Chapter 20

Runtime Bots: The Heartbeat of FrontPage Forms

CONTENTS

Throughout this book, I've noted where pages contain features requiring that the FrontPage Server Extensions be on your remote server's site. The pages I referred to were mostly forms that incorporated one of FrontPage's runtime bots.

For the beginner, adding advanced features to Web pages can be a daunting task. FrontPage puts advanced features well within the capability of beginning page developers with the use of its advanced bots. These bots work with the server at runtime to process information; they allow a user to submit requests or information to your site that you can use many different ways.

What These Bots Do

What are these runtime bots, and why are they so special? Well, if it weren't for these bots, you'd need to write custom scripts to instruct your server how to handle the forms you create. This isn't an easy task for a beginner, which is one reason there are as many books on scripting languages as there are on HTML programming. Scout the shelves in your local bookstore sometime, and you'll see rows of books on CGI, Perl, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, and countless other languages that can be used with your Web pages. With these scripting languages, you can add functionality to your Web pages-if you want to get into programming, that is.

For those who don't want to learn all those other programming techniques, you have the FrontPage bots to fall back on, which are really nothing more than custom CGI scripts designed to work with the FrontPage Server Extensions-like the "plug-and-play" of Web pages.

Five bots work with forms: the Discussion bot, the Registration bot, the Save Results bot, the Search bot, and the Confirmation Field bot. You may choose any but the Search bot and the Confirmation Field bot when you configure a form handler for your form. The Search bot and Confirmation Field bot are inserted with the Insert | Bot command but work with form fields, as you will learn later in this chapter.

Why These Bots Need the FrontPage Server Extensions

You might ask, "Why do these bots need the server extensions, but the ones discussed in Chapter 15, "Automating Pages with Bots," don't?"

The bots you learned about in the "Advanced Techniques" section don't require the FrontPage Server Extensions because they don't need user input to function. You control the content of those bots at design time, and their content is placed onto your pages in conventional form once your pages go out on the Web.

The runtime bots discussed in this chapter are basically CGI scripts written to be compatible with FrontPage and the Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system. They work seamlessly with FrontPage's Personal Web Server, which is why you can test the forms with your favorite browser while the Personal Web Server is running.

More often than not, when your Web pages are placed "out there," they reside on a server that runs on a UNIX or Windows NT operating system. The runtime bots process the user's entries when he or she clicks the Submit button on your form. An executable file in your FrontPage-enabled Web site translates the data from your FrontPage form into language the UNIX or Windows NT Server expects to see. That executable file is part of the FrontPage Server Extensions that need to reside on your remote server. In this case, the server extensions act as the go-between from the FrontPage bots to your server's operating system.

When Your Server Doesn't Have the Server Extensions

If your service provider doesn't have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, you do have other options for adding interactivity to your Web site.

To use these alternative options, you need to understand how to work with CGI (other scripting languages will be discussed in Chapter 21). Unfortunately, it gets rather involved to discuss the different options and types of forms you can configure with CGI scripts on a case-by-case basis. That subject goes far beyond the scope of this book because so many variables come into play, such as using platform-specific scripts, assigning directory permissions, and other advanced topics requiring some knowledge of the CGI scripting language.

Here are some options you can use to add forms to your pages:

With the basic information out of the way, the following sections will explain what each of the bots do and how you can use and configure them.

Discussion Bot

In Chapter 3 you learned how to add discussion groups to your Web site by using templates and wizards, but you can also create your own discussion groups with the Discussion bot. This bot enables you to create an online discussion on your Web site. It collects information from a form, formats the results into an HTML page, and adds the new page to a table of contents and to a text index. It also gathers information from the form and stores it in one of several formats.

Registration Bot

In Chapter 6 "Real-Life Examples," you learned how to register an end user for participation in a closed section of your Web site. The registration form you placed in your root Web uses a Registration bot, which lets users register for access to a service or portion of your Web site. A Registration bot adds the user to the server's authentication database, gathers information from the form, and then stores it in one of several formats, as discussed in "Configuring a Results File," later in this chapter.

