About collecting data using forms

• Types of rules you can set for your form fields:

  Text box validation

  You can specify the type of data, as well as other criteria, to allow for text boxes and text areas. For example, to collect a member number or a serial number, set up a text box to accept only numbers and disallow the use all other characters as appropriate. You can also require a fixed number of characters so that a site visitor does not omit a number or letter by mistake.

  Option button validation

  You can require a selection to be made from a group of option buttons. For example, if your form has two option buttons, Yes and No, and a site visitor tries to submit the form without making a selection, a message is displayed.

  Drop-down box validation

  You can require a site visitor to make a choice from a drop-down box, set the minimum and maximum number of choices to allow, and disallow the first choice from being selected. For example, you can disallow the first item from being selected if it is an instruction, such as "Select an item."

After setting up the data entry rules, you need to decide how you want the form results to be handled. After a site visitor submits the form, you must collect the data that he or she entered— the form results— so you can view them, display them to the visitor, or work with them as needed.

Save the results to a database

Each time a site visitor submits a form, FrontPage saves the information to a database. For example, if you use a form to collect contact information, you can save the results directly to your customer database. You can save results to an existing database or FrontPage can create one for you.

Save the results to a text, HTML, or XML file

Each time a site visitor submits a form, FrontPage attaches the results to a file. You can then open the file and view the results. For example, you can set up a guest book for your Web site and choose to save the results to an HTML file. You can create a link to the file so that site visitors can see what others have written. In the case of saving form results to an XML file, you can use the results in FrontPage, or export the results into any application that understands XML, such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003.

Send the results in e-mail

Each time a site visitor submits a form, FrontPage sends you an e-mail message containing the results of that form.

You can also choose to use your custom scripts to handle the form results.

Notes

• If you use any of the form handlers rather than a custom script, the FrontPage Server Extensions from Microsoft or Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services must be installed on the server where your Web site is located.

• To save form results to XML, your form must be located on a server running Windows SharePoint Services.