Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

[selvan777]

Hi,

Can the menu provide a secure "contact me" link because my new host server does not support any server side tools ?

http://lastborns.esmartweb.com

Thanks.

[selvan777]

Well, I opted to go with a free guest book service.

[Ruth]

Hi,

I know this is late, I just saw this post. I will ask Milonic about this. I'm sure there is a way, but I think 'secure' is going to be something to do with https type site.

Ruth

[selvan777]

Thanks Ruth but let me clarify that all I'm after is a means letting people contact me from my web site without my disclosing an email address to help lessen spam. That's all I mean by secure.

[Ruth]

Hi,

I think you want something like maybe a contact us form? I don't know how to do forms at all.

But, you could also set up a link for mailto: in the menu. I don't think that is read by crawlers and such since it is a js file, still, to be on the safe side, you could use a function which you put in the data file and then call in the aI where you want the contact me. See this post with info on this viewtopic.php?p=22894

This function 'hides' the email address since it's inside the function. You'd put the function at the top of the data file since it has to be there first in order to be called in the aI. You want to go down to the fourth post, the second one by Andy. Then I think you'd just subsitute whatever your email name is and then email domain. He also post the php version, but I have no clue on that one.

Hope this helps.

Ruth

[selvan777]

Thanks Ruth,

It works but could you tell me how to include the target=_blank code in there for those of us who have a web based email page that opens for mailto: links? Below is my function and AI.

function em()
{
em_nm = "abc"
em_dm = "gmail.com"
em_sj = "?subject=...from The Lastborns"
em_bd = "&body=Please replace the underscore in my email address above with what you know should be there. Thanks and sorry for the trouble!"
return em_nm+"_"+em_dm+em_sj+em_bd
}

aI("text=Mail;image=menu/images/MainMail.gif;url=mailto:"+em());

Please refresh it a couple times:
http://lastborns.esmartweb.com

[Ruth]

Well, I can only suggest you try adding the target=_blank to the url in the function.... em_dm = "gmail.com target=blank"

Note, I do not do functions, so that is a guess, maybe you need another part in the function giving the target rather than just adding it to the gmail address. The other thing would be to add the target parameter to the aI string. That is an available property of the menu. i.e.

Code: Select all

aI("text=hi;url=whatever;target=whatever;targetfeatures=valid features;"); 

That's all I can suggest. If these things don't work, post back and I will have to ask Milonic if they can help.

Ruth

[selvan777]

I'm sorry Ruth but could you please.

I've tried all sorts of ways. It appears that a separate function needs to be created so it can be called for in the AI. I have a few target=_blank that do work as is but those are not tied to a function.

Thanks again.

[Ruth]

Hi,

I finally understand what is happening. I've posted to Milonic so hopefully we'll hear pretty soon. But, I don't know if this is possible.

Have you considered a contact us form page which gets mail to you? I have no idea how to do those but I know a lot of sites have them. http://milonic.com/contact.php

Milonic's is php but I know there are other types.

Ruth

[selvan777]

Hi,

I used a custom PHP form for years when I had my site on http://www.tripod.lycos.co.uk but they are soon to stop supporting free hosting of personal homepages. So in looking for a new home I found esmartweb.com but they do not provide any server side tools like PHP or mySQL but they do provide FTP access.

I prefer this method so I hope Milonic comes up with a solution.

Thanks

[Ruth]

Well, I'll have to wait for Milonic because I can't test anything since everything opens my outlook, and I do not know how to shut it off so it's not default and set the web page to be my email sender...

Ruth

[selvan777]

Not sure about IE but in FF click Tools, Options, Applications, in the Search: box type mailto, under Action: chose yahoo or gmail or ?

[Andy]

Hi Guys,

There isn't a way (out of the box) in JavaScript to be able to determine if a particular mail client is installed or not using the mailto feature.

What you are asking for isn't going to be possible unless you install a piece of software first. For gmail you can download Notifier from http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answ ... swer=10966 - not sure about Hotmail or Yahoo etc - I guess it may not be possible but will look further..........................
.........Ok, I found this for Yahoo: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4353
And this for Hotmail: http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/2 ... Vista.html

As you can see it's quite a mission so probably best to just go with the mailto command and hope that the user has installed one of the above applications. If not then it will just open their default email client

HTH,
Andy

[selvan777]

Hi Andy,

Thanks but I think there's a misunderstanding here. I'm only asking how to make this mailto: link open in a new window (like when using target=_blank else where in my menu_data).

Here's the function, AI, and page it's on:

function em()
{
em_nm = "eMeYada"
em_dm = "Gmail.com"
em_sj = "?subject=Mail via the Homepage"
em_bd = "&body=%0AHi and thanks for writing.%0A%0ANOTE:%0APlease replace the _ with an @ in my e-mail address above prior to sending.%0A%0AThanks and sorry for the trouble.%0A%0ASelvan"
return em_nm+"_"+em_dm+em_sj+em_bd
}

aI("text=Mail;image=menu/images/MainMail.gif;tooltip=All mail is welcomed but please replace the _ with an @ in my email address;tipdelay=020;tipmenu=Bubbletipleft;url=mailto:"+em());

http://lastborns.esmartweb.com it might need to be refreshed

Thanks

[Andy]

That's my point. You can't, UNLESS you install some software onto the machine.

Basically, the browser (by default) is told that the default mail app is an installed .exe application - in order to open in a new window you need to get around this by installing the add-ons mentioned above.

This is something that I wouldn't bother spending anymore time on - It's simply not possible out of the box, sorry.

[Ruth]

Hi,

I was just going to post that I thought, that even if you could install the add-ons you couldn't possibly have add-ons for every single web based mail thing out there, not everyone has google, yahoo, hotmail etc. I do have a web based mail available which I don't use, but it's not one of those, and if I disabled outlook, I have no idea what would happen when I clicked a mailto: link since my web based mail isn't listed in IE as an available default mail program.

Have you thought about finding a free host that has at the least mail form available? Try this place, that page has a form where you can check the things you want in a free hosting place. I checked just form to email and ftp and it gave me back about 7 hosting things, some with forced ads some without. When I added cgi/perl and php it gave me 4 back

http://clickherefree.com/hosting-free/

Ruth

[selvan777]

Hmm, alright, I'll check them out.

Thanks again.

[Ruth]

Hi,

Sorry it couldn't be done in the menu, but those mailto functions are looking for a program on your computer, that's why you need the add-ons. They become the .exe program the function finds. Frustrating some times, isn't it.....

[selvan777]

What's frustrating is I don't have an add-on in my Firefox for Gmail or any other web based e-mail and yet it opens gmail in the same window and because of that I'm thinking if it can open it in a window surely it can open it in a new window but I do realize I'm not experienced at writing java and do respect what you guys say.

Thanks so much for your patience.

[Andy]

Have you installed the Google Toolbar?

I see your point about it not making sense. Google must have something installed on your system to be able open a window for gmail.

If not then I'd like to get to the bottom of this just for curiosity reasons.