Save Results Bot

The Save Results bot is the general-purpose form handler in FrontPage. It is used for many types of forms. Survey forms, guest books, information forms, and online or-dering forms are some examples of what you can use a Save Results bot for. It gathers information from a form and stores it in a variety of Web page and text formats.

Search Bot

The Search bot creates a list of links to pages containing one or more words-that is, the search term-entered by the user in the form. The results returned to the user list pages in which his or her search term appears. The list can also include the file's date and size and the score for the quality of the search term's match.

Confirmation Field Bot

When a user submits a response to a form on your page, you use a confirmation page to acknowledge his or her post. For this type of page, you use the Insert | Bot command to place a Confirmation Field bot on your page for each name/value pair you want to acknowledge. The Confirmation Field bot retrieves the information the user entered into your form and places his or her response on the confirmation page.

Assigning a Form Handler to a Form

To use any of the bots mentioned in this chapter, you first develop a Web page containing form fields appropriate for the type of bot you're assigning. After you design the form, assign one of the bots as a form handler by following these steps:

  1. In the FrontPage Editor, right-click any form field in the form to open the pop-up menu.
  2. Choose Form Properties to open the Form Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 20.1.
    Figure 20.1 : Use the Form Properties dialog box to assign a form handler to a form.
  3. Select the type of form handler from the Form Handler field. You can choose one of the following options:
    Custom CGI Script
    Discussion Bot
    Registration Bot
    Save Results Bot
  4. Click Settings to configure the form handler. Edit the form handler settings as outlined in the tasks in the following sections.
  5. Click OK to exit the Settings dialog box.
  6. Click OK to close the Form Properties dialog box.

When and Where to Use a Discussion Form

You can add a Discussion bot to a page that you create yourself. You'll need at least the following pages to completely configure a Discussion bot:

Creating a Discussion Form

The easiest way to add a discussion group to your Web site is to use the Discussion Wizard, discussed in Chapter 3. This wizard streamlines the process of creating a discussion group because the required forms and pages are automatically created and linked for you. You can then use the procedures outlined in the following numbered steps to configure or revise the Discussion bot on the Discussion Submission form. An example of this form from the ACME Corp Customer Support Discussion project in Chapter 6is shown in Figure 20.2.

Figure 20.2 : The Customer Support Discussion Submission form you created in Chapter 6 uses a Discussion bot.

To add and configure a Discussion bot, follow these steps:

  1. Design the form fields for your discussion submission form.
  2. Using the steps outlined in the earlier section "Assigning a Form Handler to a Form," choose the Discussion bot.
  3. Click Settings to configure the Discussion bot. The Settings for Discussion Form Handler dialog box appears. By default, it opens to the Discussion tab.

Configuring the Discussion

Use the Discussion tab of the Settings for Discussion Form Handler dialog box, shown in Figure 20.3, to configure the discussion and its table of contents arrangement. The steps to configure the Discussion bot are as follows:

Figure 20.3 : Use the Settings for Discussion Form Handler dialog box to configure your discussion.

  1. Enter a title for the discussion group in the Title field.
  2. In the Directory field, enter a directory name in which to place the discussion group articles. The directory name is limited to eight characters and must be preceded by an underscore (for example, _accsd). The underscore is one of the eight characters in the directory name.
  3. In the Table of contents layout section, complete the following:
    Form fields. In this section of the dialog box, enter the fields you want to appear at the top of the discussion articles, separating each with a space (for example, Subject Category Comments).
    Time. If you select this option, the table of contents includes the time an article was written.
    Date. If you select this option, the table of contents includes the date an article was written.
    Remote computer name. If you select this option, the table of contents includes the remote computer name of the article's author.
    User name. If you select this option, the table of contents includes the name of the article's author.
    Order newest to oldest. Uncheck this option to sort the articles in the order in which they were created, but check it to place the most recent articles at the top of the table of contents.
    If you want to use a style sheet from your current Web site, enter the URL of the style sheet in the Get background and colors from page field, or use the Browse button to select a page from your current Web site.
  4. If you want to send a confirmation page to the user after he or she submits an article, enter the page's URL in the URL of confirmation page field, or use the Browse button to select a page from your current Web site.
  5. Click the Article tab to continue with the article settings.

