Let's go back to the first step. Did you create a web site first? If not,
you need to. A form isn't a stand-alone web page. It has to be handled when
it posts. You need to create a web site first, and then create the form in
the web site. The form handler can be any number of things, including, if,
as you say, your site has FrontPage server extensions, FrontPage form
handlers.
1- Is there something else to do before publishing?
Yes. You need to decide how the form is handled. A form posts to a form
handler. FrontPage server extensions provide several ready-made form handler
components, including, as you mentioned, handlers to save results to a
database, or send the results via Email. You can also save the restults to
an HTML document in your web site using FrontPage server extensions. This is
all managed via the Form Properties dialog. Read the FrontPage help for
details.
2- What will be the difference if the info is sent to a
database or email?
First, in order to save results to a database, your site must be hosted on a
Windows server, as FrontPage uses Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) to
connect to a database. The difference between sending results to an email
and a database is that if you save the form results to an email, you will
receive an email with form results in it each time the form is used. A
database stores information as records, and if you save to a database, all
form posts will be recorded as records in a database table. In order to get
the form results, you will have to download the database. A database is an
excellent storage mechanism (that is what databases are designed to do). So,
which one you use (database or email) depends on what you want to do with
the form results. If you want to organize and store them, put them into a
database. If you want to respond to them as if they were messages, and you
don't care about keeping or organizing them, send them via email.
3- how is the company going to retrieve the info?
See above (answer to number 2).
4- Is the info going to be protected?(possibility to be
intercepted?).
It all depends. If the data is in a database, it is basically protected
(until you download it, in which case, the same rules apply as with email
following). If it is sent via email, it is sent directly to you. However,
emails are sent via TCP/IP, so there is a potential for hackers using packet
sniffers to intercept emails if they are not encrypted. On the other hand,
you have to determine whether the content of the email is sensitive enough
to attract hackers (there is, after all, a TON of email being transmitted
across the Internet every minute of the day). Encrypting the email will be
difficult, and will require programming.
In fact, the form data can be intercepted via packet sniffers as it travels
from the browser to the server, even before it reaches your form handler. If
the information is sensitive enough (such as personal information, credit
card numbers, etc.), it might be best to use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to
encrypt data being sent to and from the browser. This is somewhat costly,
though, and you will have to ask your hosting service about its'
availability and cost on your hosted site.
5- I know
too many questions uh?
Not at all. That's why we're here. Once you get some more experience under
your belt, you can help others in this community as a way of "putting
something back" if you wish!
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
http://www.takempis.com
Big Things are made up of
Lots of Little Things.
