Create Custom Transaction and Send E-mail

To complete this tutorial, follow the next steps:

1. Open the index file in Dreamweaver.

2. Check if a database connection has been already created. If not, create one now, as stated at the beginning of this tutorial.

3. Start the Custom Form Wizard. You can access it from the MX Kollection tab of the Insert panel.

4. Configure each step as shown below:

• In the first step, use the connection defined earlier. For the redirect page, browse to the thankyou.htm page.
  
  
                                                      

• In the second step you have to define the form fields. Add the following  fields as shown in the user manual:

• Label: Name; Display as: Text field; Submit as: Text

• Label: E-mail; Display as: Text field; Submit as: Text

• Label: Phone; Display as: Text field; Submit as: Text

• Label: Message; Display as: Text area; Submit as: Text

• The configured User Interface should look like in the image below:
  
  
   

• The third step is available as shown below only if you have MX Form Validation installed, either as a separate product, or as part of the MX Kollection 3 Bundle. If you do not, you can still complete this tutorial, but without validating user input. To do so, skip the remaining of the wizard configuration process and click the Finish Button.

• If you do have MX Form Validation installed, step 3 of the wizard integrates it, and allows you to define rules for each field, as explained in the Form Validation in the wizards section of the User manual.

• Configure this third step as follows:

• Name field - mark the Required checkbox, no other validation required

• E-mail field - mark the Required checkbox, and for the Validation format select E-mail from the drop-down menu.

• Phone field - mark the Required checkbox, and for the Validation format select Phone number from the drop-down menu.

• Message field - mark the Required checkbox, no other validation required

• For each of the fields you can also define a minimum and maximum length, if you need it. The configured dialog box should look as the following image:
  
  
   

• The fourth and last step of the wizard allows you to create custom SQL queries involving the form fields you've created at step 2. Since the goal of this tutorial is to allow sending form data by e-mail, without storing them in a table, you can skip this step and press the Finish button. This will close the wizard and add all elements to the page: the HTML form, and form elements, as well as the Custom transaction server behavior. You can use it to alter the behavior of the transaction later on, if you need to.

5. You can save and preview the page in the browser now. It will display the form, and once the Insert Record button is pressed, the redirect will take you to the thankyou.htm page.
   
   
    

6. However, the mail sending functionality is missing at this point. To add it, you must apply the Send E-mail server behavior, from the Server Behaviors tab -> + > MX Kollection -> Send E-mail.

7. Configure the dialog box that opens as shown below:

• For the From field, press the blue lightning bolt to open the InterAKT Dynamic Data user interface. Here, select the source for the value as Transaction field, and from the Transaction field drop-down menu select the E-mail entry:
  
  
   

• Click the OK button to close the user interface, and insert the generated mark-up in the From text field.

• In the To field, enter the e-mail address that is the recipient of the message. This is most likely the site administrator's address (e.g. admin@myserver.org).

• In the Subject field enter a relevant text (e.g. New site message).

• For the Body, select the Write content option, to enter the content in a text area.

• For the Content field, you must use the InterAKT Dynamic Data again, in order to add the Name, Phone and Message fields. Each of the fields will add its mark-up, and you can type content and separate them as you wish in the text area. To make it more understandable, on the first line leave the {Name} mark-up, then type wrote. This will show who the sender is. The last line should contain the phone, and the message on the space in between. As you can notice, you can intertwine normal text entered in the text box, with dynamic data entered as mark-ups.

• As explained above, whenever trying to add dynamic data, simply use the thunderbolt icon, and select the desired variable (either part of the current transaction, recordset, URL or any other of the supported InterAKT Dynamic Data).

• The dialog box should look like the following image:
  
  
   

• The rest of the dialog box tabs are not important at this point, so you can click the OK button to close the user interface.

8. Save the page and upload it to the server. Preview it in the browser, and enter some data in the form, as in the example below:
   
   
    

9. After you click the submit button, check the e-mail account set in the To field. You should have received a new message, similar to the following image:
   
   
    

If the e-mail message did not arrive properly, or there was an error message, you might consider checking the Mail Server Settings in the InterAKT Control Panel, from the MX Kollection tab of the Insert Panel. Also, if the message appears not to have the correct format (e.g. no line breaks, all text appears on a single line), you should check the Send E-mail server behavior > Options tab and switch between HTML and Text only message format.

You can further improve the form, by adding fields or using a table to store relevant data.