NOTE
To view the discussion group directories in the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Web Settings, click the Advanced tab, and check Show documents in hidden directories.

Configuring the Discussion Articles

You use the Article tab, shown in Figure 20.4, to configure the articles in the discussion.

Figure 20.4 : Use the Article tab to assign a header and footer to your discussion articles.

To configure your articles, follow these steps:

  1. To configure the discussion articles, click the Article tab in the Settings for Discussion Form Handler dialog box.
  2. Enter the URL of the article header in the URL of Header to Include field, or use the Browse button to select a page from your current Web site.
  3. Enter the URL of the article footer in the URL of Footer to Include field, or use the Browse button to select a page from your current Web site.
  4. Select any or all of the following items to include on each discussion article:
    Time. If you select this option, the article includes the time it was written.
    Date. If you select this option, the article includes the date it was written.
    Remote computer name. If you select this option, the article includes the remote computer name of its author.
    User name. If you select this option, the article includes the author's name. Choose OK to assign the Discussion bot properties to your form.

When and Where to Use the Registration Bot

The Registration bot is used when you design a form that registers a user for an event or to gain entry to a protected Web page on your site. In Chapter 6 you placed the form shown in Figure 20.5 in your root Web. This form uses a Registration bot. FrontPage gives you two templates to help you develop your own registration forms:

Figure 20.5 : Registration bots are used on user registration forms or to register for a product or an event.

Creating Your Own Registration Pages

You can use either of the templates as guidelines to create your own registration form; follow these steps:

  1. Design the form fields for your registration form.
  2. Using the steps outlined in the earlier section "Assigning a Form Handler to a Form," choose the Registration bot.
  3. Click Settings to configure the Registration bot. The Settings for Registration Form Handler dialog box, shown in Figure 20.6, appears. By default, it opens to the Registration tab.
    Figure 20.6 : Use the Registration tab to assign a restricted web to your registration form and to assign name and password fields.
  4. In the Web name field, enter the web name you're creating the Registration Form for. The web name relates to the server. The registration form is normally placed in the root web. If you are registering a child web of the root, the URL looks something like this: 
    /ACMECorpEmp
  5. In the User name fields field, enter the names of one or more form fields on the registration form, separating them by commas or spaces. The Registration bot constructs the user name from these fields. The values you enter here should agree with the fields you inserted in your form.
    If the user enters his or her name in a single field, your entry might look like this:
    Username
    If the user enters his or her name in two fields, your entry might look like this:
    First, Last
    If the user enters his or her name in three fields, your entry might look like this:
    First, Middle, Last
    In the Password field section, enter the name of the form field in which the user enters his or her password.
  6. In the Password confirmation field section, enter the name of the form field in which the user enters his or her password confirmation.
  7. If you want the user to enter a secure password, check the Require secure password checkbox so that the user must enter a password that has at least six characters and doesn't partially match his or her name. Password fields display an asterisk for each character entered by the user.
  8. To specify a failure page, enter its URL in the URL of failure page (optional) field, or use the Browse button to select a page from your current Web site. If the user doesn't enter a name and password that appears in your server's authentication database, a failure page returns. This page can inform the user that he or she needs to enter a correct password to gain access to the page or Web site.
  9. Click OK to configure the registration form.

See the later sections "Configuring a Results File" and "Configuring a Second Results File" for instructions on how to complete the Results and Advanced tabs in the Settings for Registration Form Handler dialog box.

When and Where to Use the Save Results Bot

The Save Results bot is used as a form handler for general forms you place in your web, such as the Feedback Form template, the Guest Book template, and the Survey Form template. The Information Request Form in the Product Data Sheets you created in Chapter 6 also uses a Save Results bot. This page is shown in Figure 20.7. You can use any of these examples as guidelines to develop your own forms.

