Some of the most common questions our mentor community is asked relate to Email Forms, aka Mailto Forms. These are HTML pages that include a form in which the site visitor can enter some information and send it via email to the intended recipient. There are several common uses for this type of form. They are often used as a feedback mechanism, whereby a visitor can send comments or suggestions about the site back to the webmaster. They are also used as a mechanism to capture data and send it off to a recipient at a remote location, bypassing the need for a database in or near the system where the site is being hosted. Webmasters come up with plenty of creative ways of using these forms, but increasingly over recent months, are also coming up against some problems.
The distinguishing characteristic of an email form is found in its "ACTION" statement in the <FORM> tag...
In the example on that page we see this "ACTION" statement:
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="mailto:your email address">
The "ACTION" in this example is a "mailto:" with an email address. It is this which defines this form as an email form.
The problem arises because modern browsers, IE6 + and equivalent, no longer support email forms! The effect of this is that the visitor fills out the form and clicks the submit button and their email client program is invoked showing a blank email with the specified address in the "To" field. All information entered on the form appears to have been ignored. Essentially, these browsers are treating the email form as if it was a simple "Mailto" email link
