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Shared Web Hosting

Our shared web hosting servers support a wide range of web scripting languages and technologies. We offer dedicated Windows and UNIX based servers, plus our specialized "Hybrid" hosting platform which allows for the integration of both technologies together.

Primus Formmail

Primus provides a FormMail CGI script. You can provide site visitors with a FORM on your website to collect information from them. The FORM would call the FormMail CGI to email the collected information to you. The FormMail CGI is named "primusformmail.pl" and is written in the PERL language. If you do not have a copy of the script, please obtain it via the below link:

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Primus Formmail Script (76.32 kB) (right click and select save as)

All VWS Packages

All UNIX VWS customers can use Primus' "shared" FormMail CGI (this "shared" script is not customizable)

Express/Enhanced/Standard/Intermediate/Advanced VWS Packages

Clients with these packages have their own custom CGI-BIN directory
Primus provides you with your own copy of primusformmail.pl which you can customize as needed
Open your copy of /cgi-bin/primusformmail.pl using your favorite text editor.
Add your domain name(s) to the @referers variable (required to prevent spammers from abusing your script)
Add the recipient(s) that your form(s) are configured to send mail to to the @allow_mail_to variable (required for security purposes)
Save your changes and exit the text editor.

FORM CONFIGURATION

To use primusformmail.pl, you need to create an HTML form that will call the script. Please find below (under the header "EXAMPLE FORM") an example HTML FORM which will send mail to the address 'feedback@your.domain' when someone submits the form. Please note that your form "action" tag will vary depending on which server you are hosted on and depending on which UNIX VWS package you have. If you have a Lite or Express package and want to call the "shared" FormMail script, use the following syntax:

<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/primusformmail.pl">

If you have a Standard or higher UNIX VWS package (with your own cgi-bin directory), you can call your own custom primusformmail.pl using the following syntax:
<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/primusformmail.pl">

If you have a Standard or higher UNIX VWS package (with your own cgi-bin directory), but you want to use the "shared" FormMail script, you will need to hard-code the name of the hosting server which hosts your website as follows:
<form method="post" action="http://serverX.magma.ca/cgi-bin/primusformmail.pl">

Please replace "serverX" with the appropriate server (vws1/vws2/vws3/express1a/etc..)

EXAMPLE FORM

Here is a basic form example that uses the primusformmail.pl script:


	</span><span class="style3"><span class="style11"><html>
	<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/primusformmail.pl">
	<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="feedback@your.domain.com">
	<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="/thankyou.html">
	<table width=50% border=0>
	<tr>
	<td>From : </td>
	<td><input type="text" name="email"></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td>Subject : </td>
	<td><input value="" name="subject"></td>
	</tr>
	<td>Comments : </td>
	<td>
	<textarea name="comment" rows=6 cols=40 value=""></textarea>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan=2><input type="submit" value="submit">
	<input type="reset" value="reset"></td>
	</tr>
	</table>
	</form>
	</html></span></span><span class="style7">

See how the hidden 'recipient' input in the example above told formmail who to send the mail to ? This is how almost all of formmail's configuration works. Here's the full list of things you can set with hidden form inputs:

recipient	- The email address to which the form submission should be sent. If you would like it copied to more than one recipient then you can separate multiple email addresses with commas, for example: <input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="you@your.domain,me@your.domain"> If you leave the 'recipient' field out of the form, formmail will send to the first address listed in the @allow_mail_to configuration variable (see above). This allows you to avoid putting your email address in the form, which might be desirable if you're concerned about address harvesters collecting it and sending you SPAM. This feature is disabled if the $emulate_matts_code configuration variable is set to 1.
subject	The subject line for the email. For example: <input type="hidden" name="subject" value="From the feedback form"> If this value is present it should be a URL, and the user will be redirected there after a successful form submission. For example:
redirect	<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="http://www.your.domain/foo.html"> If you don't specify a redirect URL then instead of redirecting formmail will generate a success page telling the user that their submission was successful.
bgcolor	The background color for the success page.
background	The URL of the background image for the success page.
text_color	The text color for the success page.
link_color	The link color for the success page.
vlink_color	The vlink color for the success page.
alink_color	The alink color for the success page.
title	The title for the success page.
return_link_url	The target URL for a link at the end of the success page. This is normally used to provide a link from the success page back to your main page or back to the page with the form on. For example: <input type="hidden" name="return_link_url" value="/home.html">
return_link_title	The label for the return link. For example: <input type="hidden" name="return_link_title" value="Back to my home page">
sort	This sets the order in which the submitted form inputs will appear in the email and on the success page. It can be the string 'alphabetic' for alphabetic order, or the string "order:" followed by a comma separated list of the input names, for example: <input type="hidden" name="sort" value="order:name,email,age,comments"> If "order:" is used you must supply the names of all of the fields that you want to be in the body of the mail message.
print_config	This is mainly used for debugging, and if set it causes formmail to include a dump of the specified configuration settings in the email. For example: <input type="hidden" name="print_config" value="title,sort"> ... will include whatever values you set for 'title' and 'sort' (if any) in the email.
required	This is a list of fields that the user must fill in before they submit the form. If they leave any of these fields blank then they will be sent back to the form to try again. For example: <input type="hidden" name="required" value="name,comments">
missing_fields_redirect	If this is set, it must be a URL, and the user will be redirected there if any of the fields listed in 'required' are left blank. Use this if you want finer control over the the error that the user see's if they miss out a field.
env_report	This is a list of the CGI environment variables that should be included in the email. This is useful for recording things like the IP address of the user in the email. Any environment variables that you want to use in 'env_report' in any of your forms will need to be in the @valid_ENV configuration variable described above.
print_blank_fields	If this is set then fields that the user left blank will be included in the email. Normally, blank fields are suppressed to save space.

As well as all these hidden inputs, there are a couple of non-hidden inputs which get special treatment:

email	If one of the things you're asking the user to fill in is their email address and you call that input 'email', formmail will use it as the address part of the sender's email address in the email.
realname	If one of the things you're asking the user to fill in is their full name and you call that input 'realname', formmail will use it as the name part of the sender's email address in the email.

Business Support

businesssupport@primustel.ca
1-888-222-8577

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