Figure 20.7 : The Save Results bot can be used for forms of a general nature.

Creating a General Form

To create a general form, use one of the above mentioned templates or design your own form with the Form Page Wizard; these methods help make the form layout a lot easier. After your form is designed, you can assign the Save Results bot as follows:

  1. Using the steps outlined in the earlier section "Assigning a Form Handler to a Form," choose the Save Results bot. The Settings for Saving Results of Form dialog box appears.
  2. Use the steps outlined in the following section, "Configuring a Results File," to complete the settings in the Results tab. This is the default tab for the dialog box.
  3. Use the steps outlined in the subsequent sections, "Configuring a Second Results File" and "Adding Additional Fields," to complete the settings in the Advanced tab.

Configuring a Results File

Both the Registration bot and the Save Results bot offer you a choice of configuring a results file. The Results tab, shown in Figure 20.8, is identical for both bots.

Figure 20.8 : Use the Results tab to identify the Web page in your current Web site that stores the user's responses.

Both bots offer several choices for how you store the results from forms on your Web site. To configure the results file for either of these bots, follow these steps:

  1. Enter the name and location of the file to place the form results in the File for results field. If the file does not exist, the bot creates the file the first time the form is submitted. If you want to save your results file in text format, be sure to enter a .txt extension when you specify the filename.
  2. To save the results to a file in your current Web site, supply a page URL with a full path and filename.
  3. To save the results to a file outside your current Web site (to a location on your server's file system), supply an absolute filename and folder (the full path and filename).
  4. Select the format you would like to store the results file in. The first four options are used when you specify a results file with an .htm or .html extension. The latter four options are used when you specify a results file with a .txt extension. The choices are as follows:
    HTML. This is the default style. When you select this option, your results file is stored in an HTML page that uses normal text with line endings, as shown in Figure 20.9.
    Figure 20.9 : A results file stored in HTML format.
    HTML definition list. When you select this option, your results file appears in a definition list. The names of the form fields appear as terms, and the values of the form fields appear as the definition. An example is shown in Figure 20.10.
    Figure 20.10: A results file stored in HTML definition list format.
    HTML bulleted list. When you choose this option, your results file appears in a bulleted list, as shown in Figure 20.11.
    Figure 20.11: A results file stored in HTML bulleted list format.
    Formatted text within HTML. When you choose this option, your results file appears in formatted paragraphs with line endings, as shown in Figure 20.12.
    Figure 20.12: A results file stored in formatted text within HTML format.
    Formatted text. When you choose this option, the results file appears in formatted text, as shown in Figure 20.13.
    Figure 20.13: A results file stored in formatted text format.
    Text database using comma as a separator. This option specifies a text file that uses commas to separate the values in the results file. An example is shown in Figure 20.14.
    Figure 20.14: A results file stored in the format text database using comma as a separator.
    Text database using tab as a separator. This option specifies a text file which uses tabs to separate the values in a results file. Many database or spreadsheet applications allow you to import files of this type. An example is shown in Figure 20.15.
    Figure 20.15: A results file stored in the format text database using tab as a separator.
    Text database using space as a separator. This option specifies a text file that uses spaces to separate the values in a results file, as shown in Figure 20.16. These files can be used with spreadsheet or database applications and are recommended for single-word responses to maintain proper formatting of the items in the database.
    Figure 20.16: A results file stored in the format text database using space as a separator.
    Check Include field names in output to save both the name and value of each form field. If you uncheck this option, only the responses from the user will be written to the file.
  5. In the Additional information to save section, choose any or all of the following additional items to save in the results file:
    Time. If you select this option, the results file includes the time it was written.
    Date. If you select this option, the results file includes the date it was written.
    Remote computer name. If you select this option, the results file includes the remote computer name of the respondent.
    User name. If you select this option, the results file includes the respondent's name.
    Browser type. If you select this option, the results file includes the type of browser the respondent used.
    In the URL of confirmation page (optional) field, enter the URL of the confirmation page you want to return to the user after he or she submits the form, or use the Browse button to select a page from your current Web site.

