A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Forms To Go ASP Version With a File Attachments Form on a GoDaddy Shared Windows Deluxe Hosting Account By Curtis McIntosh www.BalisJudgmentEnforcers.com
Foreword GoDaddy offers two ASP form mailer scripts in its shared windows hosting account: gdform.asp* and webformmailer.asp. Neither script supports the use of file attachments. Of course, GoDaddy does not mention this in their website. If you have suffered the frustration of trying to use a form with file attachments on GoDaddy, Forms To Go is the reliable and economic solution to your problems. This guide is intended for people who understand nothing about programming, do not wish to learn programming, but want a fully functioning form with file attachments to operate correctly on their website at a reasonable price. This guide is the result of more than two weeks of frustration trying to make Forms To Go work on GoDaddy. It is the result of hours of experimentation and numerous emails with Quy Ton of Forms To Go. Moreover, it is the result of receiving little, if any, help from GoDaddy in making a form with file attachments functional on their server. Finally, this guide is designed to be used in conjunction with the Forms To Go User's Guide (“User's Guide). This guide addresses issues specific to making a Forms To Go form with file attachments work on GoDaddy. Where the issue is fully covered by the User's Guide, the reader will be referred to “See User's Guide”. The User's Guide can be found at the following URL: http://support.bebosoft.com/documentation/formstogo/en/index.html Many thanks is extended to Quy Ton for his patience in putting up with my frustration.
*GoDaddy no longer offers gdform.asp to new users as of October 31, 2008.
Introduction This guide will take you step by step the procedures necessary to use Forms To Go with a GoDaddy shared windows deluxe hosting account. The GoDaddy server supports both CDONTS and CDOSYS. This guide is for the use of CDOSYS. Using CDONTS is beyond the scope of this tutorial. This guide shows the required steps to have file attachments in your form and have them forwarded to you via email. Setting up a database to have files sent there is not covered in this tutorial. Creating your form is also beyond the scope of this tutorial. There are four components required to successfully launch a Forms To Go form on GoDaddy: 1) A properly configured GoDaddy account to receive, process and email forms to you; 2) A vaild HTML form; 3) A properly completed Forms To Go ASP script; and 4) Uploading your HTML form and ASP script to your GoDaddy shared windows deluxe hosting account.
GoDaddy Account You must first create a new directory in your GoDaddy account. You must give this directory read and write permission. To do this, log in to your GoDaddy account with your username and password. Click “Hosting” listed under “My Products”. When your hosting accounts appear, click on “Manage Account” for the domain in which you will place your form. The Hosting Control Center will appear. Click on “Content”. Then click the “File Manager” icon. It will take a minute or two for the File Manager to load. When the File Manager finishes loading, your website directories and files will open. Click on “Create Directory” located above your root directory on
the left side of the page. A pane will open up and ask you to name the new directory. I suggest you give it a name will all lower-case letters. There are a number of entries in this process that refer to previous entries and are case sensitive. If you forget what you capitalized, your form will not work. So, enter all lower-case letters. Problem solved. Enter the name for your new directory and click “OK”. After the new directory is successfully created, you will receive a message saying “New directory successfully created”. Your new directory will now appear in your list of directories. Now put a check mark in the box next to your new directory. An icon at the top of the directories will appear called “Permissions”. Click on it. A new pane will open and allow you to set permissions. Remove the check mark in the box next to “Inherit”. Put a check mark in the box next to “Read” and “Write”. Click “OK”. You will receive a message indicating “Permissions updated”. Your new directory in the File Manager will now have two icons under Permissions indicating that this directory has Read and Write permissions. Your GoDaddy account is now configured to accept your Forms To Go ASP script and HTML form.
HTML Form While the creation of your form is beyond the scope of this tutorial, there are certain steps that are critical to ensure the proper operation of your form with file attachments. When you create your ASP script in Forms To Go, you will be asked to save the script and give it a name. The name of this file will be used in your HTML form in the “action” instruction. Thus, if you name your asp script file “attachments”, you must have the following action code in your HTML form: action="attachments.asp". You must also use method="post" and enctype="multipart/form-data" in your HTML form. More on this in the next section.
