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See the basics | Advanced features
| 1998 Updates
All ReplyMail really does, is send E-mail to you. What is contained
in that E-mail are the contents of the form your students filled
in. Since this is an E-mail message, you can browse it at your leisure,
and it is easier to set up than javascript tests in many cases.
In order to really show you the functionality of ReplyMail, here
is a test form that you can fill out. You'll notice that it asks
you which e-mail address it should send the results to... this is
because I want you to see the results yourself. I will also show
you how to have it automatically send the mail to you.
Now, check your E-mail, and you should see the text you entered
is now in your mailbox as a new message. Wasn't that easy? Now I'll
show you how to do it yourself, and how to make sure the message
is always sent to your e-mail address.
Essentially in order to have this work, all you need is a single
command. I'm assuming you've inserted a form with Dreamweaver or
another editor, and already have one field or more defined. Just
follow these general instructions, and you should be fine.
- First, you'll have to tell the form what to do when the user
submits. This is generally done with a
<form action="/php/replymail.php" method="POST">
line in your HTML code. Or if you're using a WYSIWYG editor, make
sure the submit method is POST and
your form action is /php/replymail.php.
Note the methods of capitalization, this is very important.
- Next you must tell ReplyMail where to send the mail. Here is
a sample line, using my own e-mail address.
<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="sthomas1@cornellcollege.edu">
That is all you need for ReplyMail to work. Of course you'll have
the general form elements that you want, and submit/reset buttons,
but that is all you need to make your form work with ReplyMail.
- Finally, any of your form elements, whether you use a WYSIWYG
editor, or code by hand, must have a name for ReplyMail to report
to you. Here is an example from the sample form.
<input type="text" size=25 maxlength=25 name="Favorite Color">
Do you remember the text that the system confirmed for you in
the HTML it generated? It indeed said "Favorite Color". You'll
notice that this too, is in your E-mail message. Just make sure
to put text next to your form items, so people know what they're
for. The names are just for ReplyMail.
That's it! Amazingly enough, that's all you actually NEED to get
ReplyMail to work for you. There are more features listed in the
advanced section if you want to take a look there. Just follow the
general guidelines set in both this document and the advanced methods,
and you're on your way to creating easy test forms for your students.
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