NOTE
When you collect information you will read from a Web browser or from FrontPage, you have the option to supply an .html or .htm extension. This causes the FrontPage Server Extensions to generate the HTML at runtime, which could make your Web site slower as more results are appended to the page. You can also save your results in formatted text format or periodically edit the results page and paste its contents into another Web page on your server.

NOTE
The confirmation page notifies the user that his or her response has been received to the Web. If you don't specify a confirmation page, the Save Results bot generates and maintains one automatically for you. The confirmation page thanks the user for submitting the form and returns the contents of the form by using Confirmation Field bots.
You can enter one of three special attributes for a Registration bot confirmation page:
  • Registration-Username designates the name of the user who is registering.
  • Registration-Password specifies the password of the user who is registering.
  • Registration-Error designates a sentence or two that describes an error condition at runtime.

Configuring a Second Results File

You can also choose to configure a second results file for the Registration bot or
Save Results bot. This is done by using the Advanced tab, shown in Figure 20.17, in the Settings for Saving Results of Form or Settings for Registration Form Handler
dialog box.
Figure 20.17: Use the Advanced tab to configure a second results file or additional field selections.

Adding Additional Fields

Your form might have more fields than those available to choose from in the first tab of the Settings for Registration Form Handler or Settings for Saving Results of Form dialog box. By default, the results file returns all information on the form itself. You can use the Advanced tab to specify which additional fields the Registration Form or Save Results bot returns.

When and Where to Use a Search Bot

If your site is very large, including a search form in your Web site allows visitors to find topics of interest quickly and easily. There's really no hard-and-fast rule for where to put a search form in your Web; the following list offers some ideas:

Creating and Configuring a Search Form

You can create a search form that searches your entire Web site, a portion of it, or just discussion articles. Figure 20.18 shows an example of the search form generated with the Discussion wizard, as discussed in Chapter 3.
Figure 20.18: A search form can be configured to search your entire Web site or just a portion of it.

To create a search form, follow these steps:

  1. Design the page on which you want to insert the Search bot. You'll want to add some text that instructs the user how to enter text into the search form fields.
  2. Position the insertion point where you want to place the search form.
  3. Choose Insert | Bot, and choose Search from the Insert Bot dialog box. The Search Bot Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 20.19, appears.
    Figure 20.19: You place a Search bot on your page to create a search form.
  4. Configure the Search bot in the Search Bot Properties dialog box. The following settings can be configured in this dialog box:
    Label for Input. Enter the label that you want to appear before the text input field on the search form. The default text is Search for:.
    Width in Characters. Enter the width in characters of the input field, or select the default of 20. Note that this doesn't limit the length of text the user can enter in the field; rather, it limits the width of the text entry box. Take care not to make the width too wide for the page.
    Label for "Start Search" Button. Enter the text you want to appear on the Start button, or accept the default of Start Search.
    Label for "Clear" Button. Enter the text you want o appear on the Clear button, or accept the default of Reset.
  5. Select the word list you want the Search bot to search through from the Word List to Search field. Choose one of the following:
    All. This searches the entire Web site except the discussion groups.
    Specify a discussion group directory to search a single discussion group. If you want to search a discussion group, its directories begin with an underscore (_).
  6. Configure additional options for the Search bot as follows:
    Score. Indicates the quality of the match to the text the user enters.
    File Date. Reports the date and time of the document that matches the user's search entry. The date reported is the date the document was last modified.
    File Size. Reports the size of the matching document in kilobytes.
  7. Choose OK to accept your selections and return to the FrontPage Editor.

When and Where to Use the Confirmation Field Bot

When a user sends a response from a form to your site, it's nice to send them a thank you with a confirmation form. It lets users know that their information has been received. The confirmation form can also include information about what you'll do with the information after you get it. For example, if you created a survey form, you can inform the user that once the survey is complete and tabulated, you'll post the results on your site. The confirmation page can be as simple as acknowledging that you received their information, as shown in Figure 20.20.