Forms To Go Open Forms To Go. 1. The first thing to do is set your options. Click Edit>Options. a. General – I recommend selecting “Remind to save settings before quit”, “Show successful message after creating script” and “Show compiler warnings”. b. HTML – I recommend that you do not select any of these choices until after you see an email and see how it appears. You can then go back and make your choices according to your preferences. c. ASP – Select CDOSYS by Microsoft – Win2000/XP. For SMTP server, enter “relay-hosting.secureserver.net” (without the quote marks). d. Script – Select what you want to happen after the form is submitted on your website, depending on success or error. See User's Guide for more information. For “Form method”, select “POST”. For “End of line”, select “DOS/Windows”. e. Email – Email end of line, select “DOS/Windows”. Select the appropriate encoding method. I am in the United States and selected “Europe/America/Africa (ISO-8859-1)” charset and “8 bit” encoding method. f. File Paths – Select “Absolute”. Click “OK”. These settings are now saved for when you load your HTML form in to Forms To Go. 2. It is now time to load your HTML form in to Forms To Go. See User's Guide.
3. Settings file – See User's Guide. 4. Validating Fields – See User's Guide. 5. Email settings – Email to the form owner. a. Addresses – GoDaddy's SMTP relay-hosting.secureserver.net does not support file attachments from a Forms To Go validated email address. You must select “GENERIC” and enter a valid email address containing your domain name. See User's Guide for more details. b. Email body – See User's Guide. c. Files upload – Put a check mark in the box for “Send email to form's owner” and “Attach uploaded files from fields”. Put a check mark in each box for each file to be uploaded. Select “Email” for Destination. d. Advanced – See User's Guide. 6. Confirmation email to user – See User's Guide. 7. Landing Pages – This information should auto fill from your initial settings made earlier under options. If not, complete as desired. See User's Guide. 8. Click Settings>Languages>ASP. The correct ASP settings are critical in making your form with file attachments operate properly. Make the following selections and entries on this page and your Forms To Go script should work properly on GoDaddy. Form method: POST Script end of line: DOS/Windows Email component: CDOSYS by Microsoft – Win2000/XP SMTP server: relay-hosting.secureserver.net Email end of line: DOS/Windows File upload component: ASP Upload by Persits Software Inc Virtual upload directory: Here, simply insert the name of the new directory you created in GoDaddy. This entry is case-sensitive. The GoDaddy server does not require authentication. Leave this box blank. Click “OK”. Your Forms To Go script is now ready to be generated.
9. Click Script>ASP. See User's Guide for any errors that appear. If no errors appear, Forms To Go will generate an ASP script and ask you to give the script a name. In our example above, we gave this file the name “attachments”. Forms To Go will save this file and remind you to make sure you action attribute in your HTML form has the same name as your asp script file. Thus, for example, your HTML form must have action=“attachments.asp”.
Upload HTML Form and ASP Script The GoDaddy server can be sensitive about the way you upload your ASP script. Don't ask me why, it just is. For example, my website builder will upload the HTML form and ASP script together and arrive at the correct directory in GoDaddy. Yet, for some unknown reason to me, the form will not operate properly. If this method works for you, great. However, I have found that I must upload my ASP script through the GoDaddy Hosting Control Center for my form to work right. Uploading your ASP script and/or HTML file through the GoDaddy Hosting Control Center requires the following steps: 1. Decide which directory you want to upload your ASP script and HTML form to. The script and the form MUST be placed in the same directory. I have placed both the script and the form in my root directory and it works great. In fact, the examples in this tutorial assume you will place your script and form in your root directory. 2. Log into GoDaddy with your username and password. 3. Click “Hosting” and wait for new window to appear. 4. Click “manage accounts”. Wait a moment or two for the GoDaddy Hosting Control Center to open. 5. Click on the “File Manager” icon. 6. Click on the directory where you want to place the ASP script and HTML form. The root directory is the simplest. 7. Click the “upload” icon.
8. Insert your ASP script file. Use the “browse” feature if necessary to locate the file. Click “OK”. A message will appear in the upload box when your script has successfully uploaded. Your script is now uploaded to the GoDaddy server. 9. Check the files in the directory. Make sure that your ASP script is listed. The files should be listed in alphabetical order. Using our example from above, you should see “attachments.asp” listed near the top of the file list. Yours will be different depending on the name of your ASP file. 10. Repeat this procedure if you choose to upload your HTML file in the GoDaddy control panel. Remember, the HTML form MUST be loaded to the same directory as your ASP script. 11. Open the URL online where your form is located. Test it. Hope and pray that it works. If the form works, the files submitted will arrive as an attachment in your email. The files will also be stored in the new directory you created in GoDaddy. In addition to opening the attachments in your email, you will be able to view them in GoDaddy by opening the new directory you created. 12. If your form does not work, contact Forms To Go Technical Support for more advice. A word of caution: After uploading your ASP script and HTML form to GoDaddy, it is not always functional “instantaneously”. Even though GoDaddy indicated the upload was successful, it may take a few minutes before your form works online. If your form does not work initially, take a 5 minute break and try it again before troubleshooting.
Good luck!