web forms

Hey fellow dreamhosters!!

I have this website for a TV show and I'm wondering about forms to allow people to send in their reviews for each episode (each episode will have it's own form on the episode page).

I'm using the form script that DH has pre-installed, but I'm worried about the "unsavory" bots that'll hijack it to send me spam. Yuk!

I don't need anything to automatically post reviews, but something that'll be secure and send me unwarranted spam.

I'm comfortable with PHP and MySQL.


Any help would be appreciated

Since you are familar with php. Then you could create a form mailer similar to what use. Send an email to your self making sure htmlentities is used and you send as straight text. Don't allow the header to be passed on, but place the user fields inside the body of the text and hard code the header so the from field could say from:my website, etc.
In the body of the message you can also include the remote ip address, then when you get spammed, that ip address can be added to your htaccess file to block.
Just some ideas,
Silk

Have you considered a content management system?

By default they usually have comments ready for use on each new page you create. And you can have it set so that you can approve each comment before it gets posted to the public. Also some of the newer CMSs now come with anti-spam protection (well, anti-spam assist anyway).

Of course this is a little more of an undertaking but the longer you wait to convert your site into a content management system the harder it will eventually be to do so. Because you do plan on growing into a HUGE site some day, right?

Just a suggestion if you hadn't considered it yet.

Good luck...

I think you might consider using a wiki, they are super easy to install and use. Would be very easy to organize new pages on a per-episode basis and the comment features are all built in. NO requirement to use email either...

Good Luck!

ByOsmosis

If all you need is a simple form script, no need to bloat your site by using a cms. You might try to use jack's form mail script. It's similar to the script DH uses (which I assume is matt's form mail script...) but it's written in php and it shouldn't be hard, just switch the path to wherever you've put the php file http://www.dtheatre.com/scripts/formmail.php . The last release was a few years ago but that perl script is even older. I have used the php script for many many years and have yet to have a problem with it. Actually, if you did want to use a cms, there's no reason why you couldn't use this php script and the cms together. I do for my web store...

The Insane Cabbit
Blog: http://www.sounanda.com
Store: http://www.marciesgifts.com
PM for CMS or forum install.
$97 Off with promo code pixiedust

Thanks Ryo-ohki.... that form script is what I'm looking for.