Custom Confirmation

Section 1 - Identify Your Group Name and Form Fields
 

When creating form components in FrontPage, a default confirmation form is given when a form is submitted. It's ugly and displays the form results through the browser in a default format. YUK!!!  (that's a technical term). It's so easy to create your own that give the same results and you can customize the page to match your site once you know how. If you already have a form created and the group name/form fields identified, please skip to Section 2 below.

Your first step is to identify the form fields that you want to display on your custom confirmation form. For example, when creating a FrontPage generated form, if you ask a question for a poll, each of the form fields should have the same group name for each selection and the value you input into each radio buttons should have the same  name as the selection (choice).

In our example, each radio button has a group name of 'favoriteeditor' and each value is the same as the answer shown on the poll. Right click on each radio button and make sure the group name is the same for all choices to the same question and that the values match the choices you've given.

Half of your work is done. Now create a new page using a template or design one to match your site. This will be your custom confirmation form that will replace the default.

 

Section 2 - The Custom Form

In our example below, we state the information that was submitted, show the question, then insert the confirmation field that will display the user's selection in our form. To put the user's selection in the page, select 'Insert | Component | Confirmation Field' from the drop down menu in FrontPage 2000 and enter the name of the form field to confirm. In FP 2002-2003 choose 'Web Component | Advanced Controls | Confirmation Field'. In our example it is called 'favoriteeditor'. Hit 'OK' and the component appears on your page.

Use the 'save as' command to name and save your new page and then close it. Now you're ready to tell the original form to display your new confirmation form with the selected results when a user submits to the poll.

Right click on the poll (or your original form), select 'Form Properties | Options | Confirmation Page' and hit the 'browse' button and navigate to your new custom confirmation page and select it. Hit 'OK' exiting the boxes. Use the 'save as' command to save your changes and then publish them to your site.

Now you can test the form to make sure it's working right and looks exactly the way you want it to. Wasn't that easy? You can now customize all your confirmation forms to match your site for each form you create with FrontPage and never use the default confirmations again!

Challenge: Try creating a custom confirmation form to display a user's input name field into it. You can personalize your confirmation forms to add a personal touch.