iWeb website functionality (PHP/HTML) help. Please, anyone?

Question

Level 1

10 points

iWeb website functionality (PHP/HTML) help. Please, anyone?

I used to use the gosh-awful Word-Press and now i switched to iWeb '09, it's pretty easy to design the site, but how do I make it actually work, i.e. such that site users can type in fields, click on stuff that will link them to other stuff...basically, how do I give the website any kind of functionality? Right now, it's just a dud, as in you go on there and you can't click on anything or what not (other than the widgets that come with the site). Do I need to do PHP or HTML to do this? Please help.

P.S. I'm not s computer scientist, so please respond as if I were a 5th grader : )

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Jun 11, 2010 4:58 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Jun 11, 2010 8:17 PM in response to Chuka

Creating hyperlinks is well documented in the iWeb Help file. You can highlight text, a text box or object and turn it into links of various kinds using the "link" inspector window.

Adding code to create stuff like forms is done by inserting an HTML Snippet from Widgets and pasting the code into it.

Reply

Answer 2

Chuka Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 15, 2010 2:13 PM in response to Roddy

Hey Roddy, thanks a bunch for the reply! I'll check out the Hyperlinking feature. So my other question then would be with regards to the HTML code - what's a good source for me to find this code, i.e. like copy-and-paste shortcuts so I don't have to create them from scratch? E.g. if I want to say that when the users hit the "Send" button, it emails xyz@gmail.com, how would I do that. I can read HTML, but creating it is not as easy as I'd wish. Please advise, buddy. Thanks tons.

Chuka

Reply

Answer 3

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Jun 15, 2010 2:35 PM in response to Chuka

Website forms require a script on your server. You can't do this if you publish to MobileMe.

Some info here......

http://www.iwebformusicians.com/Tricks/Forms.html

.... and a couple of suggestions for alternatives if you publish to MobileMe near the bottom of the page.

There's a lot of stuff about HTML around......

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp

A search of this form should reveal a lot if stuff about iFrames and embedding music, movies etc.

Here's an example of a flash banner in an iWeb page....

http://www.iwebformusicians.com/Tricks/PhotoMediaSatellite.html

"I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link."

Reply

Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,718 points

Jun 15, 2010 5:01 PM in response to Chuka

Chuka:

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. If you use a 3rd party forms site like Wufoo you can set up the form to send to any email address you'd like. There's an example of that on this demo page: Embedding Forms & Encoding Email Addresses. The code used for the other types of forms used on the page are included. However, those other forms uses the visitors email client to send the email to whatever email address you put in. Wufoo does not.

OT

Reply

Answer 5

Chuka Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 19, 2010 3:10 PM in response to Roddy

Sounds good Roddy! So here's a new question/scenario...if I want to allow users/visitors the chance to upload videos on my iWeb site, or to post comments, how do I go about this? Would those HTML Snippets be the way to go, or is there a more traditional method? I really appreciate your expertise sit.

Reply

Answer 6

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Jun 19, 2010 7:14 PM in response to Chuka

Find out about posting comments here....

http://iwebfaq.org/site/iWebFeedbackComments.html

Uploading stuff like videos is not so easy. You would have to have a drop box on your site where people could upload them to your server and then you would have to link to them on your site. Giving people permission to upload stuff is not so good as you have no control over the content - only the file type.

Reply

Answer 7

Chuka Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 20, 2010 9:28 PM in response to Old Toad

Hello Old Toad (coolest name ever). Thanks so much for the Wufoo link! It was very helpful and I just used the Snippet they have for my +Contact Us+ form. Now I have the form set up, how do I make it so that when a user fills the form and hits "Submit Comments" button, the email is sent to me? The email address I have set up on the iWeb system is my personal email, which is where I want the comments sent to. How do I make it such that the Submit button is directly connected to me email?

Reply

Answer 8

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,488 points

Jun 21, 2010 12:37 AM in response to Chuka

As you made the form at Wufoo, you need to go back to Wufoo and alter your settings there. You can choose various form options there so you need to alter it there.

Reply

Answer 9

Old Toad

Level 10

215,718 points

Jun 21, 2010 12:25 PM in response to Chuka

Go to your Account page at Wufoo as Ethmoid pointed out and change your email address there.

Reply

Answer 10

Chuka Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 23, 2010 4:51 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks Old Toad. One other thing I was wondering if it was possible was whether I can display a portion of one of my iWeb web pages on another iWeb page, i.e. if I have a bunch of RSS feeds on one page, and I wish to display just the headers of those feeds on another page of mine, so that if the users click on that portion of the feed, it takes them to the web page it's linked to (and not to the RSS Feed Provider's site). I hope this makes sense - so basically, if you have "My Uncle is Rich" on one page, and you want to display the "My" of that sentence on another page, so that if I click on the "My" it'll take me to the location where the full sentence is, how would you do this? This is more than just hyper-linking to the page, as the feeds are constantly updated and I wanted the link/header to reflect the updates and not be static. Please let me know.

Reply

Answer 11

Chuka Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 24, 2010 5:36 PM in response to Old Toad

Oh, and for Ethmoid and Old toad, I just realized that the Wuffoo form link out of my site to a wuffoo page...but is there any way i can have the form on my site?

Reply

Answer 12

Roddy

Level 6

17,265 points

Jun 24, 2010 6:00 PM in response to Chuka

You need to publish your site to a server other than MobileMe and upload a PHP script for processing the form info. Not as hard as it sounds.

Reply

Answer 13

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,488 points

Jun 24, 2010 11:56 PM in response to Chuka

When you have finished your form at Wufoo, you will see that there are various options available to you about how to use the form in your site - you obviously chose the link option from Wufoo, which is not what you want.

You need to choose the embed option that is available and copy and paste that code into an html snippet on your site and click apply and the form will then be embeded within your site.

Reply

Answer 14

Chuka Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 27, 2010 1:37 AM in response to Roddy

Hi Roddy/Ethmoid/Old Toad,

Here's a new inquiry/question: I was wondering if it was possible was whether I can display a portion of one of my iWeb web pages on another iWeb page, i.e. if I have a bunch of RSS feeds on one page, and I wish to display just the headers of those feeds on another page of mine, so that if the users click on that portion of the feed, it takes them to the web page it's linked to (and not to the RSS Feed Provider's site). I hope this makes sense - so basically, if you have "My Uncle is Rich" on one page, and you want to display the "My" of that sentence on another page, so that if I click on the "My" it'll take me to the location where the full sentence is, how would you do this? This is more than just hyper-linking to the page, as the feeds are constantly updated and I wanted the link/header to reflect the updates and not be static. Please let me know.

Reply

Answer 15

smokenaxs

Level 1

105 points

Jun 27, 2010 11:34 AM in response to Chuka

I have a form on my site using mobile me to host. Here is my form and the tutorials I used to get there. Pretty easy.

http://www.customdisney.com/customdisney/Contact_Us.html

as you can see, the form matches the style of the site. Nice aspect of this is the form entries are saved in a google spreadsheet doc.

http://www.morningcopy.com.au/tutorials/how-to-style-google-forms-redux/
http://www.maciverse.com/create-and-customize-forms-in-iweb.html

no need for woofoo or paid options

Cheers,
jy

Reply