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Thread: E-mailing Form
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Tom Dussault
Date: Tue, Apr 07 2009 5:05PM
Subject: E-mailing Form
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Dear WebAIM and helpful friends,
I'm not entirely new to this group, but this is my first time actually
posting a valid question. I mostly read what other people post, and I get a
better idea of what the industry is doing (and let me say, this is a great
group and a source of information that I've read.) To those who have no
idea who I am, let me introduce myself: I'm Thomas Dussault, a designer and
graphic artist. However just recently i've started to jump back into the
field after years of not doing anything - to getting a nice work load out of
no where. I've designed various of web-sites, and many different designs for
smaller end business. This time however, I've come across something that
seems familiar, but I wanted to reference check with the group before I went
ahead and started.
Is there any easy way to in either Dreamweaver or php programming, a way to
make a form for clients that can submit a form that in which they have the
ability to put another e-mail in a field that would e-mail a friend with
possibly a pre-made message?
Realizing there are many forms that you can make online that can directly
send to an e-mail, is there any however that can make it possible to put a
friend or a client that MAY BE interested in what the customer is
submitting?
Just throwing it out there. Any ideas or ways to execute this easier would
be much appreciated. :)
Thanks ahead of time!!
From: Randi
Date: Tue, Apr 07 2009 5:15PM
Subject: Re: E-mailing Form
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Hi there Thomas! I can't answer your question, but wanted to welcome
you to the list. Also, as a newly blind person, thank you for working
to make the web more accessible. This is a great list and everyone has
been so helpful. If you end up testing your idea, let me know, and
I'll see how Voiceover does with it.
My thanks go to the whole group too. :)
Randi
On 4/7/09, Tom Dussault < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Dear WebAIM and helpful friends,
>
> I'm not entirely new to this group, but this is my first time actually
> posting a valid question. I mostly read what other people post, and I get a
> better idea of what the industry is doing (and let me say, this is a great
> group and a source of information that I've read.) To those who have no
> idea who I am, let me introduce myself: I'm Thomas Dussault, a designer and
> graphic artist. However just recently i've started to jump back into the
> field after years of not doing anything - to getting a nice work load out of
> no where. I've designed various of web-sites, and many different designs for
> smaller end business. This time however, I've come across something that
> seems familiar, but I wanted to reference check with the group before I went
> ahead and started.
>
> Is there any easy way to in either Dreamweaver or php programming, a way to
> make a form for clients that can submit a form that in which they have the
> ability to put another e-mail in a field that would e-mail a friend with
> possibly a pre-made message?
>
> Realizing there are many forms that you can make online that can directly
> send to an e-mail, is there any however that can make it possible to put a
> friend or a client that MAY BE interested in what the customer is
> submitting?
>
> Just throwing it out there. Any ideas or ways to execute this easier would
> be much appreciated. :)
>
>
> Thanks ahead of time!!
>
From: Dean Hamack
Date: Tue, Apr 07 2009 8:10PM
Subject: Re: E-mailing Form
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I know there is, because I did it a few years back. But you don't want to do
it, and I'll tell you why...
Spammers will hijack the form and use it to send spam to thousands of
people. Someone the spam gets sent to will report it to your web host, and
your web host will shut your account down.
Needless to say, that's not a good thing.
On 4/7/09 4:03 PM, "Tom Dussault" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Dear WebAIM and helpful friends,
>
> I'm not entirely new to this group, but this is my first time actually
> posting a valid question. I mostly read what other people post, and I get a
> better idea of what the industry is doing (and let me say, this is a great
> group and a source of information that I've read.) To those who have no
> idea who I am, let me introduce myself: I'm Thomas Dussault, a designer and
> graphic artist. However just recently i've started to jump back into the
> field after years of not doing anything - to getting a nice work load out of
> no where. I've designed various of web-sites, and many different designs for
> smaller end business. This time however, I've come across something that
> seems familiar, but I wanted to reference check with the group before I went
> ahead and started.
>
> Is there any easy way to in either Dreamweaver or php programming, a way to
> make a form for clients that can submit a form that in which they have the
> ability to put another e-mail in a field that would e-mail a friend with
> possibly a pre-made message?
>
> Realizing there are many forms that you can make online that can directly
> send to an e-mail, is there any however that can make it possible to put a
> friend or a client that MAY BE interested in what the customer is
> submitting?
>
> Just throwing it out there. Any ideas or ways to execute this easier would
> be much appreciated. :)
>
>
> Thanks ahead of time!!
>
From: Karl Groves
Date: Wed, Apr 08 2009 11:05AM
Subject: Re: E-mailing Form
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I would say this is an overly alarmist discussion of the potential problems
with tell-a-friend forms. While it is true that such forms are a very
popular target for spammers (as is any form which sends e-mails, such as
contact forms), it is not true that they're all vulnerable. First and
foremost, any and all data which comes from users should be validated,
filtered, and escaped appropriately, regardless of what the form actually
does. Forms which send e-mail should also perform checks to ensure that
they're protected against mail header injection.
For anyone out there using PHP, I heartily recommend 'Pro PHP Security' by
Chris Snyder and Michael Southwell, or 'Essential PHP Security' by Chris
Shifflett. Chris Shifflett also has an excellent blog worth reading as well.
The concerns that Dean raises are very real and he's 100% correct that your
host will shut you down if a vulnerable form gets exploited (as well they
should, IMO).
Karl
>