E-Forms EZ
©1998 by James Carr
http://www.azwebpages.com/e-forms

Quick Start Demo

If you are using FrontPage, please read about how to set up your FrontPage webs for use with E-Forms EZ.

Important: The e-forms.exe program must be placed in a directory on your web server which is set up to execute scripts. This directory is usually mapped to /CGI-BIN or /SCRIPTS . This directory must be set up to have permissions to execute.

Set up a testing directory on your web server. Move ez-demo.htm to the test directory.

Move or copy the following files from the installation directory to the /CGI-Bin or /Scripts directory in which e-forms.exe was installed:
ez-response_page.htm
ez-info_missing_page.htm
ez-error_page
ez-message_text.txt
ez-receipt_text.txt
ez-results_file_template.txt.

Note: FrontPage users can Import these files using the File Menu in FrontPage Explorer.

Important: You must load ez-demo.htm from a web server. You cannot test the software just by opening the file from your hard drive.

Open ez-demo.htm in your HTML editor and change the value of the mail_to hidden field to the address you want to use (it's set to carrprog@azwebpages.com by default). You can use my SMTP server for a quick test, however, you must change it to your own as quickly as possible. In some HTML editors, you must access the "Form Properties" or view the raw HTML code to find the hidden fields.

If your web server uses a directory other than /cgi-bin to hold scripts and EXE files, you must open the ez-demo.htm file in your HTML editor and change the action for the form to use that directory instead of /cgi-bin. For example, you might have to set the form to use action="/scripts/e-forms.exe". If you are not sure about what directory to use, please feel free to contact me at carrprog@azwebpages.com and tell me what web server you are using.

Load up ez-demo.htm in your web browser and complete the form! If all goes well it will send an e-mail to the address you set in the mail_to hidden field. The ez-results_file.csv file will be created and sent as a file attachment. A receipt will be sent to the e-mail address the user fills out.

If there is an error, look for e-forms-error.txt in the same directory as e-forms.exe. This file should help you determine the nature of the problem. For more on resolving errors, look here.

Note: When you open ez-demo.htm in your browser, the file must be served by a web server. You cannot simply open the file from disk. This is because e-forms.exe must be executed by a web server in order to operate. Microsoft gives away Personal Web Server from their web site if you need a web server.

View the HTML files in your favorite HMTL to see how they are set up. View the ez-message.txt, ez-receipt_text.txt and ez-results_file_template.txt files in a text editor to see how they are set up. That might be all you need to get started! Of course, you really should read the docs to learn about all of the exciting features.

Be sure to run the E-Forms Wizard! This program will help you create the files you need to get the most out of E-Forms EZ!