Figure 20.20: Confirmation fields, which confirm responses from the user, are placed into pages with the Confirmation Field bot.

Confirming Pages

The Confirmation Field bot works somewhat the same as the Substitution bot (discussed in Chapter 15), except that it's directly tied to a Save Results bot or Discussion bot. The Confirmation Field bot works at runtime and requires processing from the server to insert its replacement text. It extracts information from the originating form and places the data on the confirming page.

To create a confirmation form, follow these steps:

  1. Create the contents of the confirmation form.
  2. Position the insertion point where you want to place the confirmation field.
  3. Choose Insert | Bot | Confirmation Field to open the Confirmation Field Bot Properties dialog box shown in Figure 20.21.
    Figure 20.21: Enter a confirmation field in a page by using the Confirmation Field Bot Properties dialog box.
  4. In the Confirmation Field Bot Properties dialog box, enter the name of one of the fields that appears in the form you're confirming. In the example shown, the Subject field from the Customer Support Discussion is being confirmed.
  5. Choose OK. The name of the field is inserted into your confirmation form, surrounded by brackets.
  6. Save the page to your Web, using the same URL you entered in the URL of confirmation page field for the form you're confirming.

When and Where to Use Custom CGI Scripts

You'll need to use CGI scripts (or other alternatives discussed in the next chapter) if your Internet Service Provider (ISP) doesn't have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed. You may also want to include advanced features in your form, such as automatically entering the results in a database or spreadsheet or tabulating totals in an online ordering form. In that case, some programming of your own is in order. What's important to learn here is how to configure your FrontPage form to use that custom CGI script.

A form and CGI script are usually developed in concert with each other. The CGI script contains information on how to handle each of the form fields in the form, along with other instructions for the server. You can find several good examples of CGI scripts you can use, along with the HTML pages associated with them, at the following sites on the Web:

Matt's Script Archive has several good forms with features similar to those some of the bots accomplish. You can find his site at http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/.
Selena Sol's Public Domain CGI Script Archive also offers some creative examples of how you can use CGI scripts with forms, scripts, and Web page examples. The URL for this site is http://www.eff.org/~erict/Scripts/.

However, even if you use ready-made CGI scripts, you can still expect to spend some time on them. The CGI scripts have to be "tweaked" in many cases to get them up and running on your own site. You might also need to check with your service provider to see whether you can use custom CGI scripts on your site-and if so, where you are allowed to place them. Sometimes, CGI scripts must be assigned a .cgi extension to be recognized on the server; other times, they have to be placed in a specific directory to function properly. These particulars should be coordinated with your ISP before you configure your form. At that time, ask your service provider how to assign permissions for the form. They may already have a "frequently asked questions" page on their site that deals with these issues.

If all this sounds confusing, don't feel bad. CGI scripts are not something you can learn to work with in a few minutes; if you find you're still scratching your head after a few days of working with them, you won't be the first. There are several good resources on the Web for learning all about CGI scripts. They are listed in appendix C, "Directory of Resources."

How to Assign Custom CGI Scripts

You assign a CGI script to your FrontPage form in much the same way as you assign any of the other form-handling bots-with the Form Properties command. The steps are as follows:

  1. In the FrontPage Editor, double-click any form field in the form to open its Properties dialog box.
  2. Click the Form Properties button to open the Form Properties dialog box.
  3. Choose Custom CGI Script from the Form Handler field.
  4. Click Settings to configure the form handler. The Setting For Custom Form Handler dialog box, shown in Figure 20.22, appears.
    Figure 20.22: Assign a custom CGI script for your form in the Settings For Custom Form Handler dialog box.
  5. In the Action field, enter the absolute URL of the form handler. For example, if your form handler is named guestbook.cgi and it resides in the /cgi-bin subdirectory of your Web site, the absolute URL might look something like this:
    http://www.yourserver.com/~yourdirectory/cgi-bin/guestbook.cgi
  6. In the Method field, enter the method the form handler needs to process the form. If you're using one of the examples from either of the sites mentioned earlier, you can see which method was used by examining the HTML page example provided with the CGI script. You typically will have one of the following options:
    Post (default). This method passes the name/value pairs to the form handler as input.
    Get. This method encodes the name/value pairs of the form and assigns the information to a server variable called QUERY_STRING.

