Member Avatar for erinewold

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone could help me. I had an HTML web form posted and it was working fine. Then they changed the filters in the email server to block anything that doesn't have a "From" email address.

I'm using Dreamweaver 8. How do I make one of the fields in my form enter as the "From" address so I can get the mail through the spam filters? I'm sure it just has something to do with the code, but being a newbie with forms any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Erin

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reported a Dreamweaver 8 form built with only HTML/JavaScript and an Exchange server that now rejects messages missing a From header. is correct that client-side techniques are unreliable for sending mail headers; any robust solution requires a server-side mail sender. ’s ASP approach shows one way to set headers from server code, but there are important deliverability issues to consider before setting the From to an arbitrary user address.

Recommended approach: have the form submit to a server-side handler and send mail from a site-controlled address (for example, a webform@ or no-reply@ address on the site domain). Put the visitor’s email into the Reply-To header so replies go to the visitor while the visible From and the SMTP envelope come from an authorized domain. This avoids SPF/DKIM/DMARC failures and reduces the chance Exchange will drop or flag the message as spoofed. If the goal absolutely requires messages showing the visitor as the From address, the mail server must be configured to allow authenticated send-as for that address—which is an Exchange/admin-level change, not something reliably done from client-side code.

Practical next steps: confirm whether the form currently uses a client-side mailto or a server POST; if it’s client-only, replace it with server-side handling. Test by sending to a personal mailbox and inspecting the full message headers (verify From, Reply-To, and Return-Path). If Exchange rejects the messages, capture the NDR or SMTP error code and consult the Exchange admin about allowing relay from the webserver IP or configuring authenticated SMTP for the web app. If hosting or expertise is a limitation, consider using Dreamweaver’s server behaviors to produce a handler or a hosted form/transactional-email service to guarantee deliverability.

Cautions: do not impersonate users by setting arbitrary From addresses without proper authorization; that breaks modern sender policies and will often make messages undeliverable.

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Member Avatar for Member #114696

Well I use ASP to post messages. What I do is create a CDO object here's the code for that.

<%
Set myMail=CreateObject("CDO.Message")
myMail.Subject="Your Subject"
myMail.From="someone@somedomain.com"
myMail.To="you@yourdomain.com"
myMail.TextBody="Here goes the text"
myMail.Send
%>
Member Avatar for tgreer

The missing piece of information is the server-side language you're using. It would be better to post in the appropriate language-specific forum rather than the general HTML forum.

Member Avatar for Member #114696

Well, sorry for that, won't do that next time. Infact this is due to firefox, tabbed browsing, you open a large number of forums and when you read threads and reply u write something else. Again I apologize. I would start dreamweaver the moment I reach home and give appropriate answer.

Member Avatar for erinewold

Just a little more information.

I have the form created. I just need the text area that the user fills their email address into to automatically populate the "From" in the header of the email so we can reply to the form and the filter won't block it.

Thank you,

Erin

Member Avatar for tgreer

Again, which server-side language are you using to process the form and generate the email?

Member Avatar for erinewold

I believe that it's just HTML. The current form is just HTML and JavaScript, and the email server is a Microsoft Exchange Server.

Member Avatar for tgreer

If you're only using HTML and JavaScript, then you aren't doing things in a standard way. The methods that do work (such as setting the action tag of your form to "mailto:") are highly dependent on specific browsers, operating systems, and email clients. If you've jury-rigged something together that works, more power to you, but it's going to be extremely hard for anyone else to test or help.

Typically, form results are delivered to a web server application via a POST. The application process the results and performs any variety of actions, including sending the results via SMTP to an email address. Thus the assumption and repeated question of "which server-side language are you using?".

Again, there isn't any standardized "client-only" method of emailing form results.

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