[BioHazard90]

I've created a blog on Blogspot, which incorporates an email contact form. Isn't there any way to have it send messages directly to my email address without paying a 3rd party for the service? If so, exactly how do I write the part of the HTML code that pertains to my email address? Or can't this be done without revealing my email address to spam-bots, which would defeat the whole purpose of the contact form?

[Advertisements]

There is no provision in HTML to do what you want. HTML is purely a layout language, not a data processing language. It has no ability to "send" anything.

In a nutshell if you want anything more complicated than laying something out on a webpage, it will need to be processed by a script, either on the website itself or linked on another website.

You can put an email address in and link it as a "click here to mail me" type thing, but the only problem with this is it'll get harvested and you'll begin to receive spam.

One possible solution is something like this, in which you "munge" the email address. The mail works, you can click it and the user's mail client will be happy with it, but the spam bots can't see it.
http://www.addressmunger.com/

[Neil Jones]

There is no provision in HTML to do what you want. HTML is purely a layout language, not a data processing language. It has no ability to "send" anything.

In a nutshell if you want anything more complicated than laying something out on a webpage, it will need to be processed by a script, either on the website itself or linked on another website.

You can put an email address in and link it as a "click here to mail me" type thing, but the only problem with this is it'll get harvested and you'll begin to receive spam.

One possible solution is something like this, in which you "munge" the email address. The mail works, you can click it and the user's mail client will be happy with it, but the spam bots can't see it.
http://www.addressmunger.com/

[BioHazard90]

Thanks for your reply, Neil. Unfortunately, it turns out that addressmunger.com creates scripts in PHP, but Blogger / Blogspot supports only Javascript. Any other ideas?

[Neil Jones]

Addressmunger.com doesn't need PHP, it's a Javascript driven script to munge your address so people can click on the link to mail you with their own email cient.

You cannot process a "Contact me by filling in this form" sort of request with Javascript, as it's a browser technology, not a website technology.
If you are unable to host a script for processing forms (or cannot host one elsewhere with appropriate permissions) your best bet would be to use the "click here to mail me" technique with a munged email link.