PRIME CHOICE
Setting Up A Secure Form

We now have a dedicated secure server, running the excellent Sioux httpd software (based on Apache). This server has a full Verisign certificate and has full 128 bit encryption on the server side (not the export-level 40 bit software - note that most browsers currently only support 40 bit encryption so will not be able to make full use of this feature, at least until the US Government decides that RSA encryption algorithms are not munitions like guns...)

There is no access to the secure server via telnet, ftp, or FrontPage Explorer.

Coming soon, by popular request: you will be able to place your order form on the secure server, to give your customers the added reassurance of a secure order form.

To set up your order form:

Remember to replace "primechoice", "yourdirectory", "yourcom.com", "whatever.html" with actual real filenames and directory names, and that access to the secure server requires https://...!

Once we have set you up with an account, you can have your order form POST to the secure order form CGI at: https://secure.securesys.com/cgi-bin/yourdirectory/order.cgi. A sample form that posts to our area on the server is here. You can have a look at the sample orders here. Use guest for signon and guest for password.

The CGI on the secure server is based on Matt's excellent formmail.cgi script.

To get the CGI to redirect to a new page when the order has been submitted (rather than displaying the default thank-you page), put a field in your form like:

<input type=hidden name=redirect value="http://www.yourcom.com/whatever.html">

To notify someone by e-mail when an order is submitted (good idea!) then the redirect URL above should be changed to something like:

http://www.yourcom.com/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi?recipient=whoever@
somewhere.com&subject=OrderSubmitted

(this is all one line with no breaks)

Note that there is no formmail.cgi on the secure server, and the secure server is not running mail server software for security reasons.

After notifying someone that an order has been sent, you could redirect to your own page, in which case the redirect URL above should be:

http://www.yourcom.com/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi?recipient=whoever@wherever
.com&subject=OrderSubmitted&redirect=http://www.yourcom.com/whatever.html

You may not be able to use FrontPage to create the form to post to the secure server because of the restricted way FrontPage lets you add your own HTML. The best way to create a form to post is using an ordinary text editor, or another HTML editor that lets you add your own HTML easily.

Access to the secure server will be slower than access to your usual pages because the server, and your browser, has to encrypt and decrypt information before it gets sent across the network.

To retrieve your orders

Go to

https://secure.securesys.com/cgi-bin/yourdirectory/restricted/index.html

(replace yourdirectory with the name of your directory on the secure server!)

You will be asked for your username and password to access this directory. Here you can either:

• view your current orders
• •reset your order file

Please view your orders before resetting, as there is no way to get them back!

The order file is plain text with name/value pairs to assist pasting into database applications etc.

Here is documentation on the "sort" field to have the fields of the order sorted the way you like.

The sort field allows you to choose the order in which you wish for your variables to appear in the e-mail that FormMail generates. You can choose to have the fields sorted alphabetically or specify a set order in which you want the fields to appear in your mail message. By leaving this field out, the order will simply default to the order in which the browsers sends the information to the script (which is usually the exact same order as they appeared in the form.) When sorting by a set order of fields, you should include the phrase "order:" as the first part of your value for the sort field, and then follow that with the field names you want to be listed in the e-mail message, separated by commas.

Syntax: To sort alphabetically:

<input type=hidden name="sort" value="alphabetic">

To sort by a set field order:

<input type=hidden name="sort" value="order:name1,name2,etc...">

NB: We have had requests for customers to place order forms on the secure server too, as they believe their customers will not trust a non-secure order form posting to a secure web server. We appreciate this and are working on the next version of our software which will allow one order form to be placed on the secure server.

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