Subtitles of the Movie

In this movie, let's continue looking at the form processing options. Let's right click on our form, go to Form Properties. Let's take out that email address for now. Let's look at Send a Database. Again, this requires Front Page Server Extensions and let's look at the options there. We can have a database already made or we can have it create a database. It doesn't get any easier than that. If it creates the database, you know those fields are going to be matched up and really easy to work with. So let's hit Create Database, done that for you, (unintelligible), we'll click it OK and there we go; very easy to do. If we didn't have a database, obviously we'd add that connection and pull it there. At any time we can update our database, we can match those fields etcetera if we add new fields or maybe take some away, we can easily work with that. Now, when you make these database connections, you're going to have some new files on your site. There's one called Global.asa and another one called FPDForm.inc. Make sure you don't delete those. Those are the processing for your database files. Now, you can have a confirmation page. When it's a database that you're working with, you need to make this confirmation page an ASP page. The HTML won't work. And an error page, of course, you can go and make a custom error page. Go bring it up, just say there's an error in the database or something and then you can say contact so and so. You can have specific saved fields. See how it matches it up to the database? And, of course, if we have any additional fields. The saved fields are what you want to make sure works for you. So go ahead and click OK and we've got that database connection created. Your other options are to send it to a Custom Script, so you could do that if you want to. You can type in the form name if you want to do it there and then also the target frame, which is simply if you want it to open up in the same page, a different page, something like that. So you have some good options; custom scripts, like if the web host already supplies an ASP script for processing. Great. Do that. The host will even tell you what to name your custom error pages and your custom confirmation pages so that when that script processes, it automatically will flip to which one it needs to. Database, if you want it to go to an access database. Don't forget; it creates a few extra files on your site and then, of course, if you want it to go to a specific file, just a flat file to copy the information or email the results to you. So take a minute and try one of these validation options, one that you want to work with. If you're wanting to do the custom, just check with your web host and see what scripts they might have available for you.