something I'll visit and revisit over time. For my part, I have to try to make choices that suit all users as well as I can. For example: because a field is based on its type (e.g. long single line field) and only "Address line 1" because it has been labelled so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to assume that type of field should always transformed to proper case. The only fields that it would be reasonable to process in this way by default are the first name and last name fields, because they are predefined for that purpose. Even then, a name like "Ronald McDonald" would be transformed to "Ronald Mcdonald" - which would be wrong from the user's point of view. You could try and anticipate every exception, but the result would be a series of hacks in the form processor. I'll have a think about the best way to do a conversion post-submission, and post it here. You can then choose to implement it on a field-by-field basis. That seems the best way. mrwebdomain on "Sloppy words cleaner" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/sloppy-words-cleaner#post-300 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:10:27 +0000 mrwebdomain 300@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Hello Alex, Thank you for your reply. It's not really a big deal, but it would be cleaner looking in the database as well as the csv export if the names and addresses were all formatted the same. When an exported list is imported to a mailer for instace, the names will be exactly as the user typed them, which may look like john doe or JOHN DOE, or worse: jOHN dOE if they didn't realize they had cap locks on, but intended to type John Doe. It would really be great if the words would clean (correct themselves) while being typed. I've seen that somewhere, but cannot remember where. But just getting them cleaned up upon submission would be good enough. For the database, Instead of: john doe 123 any st newark, nj or JOHN DOE 123 ANY ST NEWARK, NJ to have a cleaner format: John Doe 123 Any St Newark, NJ Take a look at this, it may give you some ideas. <a href="http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5550" rel="nofollow">http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5550</a> I use it on all oscommerce sites that I develope and it works great, but I wouldn't begin to know how to incorporate it into scpro. Thanks, Hal Alex on "Check out the new Facebook page!" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/check-out-the-new-facebook-page#post-299 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:58:41 +0000 Alex 299@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I've started a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/simpleContact/138775059474105">Facebook page for simpleContact</a>, to help promote and support the application. Have a look, and tell me what you think! Needless to say, "likes" are much appreciated. First: a custom URL, next step: world domination :) Alex on "Sloppy words cleaner" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/sloppy-words-cleaner#post-298 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:17:54 +0000 Alex 298@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ simpleContact Pro does do a bit of data cleaning when a user submits the form. For example, a URL field entry will be prepended with <code>http://</code> (so that it can be made into a working link) if the user neglected to enter it. There isn't a built-in function for the sort of capitalisation you mentioned, because it would be risky for me to assume what a user meant to type. However, PHP provides a function called <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ucwords.php">ucwords</a> that can be used to provide the effect you want. For example... <code>$formatted_string = ucwords(strtolower($string));</code> ... Would transform a string to all lower case (to iron out any mix of upper and lower case), before setting the first letter of each word in the string to upper case. If you can supply me some more detail, about what information you want to format and at what time (e.g. for storage or simply for display) I'm sure I can suggest a code modification that would do the job. mrwebdomain on "Sloppy words cleaner" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/sloppy-words-cleaner#post-297 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:10:34 +0000 mrwebdomain 297@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I've searched all forums and could not find any mention of this at all. Is it at all possible to force a clean up of users input upon submitting. For instance, if they type everything in lower-case, the first letter of each word would convert to upper-case, or if they type all upper case, all but the first letter of each word would convert to lower-case. mrwebdomain on "Changing character settings for fields and field length" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/changing-character-settings-for-fields-and-field-length#post-296 Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:56:49 +0000 mrwebdomain 296@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ That worked perfectly. Thank you. Alex on "Changing character settings for fields and field length" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/changing-character-settings-for-fields-and-field-length#post-295 Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:23:13 +0000 Alex 295@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ This is a known issue in version 2.0, related to the version check. In a nutshell, I originally had a page for this application on my personal website. The version check script was pointed at a file on that site. When I built this dedicated site, I put 301 redirects in place to the URL where the version script should now point. A small number of users have reported that their server didn't like being redirected in this way, which produced the error. All links in the next version will be corrected for this site, but in the meantime there is a thread covering the <a href="/forums/topic/error-on-line-1">error on line 1</a> message. If you need any assistance applying the fix it describes, please <a href="/contact/">contact me</a>. I will be happy to do it for you. mrwebdomain on "Changing character settings for fields and field length" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/changing-character-settings-for-fields-and-field-length#post-294 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:33:02 +0000 mrwebdomain 294@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Thank you for your response. I managed to figure my way through