How do I use a "form handler" in conjunction with a form that I build (of my own) on Dreamweaver?

Question

I am most confused about the "action" part. In a tutorial book that I have, it says, "In the Action text box, ( in the property inspector after I have selected the form in my document window) type the URL of the GCI or other script that will be processing the form.

What is a GCI? And how do I get this URL. My ISP only gave me an example. As you see below.

This is the "sample" code I was sent by my ISP. What does the "action" line referr to here. I know it's just an example but I am lost.

Please, help. I just need someone to talk to me in plain English.

Thank you.

Answer 1

CGI stands for common gateway interface. It provides communication between the web browser and scripts that run on the web server. These scripts are called CGI scripts. They're often written in Perl, but can be any sort of executable file. You are responsible for providing the script. On a typical Apache server, you upload the script to your cgi-bin directory and make it executable.

Your ISP may have provided you with some scripts that you can use. You may have to edit them to suit your purposes. A popular alternative to Perl is php. There are many Perl and php scripts available online that you can adapt without having to know a lot about programming.

Answer 2

The action URL would refer to a specific script file that processes the information from the form. The script could process the information by saving it in a mysql database or using the webhost to email the information to a specific address.