How to connect and send data to FormMail?

[D R Wilkinson]

Hello,

I am writing an application that has a JDialog which allows the user to send me their requests for new features.

I have created the JDialog and the required fields etc but I do not understand how I can connect to a copy of formmail and send it the data for processing.

I understand the formmail side of things. Can anyone help?

I have supplied the 'Send' JButton ActionListener code as this is where I intend implementing this functionality. I suspect that this connection > data send > disconnection event maybe needs to run within its own thread but I am unsure if this is wise?

sendButton.addActionListener( new ActionListener() {
                
                public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent actionEvent ) {
                    
                    System.out.println( "BottomPanel.FeatureRequestPanel : sendButton.actionPerformed()" );    
                    JButton button = ( JButton ) actionEvent.getSource();
                    MyDialog myDialog = ( MyDialog ) button.getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent();
                    
                    try {
                        
                        System.out.println( "TODO : Collect user supplied data." );
                        System.out.println( "TODO : Connect to formmail." );
                        System.out.println( "TODO : Send data." );
                        System.out.println( "TODO : Disconnect from formmail" );
                        
                        myDialog.dispose();
                        
                    } catch ( Exception e ) {
                        
                        // Will need HTTP specific Exceptions.
                        
                        System.out.println( "ERROR : Could not send data." );
                        
                    }
                    
                }
                
            } );

Not strictly on topic but... you will notice a chain of getParent() calls. This works but can't be right. How do I find the root parent?

Thank you for reading this.
[ January 17, 2006: Message edited by: D R Wilkinson ]

[Paul Clapham]

When I googled for "formmail", it appears there are several products of that name, but they all convert HTML forms into e-mail in some way. Or maybe those are all versions of the same thing, I couldn't really tell.

Anyway, if it's a URL where you post a form to, then you create a URL object and connect to it. Here's a tutorial about how to do that:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/networking/

[Joe Ess]

As for your other question, to get the Container of a Component, use javax.swing.SwingUtilities.getRoot() or javax.swing.SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor().

[D R Wilkinson]

Thank you both for your help.

I will post the thread or not in the Thread forum.

[D R Wilkinson]

Again - thanks for your help.

I have read the suggested tutorial and I have set up a free formmail account at FormMail.

I have written the following code and I get an 'ok' response but no email with the form data. I have posted a request for support at FormMail but I thought someone here may know where I am going wrong.

sendButton.addActionListener( new ActionListener() {
                
                public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent actionEvent ) {
                    
                    System.out.println( "BottomPanel.FeatureRequestPanel : sendButton.actionPerformed()" );    
                    JButton button = ( JButton ) actionEvent.getSource();
                    MyDialog myDialog = ( MyDialog ) SwingUtilities.getRoot( button );
                    
                    String pid = "74639";
                    String fid = "G5ET34JD";
                    String recipient = "[e-mail]";
                    String userName = "Darren Wilkinson";
                    String userEmail = "[e-mail]";
                    String feature = "I want it to think for me.";
                    
                    try {
                        
                        // set up the uri according to the action attribute
                        URL url = new URL( "http://fp1.formmail.com/cgi-bin/fm666" );
                        HttpURLConnection c = ( HttpURLConnection ) url.openConnection();
                        c.setDoOutput( true );
 
                        PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter( c.getOutputStream() );
                        
                        out.println( "type=" + "hidden" );
                        out.println( "name=" + "_pid" );
                        out.println( "value=" + pid );
                        
                        out.println( "type=" + "hidden" );
                        out.println( "name=" + "_fid" );
                        out.println( "value=" + fid );
                        
                        out.println( "type=" + "hidden" );
                        out.println( "name=" + "recipient" );
                        out.println( "value=" + recipient );
                        
                        out.println( "type=" + "text" );
                        out.println( "name=" + "userName" );
                        out.println( "value=" + userName );
                        
                        out.println( "type=" + "text" );
                        out.println( "name=" + "userEmail" );
                        out.println( "value=" + userEmail );
                        
                        out.println( "type=" + "text" );
                        out.println( "feature=" + "feature" );
                        out.println( "value=" + feature );
                        
                        out.close();                        
                        
                        System.out.println( c.getResponseMessage() );
                        
                        myDialog.dispose();
                        
                    } catch ( MalformedURLException e ) {
                        
                        System.out.println( e );
                        
                    } catch ( IOException e ) {
                        
                        System.out.println( e );
                        
                    }
                    
                }
                
            } );

Note : I have changed some of the FormMail account specific information and email addresses to bogus values to protect the account and my email addresses. I know the real values are correct. I suspect the fault lies within my code.

[Paul Clapham]

I had a quick look through their (tiny) FAQ. It doesn't answer your question specifically but it does have an example where it mentions that you should connect to their service using the POST method. You don't seem to be doing that. Check out the setRequestMethod() method of HttpURLConnection.

[D R Wilkinson]

I received this from Matt at FormMail

Hi Darren,

We're not too familiar with Java here, but there is no reason that if you can
make a web request and submit a form, that it shouldn't work for you. Can
you retrieve the response from formmail.com and see what error it is giving
you? Are you posting to the correct URL and submitting the necessary hidden
fields?

Matt Wright
FormMail.com

I have used the following to try to get a response from the server and 'ok' and 'null' are returned.

    System.out.println( c.getResponseMessage() );
    System.out.println( c.getErrorStream() );

I would like to be able to explain precisely what the out.println() statements are sending to the FormMail server but I am not sure.

I think they are sending Strings one after another...

"type=hidden"
"name=_pid"
"value=74639"

... and so on.

Maybe this is the problem? How can I explain to Matt ( not a java progger ) what is being sent to his server by my code so that he can tell me if I am sending the correct information in the correct way?

Thanks for your help so far.

[Joe Ess]

There's a lot to understand and correct in your code. First, it may be instructive for you to read the InputStream from the HttpURLConnection after you send your data. HTTP is a request-response protocol, so reading the response is fulfilling part of the contract, not to mention you may get useful information, like error messages, from the response.
Second, you are sending a lot of unnecessary information. The format of an input field on an HTML page (i.e. <input type=hidden name="subject" value="Your Subject"> ) contains a lot of information about how to display (or not to display) fields to the user. This information does not get passed back in the POST request. Only a series of name-value pairs get passed back (i.e. subject=Your Subject). The name-value pairs are seperated by '&'. Have a look at this example from the Java Almanac.
Third, note in the above example that the value part of the name-value pairs can contain characters which are recognized as HTTP control characters (i.e. space, '=' and so on), so they need to be encoded using URLEncoder.
Those changes should get you a little closer to your goal.