No experience in web design and needing help

[ariarteau]

Hi Guys,

I have absolutely no experience about web design and HTML ( Well, I do have a basic knowledge in HTML, like center stuff, change background color, put paragraph, etc. (Newbies' stuff)). I was still able to create a website (looking pretty basic but does the job!)

I'm hosting it into my dropbox.

I need some HTML brains to help me. I want to create a form that people will use to contact about one of my product they're interested in. They fill up the form and when they press on submit (or "Envoyer" by the fact my website's in French) it is sent automatically to me by email, telling me all the information they've given. I want this email to be sent from theirs, so I would just need to click on "reply" to reply to their email address. You understand what I mean ? (It would also be great if they could include a picture file in the form they would send me, but if it makes the stuff too difficult, let's just forget it)

I'm really sorry for my inexperience in this stuff, but I would really like help from you guys.

Thanks a lot

[jessica.]

I sort of think you'd be better off using one of those WYSIWYG editors or a template that you can download from the web; some are free and some are fee-based.

[ariarteau]

The problem is that most of these websites gives you a PHP file, and I've got no idea how, first, to integrate it into a HTML code and, second, make the PHP work by hosting in DropBox.

Do you have any suggestion of website that could help me ?

Thanks

[designs216]

If you're early in the development process, look at implementing WordPress site wide. WP makes things like this very easy. Many of the hosting services will even automate the install for you. I don't find it to be very easy to deploy WP manually to existing sites.

If you want to stick with HTM, I would head over to WebMonkey and check out their tutorials on building forms.

[-pete-]

Quick note: You can't "host" websites on dropbox, yes you can store files there but no one else will be able to access them. You will need You may want to sign up for a hosting package and maybe a domain name if you want one. Someone like hostgator can get you started with a basic package, they also offer one click installs for Content Management Systems such as WordPress, that might be easier to use than trying to put together a form yourself.

There are alot of tutorials out there to get you started on PHP, I have used the lynda.com PHP tutorials in the past but this will cost money, as a free alternative you could check out the University of Reddit's Programming in PHP course

[Mal]

Originally Posted by -pete-

Quick note: You can't "host" websites on dropbox, yes you can store files there but no one else will be able to access them.

This isn't technically true. There is limited hosting ability. As an example, check out FLMUG.com. It's entirely hosted on Dropbox, with the domain name just set to forward to the Public folder on the Dropbox account set up for that. Any HTML files in the Public folder, along with linked images, can display just fine. The trick is that you can't have much, if any, folder hierarchy and of course PHP and other server-side functions don't work. It does have some potential for very simple sites, however.

jW

[shootingrubber]

Originally Posted by -pete-

Quick note: You can't "host" websites on dropbox, yes you can store files there but no one else will be able to access them.

That's not true at all (unless it has changed recently). I have set up a site on Dropbox as a test server to show a client before.

Anyways, for what the OP is asking it's pretty simple if you know basic PHP. Put a form on the page and process the form data in a simple PHP script, then send the data with PHP's built in mail function, or use a library like SwiftMailer (which I would recommend).