prochpform: A PHP repository from OldCoder

prochpform notes                                       Revised: 120706
----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Overview.

"prochpform"  is a  tiny framework that  obtains  data  from a website
visitor using a form and  displays the data,  emails it to a specified
address, and/or stores it in a MySQL database.

The framework consists of three files:

      * an HTML file "prochpform.html"
      * a PHP script "prochpform.php"
      * a PNG image  "prochpform.png"

The  HTML  file illustrates how a form may be set up  and used to send
data to the PHP script.  The PHP script shows how data entered using a
form may be  retrieved,  displayed,  emailed, and/or stored in a data-
base.

"prochpform" was created by OldCoder:

      Site:    http://oldcoder.org/
      Mail:    oldcoder@yahoo.com
      GitHub:  https://github.com/OldCoder/
      Repo:    https://github.com/OldCoder/prochpform.git

The license used for the current version is  Creative Commons Attribu-
tion-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

2. History.

Remarks by the original developer (OldCoder):

In 2012, while I was volunteering as support for a webhost, a few peo-
ple asked me how to make an  HTML form that could email the associated
data or store it in a database. I found relevant  examples on the  Web
but none that seemed  complete, simple, and documented enough to share
with others. So I wrote "prochpform".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Technical notes.

3.1. By default, "prochpform.php" displays data but does  not email it
or store it in a database. To enable the latter two features, edit the
file and modify the parameters defined therein appropriately.

3.2. The mail  feature can  only be used  on systems that  have  (a) a
standard mail  system  installed and (b)  a copy of PHP  that has mail
support enabled.

3.3. The MySQL feature can  only be used  on systems that  have  (a) a
copy of  MySQL installed and (b) a copy of PHP  that has MySQL support
enabled.

3.4. If  MySQL support is requested, the system administrator  is  re-
sponsible  for creating a  database. The PHP program  handles the cre-
ation of the required table.

3.5. For MySQL support to work,  the $MYSQL_ parameters defined in the
PHP file must be set  properly.  For more information, see the parame-
ters in that file.

3.6. If  MySQL support is requested,  and if  the set of fields speci-
fied by the HTML form changes,  the existing  MySQL database will need
to be deleted and recreated.

3.7. The HTML form may contain  any reasonable  number of fields.  All
fields may be optional or,  alternatively, one or more of  the  fields
may be designated as "required". For more information, see the  param-
eters in the PHP file.

3.7. If the PHP script receives a  data value  that begins with a left
parenthesis "(", it is assumed to be a "prompt"  string that the  HTML
form displayed in the associated input field.  In this case, the value
is discarded.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Development.

4.1. Source code.

Full source code for the project is  provided in the same directory as
this README file.

4.2. Requirements.

For software requirements, see the technical notes in section 3.

4.3. Installation.

No "build" is needed.

To install this framework,  copy the following  three files as a group
to some directory in a web-server document tree:

      prochpform.html
      prochpform.php
      prochpform.png

Note:  A second image file, named "screenshot.png", is provided.  This
image is for informational purposes only and  does not need to  be in-
stalled.

The web-server directory used must be one where PHP files are support-
ed.

Edit the resulting copy of the PHP file  "prochpform.php".  Modify the
parameter settings in the file appropriately.

If you decide to enable MySQL support, note that you'll need to create
whatever database you specify in the file.

"chmod" the PHP file appropriately for the web-server used.

If everything is set up correctly,  you should be able to  try out the
framework by accessing the resulting copy of "prochpform.html" using a
web browser.