this issue and my form is complete now. I appreciate your efforts. I have another small issue. Whenever I log into the admin section, the first thing showing is an error in the top left corner of an otherwise blank page. Error on line 1 If I simply refresh the page, I get logged in no problem. If you have any ideas on this, please let me know. Thank you Alex on "Changing character settings for fields and field length" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/changing-character-settings-for-fields-and-field-length#post-293 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:48:12 +0000 Alex 293@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Hi, you're welcome :) I'll answer your queries in turn: Middle initial field There isn't built-in support for capturing a person's middle initial, but I believe I could write a <a href="/forums/forum/hacks">hack tutorial</a> for implementing that in a basic but sufficient way. I've actually not had a request for that before, but it makes perfect sense to add so I'll consider adding it to a future version. Please <a href="/contact/">contact me</a> and I'll email you when I've written the tutorial. Social security number This would be rather too complicated to write up as a hack, so I have a couple of suggestions: 1) Use a 30 character single line field, and indicate the desired format in your field label (e.g. xxx-xxx-x) as people often do for date fields and such. 2) If it's essential for you, I am available to discuss doing some custom development on your installation. We could discuss your exact requirements, and I would issue you a quote based on my regular freelance rate. mrwebdomain on "Changing character settings for fields and field length" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/changing-character-settings-for-fields-and-field-length#post-292 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:26:23 +0000 mrwebdomain 292@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I am new here, so please pardon me if I am posting in the wrong place. I just purchased the pro version and have been working to create a form. I am trying to find how to limit characters in a form field other than the pre-set configuaration of 10, 30, 100. If this is possible, also need to know if it will automatically change the size of the field. Example, if I want a field for a person's middle initial, it should only be one character maximum, and it shouldn't be a very long field. Also, if I want a field for a Social Security number, I would prefer three separate fields of 2 three character fields and 1 two character field. Any tips on this is greatly appreciated. Alex on "Problem to Login" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/problem-to-login#post-291 Sun, 30 May 2010 16:43:29 +0000 Alex 291@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ This is because your host requires that you configure the location where your login sessions are stored on the server. This is easy to do. I've written a new forum post called <a href="/forums/topic/installing-simplecontact-on-ipage-host">installing simpleContact on iPage host</a> which explains what you need to do. If you need any other help please don't hesitate to ask. Alex on "Installing simpleContact on iPage host" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/installing-simplecontact-on-ipage-host#post-290 Sun, 30 May 2010 16:38:35 +0000 Alex 290@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Please note: These are general points, which apply to *any* application that uses sessions (e.g. for user login). They are not particular to simpleContact. ------------------------------------------ Session storage In order to create a session, PHP must be able to create a session ID and save a session file (which stores information about application state) to a location on your server. This corresponds to a cookie (which also holds the session ID) that is stored by your browser. iPage require that you add the following line of code to the top of your config file: session_save_path("yourhomedirectorypath/cgi-bin/tmp"); Log into your control panel and see the PHP scripting page for the full path to your home directory. Reference: <a href="http://www.ipage.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=600">Running PHP sessions (iPage knowledgebase)</a> jjvesga on "Problem to Login" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/problem-to-login#post-289 Sat, 29 May 2010 03:06:31 +0000 jjvesga 289@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Hi, actually I have the pro version, I installed on a ipage.com hosting, I registered the user name and password as first installation, but when try to login, enter username and password, just appear again the login window, nothing happends, can´t access can you help me please?? This is the website: <a href="http://www.eiprogram.com/summer/sc_admin/" rel="nofollow">http://www.eiprogram.com/summer/sc_admin/</a> Thanks. Alex on "Conditional email recipients based on form input (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/conditional-email-recipients-based-on-form-input-pro#post-288 Tue, 25 May 2010 08:34:16 +0000 Alex 288@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I've had a few requests recently for a feature where different people receive emails from a form, based on what the user entered. simpleContact Pro stores a list of email recipients in its database. This is more secure than exposing recipients in the form code (e.g. as hidden fields) and you can have as many recipients as you want. They will all receive an email when someone completes your form. In some cases however, you might want different people to receive those messages. Ordinarily, the recipients list is retrieved from the database and an array is constructed. The form processor loops through that array of email addresses and sends the messages. The best way to achieve the desired effect of this hack is to selectively override the recipients list before it is looped through. In this example, I've used a country menu. You can find a <a href="/forums/topic/menu-countries-of-the-world">list of countries of the world</a> in this forum to help you build such a menu quickly. If the user selects "United Kingdom" or "United States" we'll override the recipients list. 1) Your recipients list Use the recipients list in your sc_admin to specify the default recipients. These are the email addresses that will receive the form submissions unless we specifically override them. 2) Overrides This hack assumes that the name of the field is obj_10. You will need to amend the code to reflect the name of your field, the values you want to respond to and the email addresses you want to send messages to. Open sc_admin/include/contact.php Insert your version of the following code after line 270. Here's a simple example: <code>if ($posted["obj_10"] == "United Kingdom") {</code> <code>$recipients = array("ukenquiries@yourwebsite.com");</code> <code>}</code> Here's a slightly more complicated example: <code>if ($posted["obj_10"] == "United Kingdom") {</code> <code>$recipients = array("ukenquiries@yourwebsite.com");</code> <code>} else if ($posted["obj_10"] == "United States") {</code> <code>$recipients = array("usaenquiries@yourwebsite.com","john@yourwebsite.com");</code> <code>}</code> Note that the second example has two conditions (you can extend it by adding more "else" conditions). It also demonstrates how to override the recipients list with a new list that has more than one email address in it. Alex on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-pro#post-287 Sat, 15 May 2010 13:55:26 +0000 Alex 287@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I would say yes, it does prevent that need. I've installed simpleContact Pro on my own websites and those of several clients. I don't use CAPTCHAs anywhere. I think it's vital to be honest and try to manage user expectation about spam. I don't believe it's possible to build a system that prevents 100% of spam, both automated and human, with no false positives. Not even Google have achieved that. Having said that, I receive practically no spam through any of my SCP installs. I received several requests for CAPTCHA support, so I wrote this hack to help. Some people see it as an extra level of defense, some need to add it because their clients want it. I'm not going to add CAPTCHA support to the base install so this is my solution for those cases. Everyone's happy that way :) capellt on "Add reCAPTCHA support (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-recaptcha-support-pro#post-286 Fri, 14 May 2010 19:33:32 +0000 capellt 286@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ doesn't the server side validation you provided in the base install of SC prevent the need for CAPTCHA? I've used SC for a long time now and haven't seen any spam issues. capellt on "Limit the number of accepted checkboxes in a set (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/limit-the-number-of-accepted-checkboxes-in-a-set-pro#post-285 Fri, 14 May 2010 19:16:13 +0000 capellt 285@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Thanks again Alex, as always your the best! works perfect Alex on "Limit the number of accepted checkboxes in a set (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/limit-the-number-of-accepted-checkboxes-in-a-set-pro#post-284 Thu, 13 May 2010 10:47:44 +0000 Alex 284@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ If you only want a user to be able to select a limited number of options in a checkbox set, you can use this simple hack. Please note, because this is a JavaScript modification it only works on the client site. This check isn't implemented in the server side validation, but since the aim is to prevent human error I think it's safe to assume that JavaScript can do the job. In this example, a checkbox set with the name obj_10 is only allowed to have two checkboxes selected. You will need to edit the code to suit your form. If you want to apply limits to more than one checkbox set, duplicate and amend this code accordingly. Open sc_admin/js/forms.js Add the following code to the validateContact() function, after the section for checkboxes: <code>// ONLY ALLOW TWO OPTIONS FOR OBJ_10</code> <code>if ($("input[name='obj_10[]']:checked").length > 2) {</code> <code>var mylist = $("#obj_10_1").parents("ul")[0];</code> <code>$(mylist).after("Please only select two options");</code> <code>}</code> Users will now see an error message if they exceed the allowed number of options in the checkbox set. capellt on "CSV export for inbox" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/csv-export-for-inbox#post-281 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:48:40 +0000 capellt 281@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ yeah this would be very helpful, if it could export all fields that we create inside the options would be slick... capellt on "Add [email] merge tag to autoresponder (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-email-merge-tag-to-autoresponder-pro#post-280 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:14:36 +0000 capellt 280@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ NICE!!!! works perfect! exactly what I was needing. thanks a bunch Alex on "Custom fields in contact form message" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/custom-fields-in-contact-form-message#post-278 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:16:46 +0000 Alex 278@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ I don't have an ETA for a full implementation of custom tags (it would require an admin interface and it's not planned for the next release of Pro). What I can do in the meantime is try to accommodate your request to add merging support for the submitted email address. It's actually quite a trivial code change - I've written an <a href="/forums/topic/add-email-merge-tag-to-autoresponder-pro">add [email] merge tag to autoresponder hack</a>. Alex on "Add [email] merge tag to autoresponder (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/add-email-merge-tag-to-autoresponder-pro#post-277 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:12:43 +0000 Alex 277@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ An implementation of custom merge tags for the autoresponder is planned for a future release of simpleContact Pro. In the meantime, it is a trivial task to add the ability to merge the submitted email address into the message. Open sc_admin/include/contact.php After line 285 add the following: <code>$responder_message = str_replace("[email]",$email,$responder_message);</code> Instances of [email] in your autoresponder message will be replaced with the submitted email address. capellt on "Custom fields in contact form message" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/custom-fields-in-contact-form-message#post-276 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:38:44 +0000 capellt 276@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ thanks Alex, is there any eta on the custom tags? Alex on "Custom fields in contact form message" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/custom-fields-in-contact-form-message#post-275 