Lesson 6. Sending Email from a Web Form

You are now experienced at sending data between pages in several different ways. Sending data between pages is helpful to users, because it creates a cohesive experience. Sending data is even more useful for Web site owners, since it allows them to offer customized services via the Web, based on choices users make. In a word, sending data between pages enables a group of pages to function together as a single unitno mean accomplishment given the forgetfulness of the HTTP protocol.

Though passing data between pages is useful, pages are not the only places you'll need to send your data. Sometimes, you'll want to send it to an information storage warehouse, such as a database. Other times, you'll want to send the information directly to a reader. In this lesson, you'll see how to collect information from the user at the Newland Tours Web site and send it to a Newland Tours travel agent. (Of course, since Newland Tours doesn't really exist, you'll have to settle for sending the messages to yourself to test the functionality.)

You'll use the data collected from this form to generate an email message to yourself.

graphics/06fig01.jpg

In this lesson, you'll learn how to configure your system to send email messages, if you are running IIS or ColdFusion locally. In addition, you'll make use of special mail objects. You may have heard the term "objects," as in "object-oriented programming," and not known exactly what that means. You'll learn what objects are even as you deploy the mail objects built into ASP and ColdFusion.

This lesson requires some hand-coding. Again, as user friendly as Dreamweaver's interface is, sometimes you have to go behind the page design, behind the wizards and dialogs, and type your own code. Don't worry: I assume you have no programming experience and will walk you through it, step-by-step with detailed explanations.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

In this lesson, you will: