inFORM v3 Input Object Reference

The form tag is used to tell your browser where to find the inFORM processor program. We offer 4 copies of inFORM. Which one you choose will depend upon what sort of security options you need for your submissions. The choices are:

• Normal inFORM -

  The user will submit your form through a normal web connection. Nothing will be done to verify the identity of the user.

  <form action="http://www.cgibin.ncsu.edu/cgi-bin/inform3">
• WRAP'ed inFORM -

  The submission will not be accepted unless the user has logged in with their Unity ID using the WRAP system. Users without Unity ID's will not be able to submit.

  If you chose to use this copy of inFORM, you should make sure that your form page is also protected by WRAP. Otherwise, the user may be redirected to login in the middle of the submission, and the submitted data will be lost.

  The values for the inform_userid, inform_email, and inform_realname tags will be set for you from the WRAP information.

  <form action="http://www.cgibin.ncsu.edu/cgi-bin/secure/inform3">
• SSL'ed inFORM -

  The user will submit your form through an SSL-encrypted web connection. The data that is sent will be encrypted before it is transmitted over the network. This allows you to protect submissions of sensitive data such as SSN's.

  Your form does not have to reside on an SSL-enabled server. The form can be presented over an unencrypted connection, but the submissions will still be encrypted when they are sent.

  You should also be aware that form data is emailled in the clear, so you should not expect to use this copy of inFORM for security if you are sending the results by email.

  <form action="https://www.cgibin.ncsu.edu/cgi-bin/inform3">
• SSL/WRAP'ed inFORM -

  The submissions will be protected by both SSL-encryption and WRAP-authentication as described above.

  <form action="https://www.cgibin.ncsu.edu/cgi-bin/secure/inform3">

This tag is only used when you have enabled the use JavaScript anti-spam keys option. In that case, this tag is required to insert the dynamically-generated key value into your form. Please review the Anti-Spam Settings document for more information.

Example usage:

This input object is required in every form that uses inFORM v3. It should be set to the 8-digit hexadecimal form ID code that you received when you registered your form in the database. This object is usually set with a hidden tag, since the user should not be able to easily read or set it.

Example usage:

This input object is used when you want to let the user select who your form submissions should be sent to by email. If you do not use this object, then your forms will be mailed to everyone on your allowed recipient list. If you do use this object, then the email will be sent only to the selected addresses. These addresses must be found in the allowed recipient list or the submission will fail.

If you have save to email turned off, then this object will be ignored.

Example usage:

This input object is used to request a unique ID from the user. inFORM will use this ID as part of the saved file name when you have enabled saving to files with the save file format option. inFORM will also use this ID to distinguish users when you select the one reply per user option.

If you choose to use the WRAP'ed copy of inFORM, then the inFORM processor will automatically set the value of this object to be the user's Unity ID as provided by WRAP. Any value set in your form code will be overwritten.

Example usage:

This input object is used to request an email address from the user. This address is used as the return address when the form results are sent by email. A copy of the email results will also be sent to this address when you select the copy to user option.

The address provided by the user will be checked to make sure it appears to be a valid email address. If a bad address is provided, the submission will be rejected.

If you have save to email turned off, then this object will be ignored and the contents will not be checked.

If you choose to use the WRAP'ed copy of inFORM, then the inFORM processor will automatically set the value of this object to be "UnityID@unity.ncsu.edu". Any value set in your form code will be overwritten.

Example usage:

This input object is used to request the user's name for your form. inFORM uses this name as a label on the return address when the form results are sent by email. The name is also added to the submission report that is sent by email or saved to a file.

If you choose to use the WRAP'ed copy of inFORM, then the inFORM processor will automatically set the value of this object to be the name found in our Hesiod database for the user. Any value set in your form code will be overwritten.

Example usage:

This input object is not expected to be found in your forms. It is set automatically by the inFORM processor when you enable the add time stamp option when you register your form.