setting up contact form for sending emails

[MelissaSass]

I've been ALL over the internet trying to find complete step by step guides on getting php to work for my contact form and I can't find anything. Or at least nothing that makes sense to me. I know nothing about PHP, I'm more of a designer/html/css person. PHP is completely foreign to me and very hard to understand. I have downloaded PHPMailer but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it or how to really configure it. I really need help in that area. This contact form is the last thing I need before I can put my redesign of my website up.

[ginerjm]

Are you having problems with the "contact form" or with phpmailer?  They are two very distinct questions.  Pick one.

[MelissaSass]

The form is already setup I just need to get it working and that's what I need help with.

[mac_gyver]

phpmailer is just an interface between php and your sending mail server. it does not process form data.

 

to process form data you either need to -

 

a) write some server-side code to take each input received from the form, validate it, and use it the way you want.

 

b) find a general 'form processor' script that will let you define its inputs, data/validation types, and define an email template that uses the input values the way you want.

[MelissaSass]

Which one would be the easiest? Because PHP is something I've never messed with yet and it looks like it would take a while to really figure out and time is something I don't have.

 

I just did some searching for form processor scripts and I found this.

 

http://codecanyon.net/item/form-processor/117110

 

Would this work?

[mac_gyver]

be advised that a LOT of the php code posted (and for sale) on the web is crap. just enough effort was put into it to get it to run and look pretty, but it often lacks security or any useful error checking/error reporting. so, you can end up with a script that allows hackers to take over your site (or in this case send their email through your server) or of spending as much time trying to get something to work that it would have taken you to write it yourself.

 

edit: the script you linked to is the general idea, but without seeing the code for it, there's no telling how good or bad it is.

[MelissaSass]

Then I'm at a complete loss. Like I wrote earlier, I've looked for guides on how to write this stuff step by step but nothing is really explained so I can understand it. Do you possibly have any ideas?

[mac_gyver]

producing an application, in any programming language, requires that you go through a learning curve to -

 

1) learn the programming language,

 

2) learn how to write program logic that does what you want (i.e. to take the inputs you have, perform the processing you want, and produce the intended output/result), and

 

3) learn about and use things like security, validation, error checking/reporting so that it is a complete, safe, and useful application.

 

you are either going to need to take the time and effort to learn and gain experience so that you can do this yourself, find a solution that does this for you, or hire someone to do this for you.