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E-Mail Uploads, Page Preloading, And Some Scripts You Won't See
By David Fiedler and Scott Clark
Dear Dr. Website: I'm trying to set up a mail form that sends an attached file using "input type file". It seems to work properly, but when I go and try to see the file that was attached, I get an error message unless I am sending a ASCII file. Usually the file's size is different also. The point is: I would like to send an image in this form. Is there some way I can do that?
Most people are familiar with setting up email via HTML forms, but when you start attaching files, things get more complicated.
In fact, even just email can get complicated with the problem that Windows-based PCs use two characters at the end of each line, while Unix servers use just one. One easy way to fix that is to add the code
to your mail script in theENCTYPE="text/plain"<form METHOD="POST" ACTION="mailto:yourname@yoursite.com">tag.The easiest way for you to upload files is to visit this page on ScriptSearch, which will provide you with many scripts that allow a user to upload a file of any type, including images.
Dear Dr. Website: I'm looking for a script that bookmarks the page when the visitor clicks a special bookmark button.
If you can find it, let us know...we know lots of folks that are looking for such a script, along with the mysterious and semi-mythical "easy watermark on Netscape" script, the "don’t let people download my GIF files" code, and the "let people send me email from my page without letting spammers pick up the address but without using CGI" tag. In other words, we wish it was possible too (with both browsers even more)!
Dear Dr. Website: How can I make make a Web page that is accessible and best viewed by both Netscape and Internet Explorer?
The question of the year (and every year)! Best to KISS your site (Keep It Simple, Stupid), using dynamic effects only when there is another method for non 4+ browsers, and Java and frames only when they are really needed. Don't rely on techniques that only work on one browser, and remember that content is king and presentation is secondary.
Dear Dr. Website: How can I load a page to wait while the home page is loading like on the site www.business-village.com?
You can use one of several Java applets on your main page which pre-load or "fetch" the subordinate pages of your site. There are a couple such applets available on the Java Boutique in the Utility applets section.
The page you mentioned, however, simply re-uses some graphics on most of its pages, and most subordinate pages are largely ASCII text, which loads quickly. Additionally, they pre-load some of the images used in the mouseover effects on the main page, and that also makes the page appear to load fast. Also, the larger image is broken down into several smaller images, decreasing the apparent download time. These folks have done a nice job! You might look into tools like Macromedia’s Dreamweaver (which specializes in mouseovers and preloading images) and Fireworks (which helps you "slice and dice" images for faster loading).
Dear Dr. Website: I maintain a Web site for a small, international company. The site has been developed in Microsoft FrontPage. The text is currently all in English. What would it entail to also have the site display in Japanese? We have a source for doing the text translation, but what about displaying the proper character sets, effects on page layout, etc.? Are there any tools that work with FrontPage that can help?
If you already have the text translated, you can place it on the page and those who are already using a Japanese browser will see the characters correctly. There is also software available which translates the page on the fly, and translation services which allow a user to view any URL (or text) in a different language. Your present task will be choosing which method to use.
If you do it yourself manually, realize that this will be an ongoing task each time you update or add to your site. You might check out the Universal Translator Deluxe as they claim to do 33 languages for $99!
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Last modified: Wed Sep 22 06:06:44 EDT 1999
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