    NOTE
    The choice for the Get method is a bit tricky to access. Click the arrow in the Method field to drop the drop-down menu. Then, click the bottom arrow at the right side of the drop-down menu list (it's very narrow). You should see the Get method choice beneath the Post method choice.
  7. In the Encoding type field, enter the default encoding method used for the form. If you leave this field blank, the following encoding method is used by default:
  8. application/x-www-form-urlencoded
  9. Click OK to close each of the Settings for Custom Form Handler and Form Properties dialog boxes.

Adding Extended Attributes to a Form

You can assign extended attributes to any form field that uses a custom CGI script as a form handler. To assign extended attributes to a form, follow these steps:

  1. In the FrontPage Editor, double-click any form field to open its Properties dialog box, or select the entire form.
  2. Click the Form Properties button. Make sure the Form Handler type is Custom CGI Script.
  3. Click Settings to open the Settings for Custom Form Handler dialog box.
  4. Click Extended to open the Extended Attributes dialog box.
  5. Click Add to open the Set Attribute Value dialog box.
  6. Enter the attribute's name in the Name field.
  7. To associate a value with the name, check the Specify Value option and enter the attribute's value in the Value field. If the Specify Value option is checked and no value appears in the Value field, FrontPage associates the value with an empty string.
  8. Click OK to close each of the Set Attribute Value, Extended Attributes, Setting for Custom Form Handlers, and Form Properties dialog boxes.

Other Ways to Use Forms

You can display forms in tables or frames much as you can any other type of content. To display a form in a table, create the form by using the Form Page wizard, or build your own as you've learned in this section. You can copy the form into the Clip-board and paste it into a table, or you can insert the form into another page with an Include bot.

You can also configure forms to direct their output to a frame. The steps are as follows:

  1. In the FrontPage Editor, right-click any form field to open the pop-up menu.
  2. Choose Form Properties to open the Form Properties dialog box.
  3. In the Target Frame field, enter the name of the default target frame you want your form to appear in.
  4. Click OK to close the Form Properties dialog box.

Workshop Wrap-Up

You should now know all the basics about designing forms in FrontPage. If you want to learn more about writing your own scripts, refer to the online sources listed in appendix C. Other options you can use as an alternative to CGI will be discussed in the next chapter, "Using Your Own HTML Code."

Chapter Summary

In this chapter, you have learned how to configure FrontPage's runtime bots-the backbone of form handling in FrontPage, why you need the FrontPage Server Extensions to use the bots covered in this chapter, and the various ways you could store information you get from the user. You should now have an understanding of what really makes these forms tick.

Next Steps

This is the last chapter that covers the features "built-in" to FrontPage. In the next chapter, you'll learn how to go beyond what's built-in by inserting your own HTML code into your FrontPage pages.

For additional information on topics related to this chapter, refer to these chapters:

Q&A

Q: OK. I designed my form, I've got everything configured, my Internet Service Provider has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed. Is there anything else I need to know about forms?
A: Believe it or not, after three chapters, you've finally got it all. If you want to go beyond what you've learned, you can get even more interactivity if you write custom routines yourself.
Q: Where should I put the results files?
A: It's best to put them in a location where your Table of Contents can't find them. If your service provider has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, the most likely place is the private directory because your Table of Contents bot doesn't look there. Browsers can't find that one, either.
Q: If I place more than one form on a single Web page, do their results go to the same file?
A: No, you can configure them to go to different files, just as you could if they were on separate pages. Of course, if you want all the forms on a single page to point to one results file, you can do that, too!