Problem: Submit html web forms to FM database

[HalliEym]

Hi.

I'm new to FileMaker on the web and is searching for a FileMaker solution for the following problem.

I have a simple FileMaker database that stores members of an non-profit organization.

There is also a web site and there is a simple html form to register new members. That registration is currently sent as an email and typed into the database. The database is on a local FM7 client.

What options do I have to submit new members to the database with minimum cost?

Thanks for any help.

[Fenton]

You should tell us, who gets the email? Is it a dedicated email address, only for these forms? If so you could get a plug-in to get that email directly into FileMaker. Then it's just a matter of parsing the data from the form. Which you should do in any case. Typing it again is tedious at best.

If however, these emails come in mixed up with other emails, some of which don't even belong in FileMaker, then you've got more work to do. If they come in to a Mac computer, using either Mail or Entourage, you can, without a whole lot of trouble, create a Rule which can run an AppleScript, which can get the contents of the email and put it into FileMaker. It's requires a few steps, but it's doable.

I've had a little bit of trouble with emails that have different encodings, especially ones that have mixed up Quoted-printable, with HTML, etc.. These are mostly emails that have been forwarded back and forth between people. But maybe you'll be lucky and a simple "contents" will get your data.

You do have to do a "switcheroo" of the line endings coming from Mail to FileMaker.

The plug-in is by far your best bet, if it's a dedicated email address. Let us know.

[HalliEym]

Wow! I didn't think this would be that easy. A plug-in, of course!

I would then make it a dedicated email address, if it isn't already. This is on a Windows platform so I can't use AppleScript to send it to FileMaker. But doesn't the plug-in get the email from the mail server (using pop) or does it depend on an email application, like Outlook in this case?

Can you name the plug-in so I can search for it? Is there maybe more than one plug-in for this?

Thank you very much for this help.

[Fenton]

There are 2 (at least) plug-ins,

POP3-it Pro

http://www.cnsplug-ins.com/products.htm?product=pop3it%20pro

Dacons Mailit

http://www.dacons.net/fmplugins/mailit3/prodinfo/index.html

[HalliEym]

Thank you very much for the help.