Settings file

The settings file for twzContact is a plain text file that determines what fields should appear on the contact form, where to send email, and other settings specific to your site.

Name and location

By default, the settings file is named twzContact.ini and located in the directory above twzContact.php. You can specify a different name or location in the include text of your web page. However putting it anywhere under your public_html directory is not generally advised, as it would be accessible from any browser, and could be a security risk.

Sections

The settings file is organised into sections, and each section is identified by the section name in square brackets, for example:

[General options]

Within a section, each setting is defined by a single line of text:

• Each line should consist of a left part, an equals sign and a right part.
• You may include additional white space before and after the equals sign for readability.
• In most sections, the left part can only be a known keyword (the exceptions are the Fields and Field options sections, where the left part is a field name).
• The right part may contain any printable character, including equals signs.
• A line starting with a semicolon ; is a comment, and will be ignored
• Any line not conforming to these rules will be ignored

[General options]
setting1 = value
setting2              =           value
sett3=val
;setting9 = this line is a comment, and will be ignored

The sections contained in the settings file are:

• General options - These settings control what the contact form looks like on the screen, and other miscellaneous options.
• Email options - These settings determine how email is sent to the site owner.
• Fields - These settings list all the fields you want on the contact form, what type of fields, and the order they should appear. They can also specify whether each field is required (mandatory), and the CSS style that should be applied to the field.
• Field options - Some fields will require more data in addition to that given in the "Fields" section, depending on what type of field it is.
• Field tips - Allows additional information or description for each field, to help the user complete your contact form.
• Field labels - Alternative labels for each field, in cases when you don't want to use the fieldname.
• Standard fields - There are several kinds of fields that are common to most contact forms, for example the visitor's name and email address. These settings are used to tell twzContact what name you will be using for these fields.
• Message options - These settings define the text of messages shown to the web site visitor.

Follow the links above to find out more about each section.

Example settings file

[Email Options]
ToAddress     = meself@littlepuddle.com.au
FromAddress   = visitor@mysite.com
Subject       = Message from your web site

[General options]
Submit        = Send request

[Fields]
name          = text,wide,1
email         = text,wide,1
send_brochure = check,,0,0
daytime_phone = phone

[Field Options]
send_brochure = Please send me a brochure,0

[Standard fields]
fFirstName    =
fLastName     =
fName         = name
fEmail        = email
fSubject      = 

[Message Options]
MsgThanks     = Thanks - your message was successfully received.
MsgMissing    = Please check the form - the following fields had a problem:

Editing the settings file

The usual way of editing the settings file is with a text editor (eg Notepad). The file can then be uploaded to your web server by FTP. Alternatively, you can use twzContact itself to edit the file. This can be very convenient and is often much quicker than uploading with an FTP client.

In order to use this functionality, the settings file must have an EditPwd setting (usually in a special [Admin] section, for example

[Admin]
EditPwd = secret

and you must supply the correct password to edit the file, eg

If you're concerned about someone discovering your password from the URL, just make sure on the final edit, you change the EditPwd setting (or remove it completely!). NOTE: On some web servers, you might need to set the correct file permissions to be able to edit the file this way. Check with your hosting provider if you have problems with file permissions.

It's always a good idea to keep a local copy of your current settings file as a backup - just copy the contents, paste into your text editor and save it somewhere on your computer.