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0000 Alex 275@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ You're welcome :) My next planned update is for the Lite version, to bring it up to date with this new website, fix a couple of niggles and update some components. After that, I will consider the Lite version pretty much feature-complete and my focus will be on the Pro version and improving this website to support it. My most commonly requested Pro features at the moment are inbox CSV export, IP address logging and custom tags in the autoresponder. Over the next few releases I plan to add all these and more. capellt on "Custom fields in contact form message" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/custom-fields-in-contact-form-message#post-274 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:52:50 +0000 capellt 274@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ this would be awesome. I'm using this form also for a auto response html email that will have the user that signed up email address added at the bottom. I wouldn't think we would need very many fields added, maybe just a |FNAME| and |LNAME| and |EMAIL| fields. I know mailchimp does this, but they have the worst forward to a friend email form, it only sends a link and not the actual email. So I've been using the pro version of this with the html hack you provided...works great! Thanks again Alex for all your knowledge with this tool. it's really helped me out a ton! Alex on "Conditional "other" field for a select menu (Pro)" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/conditional-other-field-for-a-select-menu-pro#post-273 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:40:32 +0000 Alex 273@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ It's common to create a select menu (e.g. to ask where users found out about a website), and provide an "other" option to cover scenarios where none of the given options are appropriate. This hack allows you to add a field to your form that only appears if the user chooses "other", so they can enter their information. This hack uses JavaScript, but if that's unavailable the conditional field will be displayed at all times. 1) Create your menu and field Log into sc_admin and go to the Contact fields page. Add a "drop-down menu" object to your form, specify some options and set it to be required. For the purposes of this hack, make the last option say "Other (please state)". Next, add a "long field" object. It should be placed after the menu, and not required. The JavaScript code you will add later will make it required or not based on whether it is shown. 2) Add HTML snippets to identify your fields Create "HTML snippet" objects (you'll probably need three) and position them around your fields. Add HTML code into them that will be used by JavaScript to identify your fields. So for instance: Before the menu place an HTML snippet with the following code: <code><div id="choose"></code> Between the menu and the field place an HTML snippet with the following code: <code></div><div id="other"></code> After the field place an HTML snippet with the following code: <code></div></code> 3) Add JavaScript to control the form behaviour Open sc_admin/js/forms.js Insert this code between lines 4 and 5: <code>if ($("#choose select").val() != "Other (please state)") { $("#other").hide(); }</code> <code>$("#choose select").change(function() {</code> <code>if ($(this).val() == "Other (please state)") {</code> <code>if ($(this).hasClass("err")) { $(this).removeClass("err").next().remove(); }</code> <code>$("#other").show();</code> <code>$("#other input").addClass("req");</code> <code>} else {</code> <code>$("#other").hide();</code> <code>$("#other input").removeClass("err").removeClass("req").val("");</code> <code>$("#other p").remove();</code> <code>}</code> <code>});</code> If you visit your contact form you should now find that the field appears and disappears depending on whether you selected the "other" option. Alex on "Not going to thank you page on submit" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/not-going-to-thank-you-page-on-submit#post-272 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:36:22 +0000 Alex 272@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ No problem :) The require_once lines have to go at the top of the page, because a header redirect (to go to a "thank you" page for instance) must happen before any HTML is written to the page - otherwise it will fail. angie on "Not going to thank you page on submit" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/not-going-to-thank-you-page-on-submit#post-271 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:35:41 +0000 angie 271@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ NEVER MIND!!! I had placed the two require_once lines in the wrong spot. Doh!! angie on "Not going to thank you page on submit" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/not-going-to-thank-you-page-on-submit#post-270 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:31:58 +0000 angie 270@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Hey Alex, I've got the contact form working great - we're receiving the notifications and the results are posting to the inbox in admin. However, whenever the form is submitted, it doesn't go to the thank you page; it just shows the same page but blank. The thank you URL is set up in the Paths area of admin (full URL). Not sure what I've missed. Alex on "Installing simpleContact on Globat host" http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/topic/installing-simplecontact-on-globat-host#post-265 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:53:06 +0000 Alex 265@http://www.simplecontactform.com/forums/ Please note: These are general points, which apply to *any* application that uses sessions (e.g. for user login). They are not particular to simpleContact. ------------------------------------------ Session storage In order to create a session, PHP must be able to create a session ID and save a session file (which stores information about application state) to a location on your server. This corresponds to a cookie (which also holds the session ID) that is stored by your browser. Globat require that you add the following line of code to the top of your config file: <code>session_save_path("yourhomedirectorypath/cgi-bin/tmp");</code> Log into your control panel and see the PHP scripting page for the full path to your home directory. Reference: <a href="http://www.globat.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=600;keywords=PHP%20session">Running PHP sessions (Globat knowledgebase)</a>