FormMail Problems

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:36 pm Post subject: FormMail Problems

I've been using the FormMail ( /cgi-sys/FormMail.cgi),.
I've been having problems with users putting single in their messages, as the email that is received has these converted to the html equivalent, ie '
I think this may affect other html special characters. I could use the php html_entity_decode() to convert all of these HTML entities to the correct text characters. I'm a bit lost on how I modify any of the form fields prior to them being emailed. A sample webform is on www.cynara.co.uk/test.php

<code>
<form method='post' action='http://www.cynara.co.uk/cgi-sys/FormMail.cgi'>

<table>
<tr>
<td class='forms_right'>Name</td>
<td class='forms'><input type='text' name='realname' size='40' /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class='forms_right'>Telephone</td>
<td class='forms'><input type='text' name='phone' size='40' /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class='forms_right'>Email</td>
<td class='forms'><input type='text' name='email' size='40' /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class='forms_right'>Post Code</td>
<td class='forms'><input type='text' name='postcode' size='40' /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class='forms_right' valign='top'>Message<br />Say Something!</td>
<td class='forms'><textarea name='message' cols='40' rows='8'></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class='forms_right'></td>
<td class='forms'><input type='submit' value='Send Enquiry' /></td>
</tr>
</table>";
echo "
<input type='hidden' name='recipient' value='test1234@cynara.co.uk' />
<input type='hidden' name='subject' value='Webquery Test' />
<input type='hidden' name='required' value='realname,email,message' />
<input type='hidden' name='missing_fields_redirect' value='http://www.cynara.co.uk/test.php?message=failure' />
<input type='hidden' name='redirect' value='http://www.cynara.co.uk/test.php?message=success' />
</form>
</code>

I would also like to hide the email address from spiders, as I'm already getting spam on the real address, 2 months after I first started using it.
Any thoughts?

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:40 pm Post subject:

It should have said 'single quotes', and I'm getting <code>'</code> in my emails. A similar thing also happens with & , so is likely to be a more generic problem

NetHosted Staff Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 5684

Kev,

I'm not to sure about your first issue, but your email obfuscation can be achieved by using a tool such as this:

http://www.seowebsitepromotion.com/obfuscate_email.asp

We convert our emails to hex when we publish them.

Andrew

NetHosted Customer Joined: 16 Dec 2006 Posts: 67

We have been using Tectite FormMail http://www.tectite.com

and have seen a dramatic drop in spam.
It takes a little setting up, and has a huge number of hooks if you want to do your own thing.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:03 pm Post subject:

Hi David
I'd seen Tectite FormMail before, but I'm a little uncertain how Andrew will feel about us using other FormMail scripts, knowing how much damage can be caused by an insecure one.

NetHosted Staff Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 5684

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