• Step 1

As a security measure, htmail can only send e-mail to pre-enabled e-mail addresses. If you wish to use htmail, you must first send e-mail to webmaster@umich.edu and ask that your e-mail address be enabled for use with htmail. Note: htmail service is available only to U-M facutly, staff, students, and affiliates. 
• Step 2

Your e-mail address will be enabled for use with htmail within 2 days. When your e-mail address is enabled, you will receive an e-mail message which describes how to get started with htmail.
Use your favorite web browser (i.e. Netscape, Internet Explorer, Mosaic, etc.) to open the URL: http://www.umich.edu/cgi-bin/htmail/e-mail@address where e-mail@address is replaced with the e-mail address you have just had enabled for use with htmail.
 
 
• Step 3

Save the source of that document into an html form in your Public/html directory. Procedures for doing this vary from browser to browser, but typically there will be a "Document Source" choice under the "view" menu or something similar.

 Once you view the source of this page, save it as a new file in your Public/html directory.
 
 

It is possible to make rather complex fill-in forms for use with htmail. Here is an example of a form which incorporates a number of more advanced features.

 To make complex forms such as this one, you need to know two things: how to create html forms, and what fields are available for use in the htmail cgi application.

 For a good description of the tags used to create html forms, please see the HTML Quick Reference.

 The fields that you may use in your htmail forms include:

 
• body - Usually a TEXTAREA that is used as the main body of your e-mail message.
• ccme - If this is set to "yes" a copy of the message will be sent to the person using htmail.
• from - The e-mail address of the person filling out the htmail form.
• apparently-from - The same as the "from" field, but it will also be included in the list of fields at the bottom of the message, for easy parsing. This overrides the "from" field, and any information in the "from" field is lost. 
• subject - This value gets put in the "Subject:" header of the message sent by htmail.
• apparently-subject - The same as the "subject" field, but it will also be included in the list of fields at the bottom of the message, for easy parsing. This overrides the "subject" field, and any information in the "subject" field is lost. 
• successURL - The URL to which a successful htmail submission is directed. If this is left blank, then visitors to your page will be shown the default "success" message.
• to - The e-mail address enabled for htmail. The "to" field is set initially with the URL when you call htmail, but can be changed in the form to make it easy to have a drop-down list of people to deliver a message to, and for various other reasons. 
• apparently-to - The same as the "to" field, but it will also be included in the list of fields at the bottom of the message, for easy parsing. This overrides the "to" field, and any information in the "to" field is lost. 
• template - A hidden field with the name of the template file to be used when sending your message. No forward slashes are permitted in this field. For more information on templates, see the templates section of this document.
• template_source - Can be used to specify the location of your templates in IFS. This field is not normally used, but can contain the name of an IFS home directory. No forward slashes are permitted in this field. For more information on templates, see the templates section of this document.

 

 

You may use any other name for fields you create; these extra fields will be appended to the bottom of the e-mail message you receive.

How to get htmail to install at your own site

Using templates with htmail

 HTMail uses template files based on the Server Side Include (SSI) Standard. Mor information on SSIs is available from: http://www.umich.edu/faq.html

 To make the e-mail address of the user appear in your template, you would use the tag:

<!--#echo var="from" --> 
 
 

Step By Step

Step One: Create Your Template Directory

 

 

The following command, when issued on one of the ITD login servers, will create the necessary directory structure:

 

 

% mkdir -p ~/Public/html/cgi-data/htmail

To create the template file for a group directory, use:
 
 

% mkdir -p ~groupname/Public/html/cgi-data/htmail

Where groupname is the name of your group. In either case, be sure to leave off the "%" when copying the command. It is only there to demonstrate that these are UNIX commands. 

Step Two: Create A Template

 

 

A template is simply a text file with SSI tags added. HTML will not work unless you use an e-mail client that interprets html tags. You can create this file using any text editor and save it in your newly created template directory. The following template code, saved in the file "~websvcs/Public/html/cgi-data/htmail/example.tmpl", demonstrates a simple template:

 

 

Example Template File
 
 

This template expects to be called from a form with fields called from, body, and name.
 
 

Step Three: Add the "template" Tag to Your Form

 

 

The next step is to add the "template" tag to your form. This tag allows you to specify the file name (with no forward slashes allowed) of your template file. In a simple web form this looks like:

A Simple HTMail form with the template tag.

 Another tag, the "template_source" tag, allows you to specify an IFS home directory other than your own if needs be. In most cases, this will not be necessary and you will not need to use the template_source tag.
 
 

Step Four: Test

 

 

Fill in your form completely and make sure all of the information you submit comes to you in e-mail. A good way of testing web forms is to fill in all the fields with that field's name (this only works for text inputs and text areas). This method allows you to see quickly and easily which fields, if any, are having problems.

 If you do find any problems, be sure to correct them and re-test.

 NOTE: If htmail has difficulty finding your template file it will send the message in the default format and give you some messages (via e-mail) about the problem with your template. No template error messages are ever given to the user of your form so be sure to check the e-mail messages closely when you are testing. 

 All Rights Reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the recipient to make copies and use this software for its own internal purposes only. Recipient of this software may not re-distribute this software outside of their own institution. Permission to market this software commercially, to include this product as part of a commercial product, or to make a derivative work for commercial purposes, is explicitly prohibited. All other uses are also prohibited unless authorized in writing by the Regents of the University of Michigan.

 This software is offered without warranty. The Regents of the University of Michigan disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. In no event shall the Regents of the University of Michigan be liable for loss or damage of any kind, including but not limited to incidental, indirect, consequential, or special damages.

 w e b s e r v i c e s @ u m i c h . e d u

 Page Last Modified: Tuesday, 28-Mar-2000 16:14:36 EST
U-M Gateway | ITWeb