Using Wizard.pl to Create a Web Subscribe Form

The wizard.pl script helps you to create a subscription form, which you may then insert into your own HTML page. It allows you to gather data for any field in your member's table. To use the subscription page wizard:

1. Copy all of the websub scripts to your webserver's cgi-bin or scripts directory.

2. Open a web browser, and point it to:

http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/wizard.pl

If using IIS, go to:

http:/yourdomain.com/scripts/wizard.pl

3. You'll see a page that looks like this:

Subscribe Page Wizard

 4. Select a Field Name that you'd like to include in your subscription form. The form allows users to enter data in three ways: a text field, a check box, or radio buttons.

Text: Useful for email addresses, names, or other data for which you do not have a predetermined list of options. Select "Text" as the Input Type, enter the label for the field under Caption, and enter a default value if desired.

Checkbox: Useful for data that is either true or false. Fields that are of type "(char, 1)" and require either a T or F (for true or false) are the best candidates for a checkbox. Select "Checkbox" as the Input Type, and the label for the checkbox under Caption.

Radio Buttons: Allows you to present a set of options to the subscriber so that they can pick one -- and only one -- value. When a user selects one radio button, the others are unchecked.

To specify the values used for each radio button, use the Caption field. Multiple values are specified in this field by separating each value with a pipe character ( the '|' character which should be next to your backspace key ). The first value is a caption that applies to the entire set of radio buttons. Each subsequent value is the value for a radio button. So, the radio buttions shown below would be configured using the Caption field setting:

Pet Type:|Dog|Cat|Lizard|Armadillo

Lists: You can also select lists to offer the user for subscription. If you select more than one list, the user will be given checkboxes for each list.

 

4. Click on View Web Page to see if the form includes what you want. Use the back button on your browser to edit the form. Your form will look something like this:

 5. Once the form includes everything you need, click on View Source. This page shows you the HTML code you'll need to include in your subscription page. Edit the first line of the HTML to point to your ListManager server. For example, if your ListManager URL is yourcompany.shelby.com, the first line should be edited to read:

<FORM ACTION="http://yourcompany.shelby.com/cgi-bin/do-user-action.pl" METHOD="POST">

That's all! Users can now use your form to sign up to your list, and to provide other information you require.