Module: Contact Forms

Overview

The n-gen.net CMS provides two contact form implementations: contact.aspx and contactSimple.aspx. Both forms allow users to send messages via email, but they serve different purposes and have different feature sets.

Examples

This Contact example link will open the Contact Module's contact.aspx file in a new window/tab.

Below is an example of »Contact Module« in this page: The file contactSimple.aspx is running in an iFrame on this page.

Click to open the file contactSimple.aspx in a 640 x 480 px popup window...
Remember to allow popup windows from help.n-gen.net in your browser's setting if you want to see the example!

contact.aspx

Purpose

The primary contact form for registered users. It provides a full-featured experience with automatic user data population and integrated page header, navigation menu, site search and the page footer.

Features

a. Automatic User Data Population

• Name, email, and phone number are automatically filled from the user's account,
• Reduces typing errors and improves user experience,
• Only available for logged-in users (Level 1+).

b. Integrated Site Search

• Full search functionality similar to index.aspx,
• Searches pages, photos, documents, and media,
• Results displayed inline, replacing the contact form,
• Supports search operators: + (AND), ! (sentence search).

c. Admin Controls

• Ribbon control for site administrators (Level 4+),
• Quick edit links for pages,
• Admin Cube access.

d. Email Features

• User's email in Reply-To header (for easy replies),
• Optional "Copy to sender" feature,
• HTML email format,
• UTF-8 encoding support.

e. Spam Protection

• Full nospam.ascx control integration,
• Rate limiting (20/hour, 3/minute),
• Honeypot field,
• Time validation (3 seconds minimum),
• Interaction tracking,
• Duplicate detection (5-minute window),
• Advanced content filtering.

contactSimple.aspx

Purpose

a. No Authentication Required

• Anyone can use the form
• No login required
• Suitable for public-facing websites

b. No Search Functionality

• Search feature is not included
• Focus is on contact functionality only

c. Minimal Dependencies

• Self-contained HTML/CSS
• Works well in modals
• Works well in iframes
• Works well in popup windows

d. Copy to Sender

• Users can request a copy of their message
• Copy is sent as a separate email from your domain

e. Spam Protection

• Full nospam.ascx control integration
• Same protection as contact.aspx
• Configurable limits per form

Comparison Summary

Description
The »Contact Module« consists of four files, see left column.

Basically the Contact Module creates a form where the visitor must provide the following information:

• name,
• email address,
• phone number,
• the message itself.
• [Optionally the visitor can check a box to receive a copy of the message to the email address provided]

This form and mandatory information are the same in the contact.aspx and contactSimple.aspx versions. The difference is whether the form is displayed in a page window in an iFrame (contactSimple.aspx) or in a new window/tab (contact.aspx)

If you want the contact form to appear in a PopUp window it is recommended that you use contactSimple.aspx.
The result could be like this [the PopUp window is set to be 288px wide and 544px in height] or
the result could be like this [the PopUp window is set to be 750px wide and 360px in height].
The page you are viewing has a "Mobile Break Point" of 748 pixels.

Just remember that the user must allow your website to open PopUp windows. Most modern browser will block PopUp windows if you do not explicitly allow them.
Also remember that depending of the browser/OS on the visitors device, your font size, etc. the PopUp window might look a little different. For that reason you should allow the PopUp window to be re-sizeable and have scroll bars if necessary.

Usage and implementation

The Contact Module is included in all distributions of n-gen.net CMS [Foundation and Pro] for MySQL version as well as Microsoft SQL version.

n-gen.net CMS contains two variants of the »Contact Module«. The main differences between them are:

* By default the contactSimple.aspx is accessible to all visitors. But if you restrict access to a page with contactSimple.aspx running in an iFrame the iFrame will inherit the same restrictions as the parent page: You can restrict the contact form to only "Registered Users" or "Authenticated Users". Read more about User Levels and restrictions.

To insert a link to the »Contact Module«.

If you want to link to the »Contacts Module« as a full page simply set the link to contact.aspx as the target URL. You can decide from the Menu Dialog if the page should open in a new window/tab or the same window. If you choose to keep it in the current window remember to select the contact.aspx file as it displays the navigation menu.

If you want to insert a link to the »Contact Module« (contact.aspx) in your navigation menu you can simply select "External link" from the dropdown list and click the icon and select "Contact" from the PopUp window.