[Javascript] HTML e-mail of form data

[David Dorward]

On 8 Dec 2007, at 15:48, Del Wegener wrote:
> At least one of the clients has now asked that I add a button which  
> permits
> the webpage user to ask for a quote.

> The action should be as follows:
> The user clicks the button
> Some information is gathered from the form
> A new HTML  form is created and e-mailed to the sales department
>         This form contains blanks which the sales person can fill in
> (online)

Not a good idea. Client support for HTML formatted email is  
notoriously variable. Better to send a link (that opens in a regular  
web browser) that contains the information needed to populate the  
form (this could embed all the data in the link, or provide a  
reference to a database row containing that data.

Be careful about keeping any confidential data secret.

>         When the blanks are filled in, the HTML form is the  
> completed quote
> The completed quote is e-mailed by the sales person to the webpage  
> user.
>         Probably with the "Reply" button.

More likely by submitting the form to the server, and letting a  
process there take care of e-mailing it.

> Can this be done with JavaScript?
> Is it necessary to use something like PERL?

Its "Perl", not "PERL".

You need something that runs on the server. It is probably possible  
for this to be JavaScript (using Rhino), although I'm not aware of a  
great deal of support for that (both in the way of helpful libraries  
and hosting packages that support it out of the box). Perl would be  
my preference, alternatives include Python, Ruby, JSP, PHP, ASP and  
ASP.NET.

-- 
David Dorward
http://dorward.me.uk/
http://blog.dorward.me.uk/