A template is simply a file.  It can be used to format your emails and responses in any way you choose. Templates are supplied with the software or you can create your own with your favorite HTML editor, notepad or even Microsoft Word.

A template can be an HTML file or a plain text file. Within the template you have static information that you wish to display but you can also include dynamic information. Dynamic information is the information entered on your form

To distinguish dynamic information you include this in your template file:

[xxxxxxx]

The brackets say that this is dynamic information.

The xxxxxxx is the field name from your form.

A sample template is included. The file name is testtemplate.txt and testrespondertemplate.txt.

TestTemplate.txt

In the example template you will see that is a combination of plain text and items within brackets [].  The items with brackets will have their values substituted when the form data is entered.

Advanced Form Handling Sample Template
Any fields in the form can be used
Firstname: [Firstname]
Lastname: [Lastname]
State: [State]
Address: [Address]
Address2: [Address2]
City: [City]
Postcode: [Postcode]
Country: [Country]
Phone: [Phone]
Email: [Email]
Comment: [comment]

Creating a template - afhgeneratetemplate.asp

A template can be created using your favorite text editor. If you have a large form, remember all the field names may be tedious. To help, a program called  afhgeneratetemplate.asp is provided. To use it edit your form and replace the action value with the file name as in the example:

<form name=testform method=Post action=afhgeneratetemplate.asp>

Now simply press the submit button on your form and a basic template with you field names will be created on the browser. Use this as the starting point in creating a customized email template for the form.

Using the template

In the form configuration, either as a hidden field on the the form configuration file set

<input type=hidden name="config_emailtemplate" value="mynewmailing.txt">

and

<input type=hidden name="config_emailrespondertemplate" value="sendtoresponder.txt">

Formatting within Templates

Sometimes fields should be specially formatted. For example currency or dates. In that case some of the place holders can have information about their formatting.  There are more formatting described in the User's Guide.