ezContact
User Guide


 Getting Started

Using ezContact is easy. Everything is accomplished while on the internet using the ezContact main admin menu.

To get to your admin menu, enter

http://www.yoursitename.com/cgi-bin/ezcontact.pl

Be sure to replace 'yoursitename' with the URL of your web site. And cgi-bin with the actual location of your cgi folder.

When you enter this address while on the internet, you will see the admin password box as follows:

Password screen

To start ezContact enter your password and user name. When first running ezContact, the default user name is test and the password is test. (Be sure to change these the first time you run the program to keep others from having access to your ezContact form settings.)

Be sure not to forget your password. If you do, the only way to recover is to contact us so we can reload the default password file.

Admin Menu

You can do everything in ezContact from the main menu, which looks like:

Main Menu

Performing any task is as simple as clicking on it's button.

Note that the main menu always shows you the site that ezContact is installed on, and the email address that contact messages are being sent to. If you wish to change these settings, do so in the Change Settings menu option.

Changing ezContact Settings

The ezContact system settings provide you the ability to quickly and easily change almost all the elements of your contact form, and the way your contact system works with your customers.

To change the settings, select the 'Change Settings' button from the main menu, and you will see the following screen:

Settings screen

Here are the different settings options and what you can do with them:

  • Base Directory - this is the physical server path for your site. The only time you would want to change this is if you change hosting services.

  • Base URL - this is your site address (ie http://www.ezContact.com)

  • CGI Library - this is the address on your hosting service where your cgi programs are run from. The only time you will want to change this is if you change hosting services.

  • Mail Program - this is the location on your hosting service where your mail program is located. Almost always /usr/lib/sendmail

  • Mail Contact To - this is the email address you want contact messages to be emailed to. Almost always your own email address.

  • Contact Page Name - the name of the contact page on your site. The default is ezcontact.html. If you change the page name, make sure it includes the html code generated by ezcontact to operate. (This would be the html code between the '' and '' in the ezcontact.html page.)

  • Link Back URL - this is the address you want the customer to be able to return to after the message is sent.

  • Link Back Phrase - this is the phrase or location you want to be associated with the link back url defined above.

To apply these changes, click the 'Change ezContact Settings' button.

Since these changes affect your contact form, it is always a good idea to test the changes by trying out the contact form to sending yourself a message to see the results.

 


 Changing Admin Password

Changing the ezContact password is a simple process. To change the password, select the 'Change Password' button from the main menu, and you will see the following screen:

change password

Enter the information as requested, and press the 'Change Password' button.

Notes on Passwords:

  1. Never name the user name and password the same.

  2. Don't forget your password - if you do, the only recourse is to reload the password file from the original install.

  3. Don't share your password - doing so will allow others to change your ezContact system in ways you may not like!

 


 View Contact Form

Any time you wish to view your contact form click the 'View Contact Form' button, and you will see your contact form.

The basic contact form looks like:

To return to admin menu after viewing the contact form, use your browser's back button.


 Adding the Contact Form to Pages on your web site

To add a link to the contact form to any web page, add the following link:

<a href="http://www.sitename.com/ezcontact.html">Contact Us</a>

In the above example, replace 'www.sitename.com' with the address of your web site.

The contact form created by ezContact is always named 'ezcontact.html' and stored in the main folder of your web site.

 

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