Can I put Contacts form into Index page?

[ksneoh]

In the video tutorial, an example is shown of a "Contact Us" form, for the visitor to fill in his/her name, email address, etc., and then the page is saved with a .php extension.

Question : can this kind of form be inserted into my Home Page, which is supposed to have a URL that looks like www.mydomain.com/index.html ? Or will this page need to be changed to something like www.mydomain.com/index.php ?

What are the tricks and snares ?

Thanks,
ksneoh@crystalimage-lcd.com
www.crystalimage-lcd.com

[Andy128]

Re: Can I put Contacts form into Index page?

If you have not built your site yet.......then the index extension can be .php. But if you have already built it and it has been on the internet for a while- it will cause your ranking on the search engines to start over.

There are no tricks or snares above that. IF I had it to do all over, I would have started my index page as .php.

Andy

[ksneoh]

Re: Can I put Contacts form into Index page?

Many thanks,Andy.

I would appreciate further clarification on some related "issues" :-

(1) So, what are the pros and cons when using .php versus .html extensions ? BV seems to be advocating .html throughout; the php was only used when doing up Forms. Why is this so ?

(2) I have also seen the webpages of other people; the pages have extensions like .htm, .php, and even .asp ... what are the differences ?

(3) Does it mean that if I use .php for my index page, then all other pages need to have .php ? Or let others remain with .html ?

(4) Under BV Page Properties, we can set the page as HMTL or PHP. Somewhere in the tutorials, we hear that the extension .html for each page is automatically appended when we publish. For example a page named as "products" will become www.mydomain.com/products.html. The question is : if that page property has been set to PHP, will that published page show up as www.mydomain.com/products.php or will it still be www.mydomain.com/products.html or worst still will it crash ?

4th question sounds silly. But a clarification would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again for your patience in bearing with me,
ksneoh@crystalimage-lcd.com
www.crystalimage-lcd.com

[navaldesign]

Re: Can I put Contacts form into Index page?

Many thanks,Andy.

I would appreciate further clarification on some related "issues" :-

(1) So, what are the pros and cons when using .php versus .html extensions ? BV seems to be advocating .html throughout; the php was only used when doing up Forms. Why is this so ?

BV is a html generator, it creates static pages, and for these, html is enough. Interactivity between the user and the website requires dynamic behaviour, that can only be achieved addin to the page some scripting (usually in Javascript or php, since VH doesn't support ASP). Now, for a page that contains php code to work, it must be published with a php extension.

Javascript instead may be included in both html and php pages with no problems at all.

Publishing your pages as php may save you from problems in the future, if you want to add php code in them.

(2) I have also seen the webpages of other people; the pages have extensions like .htm, .php, and even .asp ... what are the differences ?

As i said, php is a page that contains php code. htm is the same as html, asp = active server pages. This is another (similar but not the same) programming language that allows dynamic intercative pages.

(3) Does it mean that if I use .php for my index page, then all other pages need to have .php ? Or let others remain with .html ?

Every page can be on its own (that is, either php or html) as long as you link them correctly in your menubars. If you don't intend to embedd php code, there in no reason to make your pages php unless, as i said, you want to have the possibility of doing so in the future.

(4) Under BV Page Properties, we can set the page as HMTL or PHP. Somewhere in the tutorials, we hear that the extension .html for each page is automatically appended when we publish. For example a page named as "products" will become www.mydomain.com/products.html. The question is : if that page property has been set to PHP, will that published page show up as www.mydomain.com/products.php or will it still be www.mydomain.com/products.html or worst still will it crash ?

A "products" page where you have set the extension to be php will be published as products.php