Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Saturday January 17 2009 - 15:28:15 GMT

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.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Thursday January 22 2009 - 5:24:37 GMT

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Thursday January 22 2009 - 16:31:08 GMT

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Thursday January 22 2009 - 16:50:03 GMT

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.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Friday January 23 2009 - 4:07:58 GMT

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 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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Friday January 23 2009 - 8:07:55 GMT

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 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="+em());

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Friday January 23 2009 - 14:56:47 GMT

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.



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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Friday January 23 2009 - 18:06:18 GMT

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.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 5:27:42 GMT

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://www.milonic.com/contactus.php

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

Ruth

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 7:21:50 GMT

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 7:53:58 GMT

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 8:09:30 GMT

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Andy
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 19:19:16 GMT

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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 21:28:25 GMT

Hi Andy,

Thanks but I think there's a misunderstanding here. I'm only asking how to make this 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 __at__ 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 __at__ in my email address;tipdelay=020;tipmenu=Bubbletipleft;url="+em());

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

Thanks

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Andy
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 21:31:48 GMT

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.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 21:51:50 GMT

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 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

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 22:16:25 GMT

Hmm, alright, I'll check them out.

Thanks again.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 22:32:23 GMT

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.....

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Saturday January 24 2009 - 23:39:51 GMT

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.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Andy
Dated: Sunday January 25 2009 - 9:57:48 GMT

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.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Sunday January 25 2009 - 15:14:18 GMT

Hi,

Thanks and sorry for the trouble.

I don't have the Google Toolbar. The only thing related to Google I have is ePrompter which is a standalone "Free Email Notification and Retrieval Program" http://www.eprompter.com/. Perhaps that's doing it but I don't think so due to the available choices from Firefox as you can see below like "Always ask" or "Use other...". When I select "Use other...", I get a blank window that says Mailto: undefined, No applications were found for this file type.

I've taken 3 screen shots of Firefox for you, one is showing the dropdown menu choices I have, the other is showing the Applications details of Gmail and the third is showing "Use other...". Please let me know how else I can help to get to the bottom of this too.

I'm beginning to think that perhaps I'll have to tweak FF to get the job done which defeats the whole purpose of trying to keep all else from steering away from my homepage.

Also, In IE I see I have OE or Windows Live Mail to choose from. And if I pick the later, it opens in a new window.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Sunday January 25 2009 - 20:52:04 GMT

Hi,

In your tools/options/applications in FF3 you probably have that set to always ask. Someplace along the line, since FF3 didn't come with gmail, someone had to put the gmail option on the computer by changing the to true and using the new direct mail url gmail provided for use with links which when used 'installed' the option for gmail choice.

As to the link, the problem I think is calling it a link and so we always think of links to web pages and therefore we should be able to open a new window, however, is a protocol, it is not a regular url type link [url is involved but only as to the address of the recipient. The protocol has certain 'properties' associated with it. Since it opens a mail program, those are name, domain address, cc, bcc, subject and body. Because it is not a web page link it doesn't have target= as one of those properties. What that link is doing is opening an application, in this case a mail program since it is specific to mail, what's confusing here is that the mail program/server is on the web, so we want to go, 'gee I'd like to open that in a new window', but in reality mailto has nothing to do with web pages, just with opening mail programs. The reason you get that web page is that you have to login to the program, it's like a stop on the way. Before web mail, this question wouldn't have come up, since everyone that clicked a mailto 'link' would have had a mail program open on their computer, if they had a mail program or a computer that was programmed to accept the protocol.

I've been trying to think of an analogy and the best I can do is - say you have a drill [a href] you can put an attachment - a drill bit [http:www etc] in it and drill a hole in something [go to a web page]. Now, that same drill [a href] you can put an different attachement - a sanding bit[ http etc] and do sanding [open a mail program], but the stuff you did with the drill bit isn't included in that sanding attachment. Not the best analogy but the one that came to mind.

Hope this helps. I'm not a programmer so can't think how else to explain it. I'm sure someone who does programming say for MS or FF or such could explain it better.

Ruth

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Monday January 26 2009 - 23:10:45 GMT

Hi,

That's quite an analogy but I get your point, mailto is very much a different protocol than hyper text.

I've decided to stick with a form/guestbook, it's best for all.

http://lastborns.esmartweb.com

Thanks again.

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Tuesday January 27 2009 - 2:49:23 GMT

Yes, it is different.

Well, I had an idea when I saw your guest book thing. If you can edit that page, then you could put a link on it with a

IF YOU PREFER TO EMAIL TRY THIS LINK type thing. Then the people could either fill out the guest book, or click the link and it will open their mail program or take them to their web mail It's not perfect, but that way they still have the option if they want, and since that guestbook page opens in a new window, they still have your original page with the menu on it. Hope that made sense

Ruth

Re: Secure Contact using Milonic, is it possible ?

Poster: selvan777
Dated: Tuesday January 27 2009 - 6:12:10 GMT

Hi,

Thanks Ruth, but it's all good. Not quite a custom contact form but it serves it's purpose via an instant email to me when someone uses it.

Thanks.