in reply to Hand-rolled CGI mailto

Is this your entire script? I can't see you initializing $formdata anywhere, so there is nothing stored in it. try putting use strict at the top of your script, well as the second line.
You need to use something to collect the data from your form. Everyone around here recommends cgi.pm
Here is a quick example. The documentation is included with the standard perl distribution.
use strict;
use cgi;

my $query = new CGI;

my $email = $query->param('email');

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You can then go onto use the value of $email in your script. It should contain the data in the field named "email" when submitted to your script. Repeat for all paramaters you are interested in. Hope this helps.
Regards,

Gerard

Update: I obviously spent too long typing this... seems b10m bet me to most of the info.

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Re: Re: Hand-rolled CGI mailto
by prowebdesigner (Initiate) on Dec 17, 2003 at 03:08 UTC

    Obviously I'm extremely new to Perl & CGI. Your PATIENCE and WILLINGNESS to help me learn here will never be forgotten. (O.K...'nuf groveling) I'm really trying to understand something. My basic "Contact Us" form is an .html document; so I need one .PL file to give it "action"; AND one cgi.pm file to "collect" the data from the form???(I'm 30 years old and just starting with Perl/CGI so I really appreciate the time you're taking here)

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      No problem, cgi.pm - the pm part stands for perl module, and in this case it is a standard module. This means that it should be installed already on the machine that has perl on it.
      In some cases references will be made to non-standard modules, but this particular case you don't need to worry too much. Just put use cgi; at the top of your code and the perl interpreter will know where to look for it.

      If you are interested, there are plenty of nodes on installing modules etc, right here at the monastery.

      Hope this helps, Gerard.
      Update: in short, yes you do need both files, but you should already have cgi.pm there.
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[d/l]
        Greatly appreciated! That answers a lot of questions. I've spent hours upon hours diving head first into Perl with online tutorials, books, etc, so needless to say, my head is spinning! Sometimes you just need a forum to straighten out a few questions that arise.

        By the way, I got that form to "POST" the visitors info. in my email. I also copied the OVID CGI lesson you all recommended and already see how it will clarify many more questions. THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING!!!! (sorry 'bout the caps)

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