Chapter 13: Tell-a-Friend System 467 Copy the information (Cpanel web hosting)
Chapter 13: Tell-a-Friend System 467 Copy the information given in the textarea box; you need this for your actual HTML Tell-a-Friend form. The form action of your HTML Tell-a-Friend form has to be exactly as shown in this screen. Also, the hidden field set stores the formid needed in your form. Each Tell-a-Friend form must include . A valid form action that points to the Tell-a-Friend form processor application. . A hidden field that has the formid assigned during form setup. . An originator e-mail field. Typically, this will be a hidden field if the form is used in an e-mail campaign. It can be an input field as well if you want the user to enter his e-mail address or your e-mail campaign software cannot customize a message with e-mail fields. I ve provided two sample Tell-a-Friend forms in the taf directory. You can modify these forms to fit your requirements. For example, say you want to use sample_taf_form1.html in an e-mail campaign where the message will embed this form. In this case, you need to make sure that the following hidden field is set up correctly: Change the value to a personalization tag that your e-mail campaign software will replace with the e-mail address of the person who is receiving the campaign. For example: If your campaign software will personalize the message where {EMAIL} will be replaced with the e-mail address of the recipient of the campaign, then you can use this tag. For testing purposes, you can hardcode this value to your own e-mail address for now. After you have the messages and form set up, you re ready to test the Tell-a- Friend system. Send the Tell-a-Friend form via e-mail to yourself or use your web browser to load it on your browser. Figure 13-7 is a Tell-a-Friend form received by a user as part of an e-mail campaign. When the user fills out the form and clicks on the button to submit, she will be entering the friends into the Tell-a-Friend system. The friends she enters will receive an e-mail message that introduces the product or service to them. Such a message can look like the one shown in Figure 13-8. Remember: This message is created using the taf/apps/templates/ taf_frnd_msg.html file and the message body contents you entered via the message manager application. If the friend decides to subscribe, she can click on the subscription link; or she can choose to remove herself from any mailing in the future. By default, you should never include any of the friends who do not respond either way in any future mailing.