Forms for customer inquiries - WEBSALE Dokumentation

INQUIRY4 is a standalone form program. It checks the input of an inquiry form, reports errors back, and sends the completed inquiry by email to a recipient. Alternatively or additionally, all inquiries can be viewed in the Online Service Area. INQUIRY4 was developed for WEBSALE V8s shops, but it also runs without a shop. Because it is a separate program, it comes with its own tags. This is exactly where most first attempts fail, which is why this point has its own section further below.

The complete description of all sections, parameters, and tags can be found in the separate technical documentation for INQUIRY4. This page guides you through the integration and points out the places where, in our experience, things tend to go wrong.

Documentation: Forms with INQUIRY4

What a form consists of

An INQUIRY consists of at least three parts. Others are optional.

Part	Required	Purpose
Form configuration	yes	defines input fields, required fields, recipients, and security features
Inquiry template	yes	the form the customer fills out
Response template	yes	the page after submission
Email template to the customer	no	confirmation to the sender
Email template to the shop operator	no	notification about the inquiry
PDF template	no	response as a PDF

Before you start

These questions determine which template set you choose and how many templates you need:

Which input fields should be requested, and which of them are required?
Which spam protection should apply?
Should the customer receive an email after submission?
Should the shop operator receive an email?
Is a response as a PDF needed?

The Materials contain ready-made sets of configuration and templates that you only need to adapt, for example a contact form with a PDF attachment or one with a captcha check. Materials: Materials for INQUIRY

Step 1: Create the configuration in the Online Service Area

Each form needs its own configuration. It lives in the Online Service Area, not in the template directory.

In the Online Service Area, open your shop’s configuration.
Switch to the “Formulare (Inquiry)” tab and select the subshop in the name list.
Click the document icon next to the subshop name.
In the “Neue Konfiguration erstellen” dialog, enter a name, for example anfrage, and click “Erstellen”.
Click the new name in the navigation on the left and “Bearbeiten” on the right.
Adjust the sections and save.
Activate the configuration.

The file extension is always config and is appended automatically. You only enter the name.

Saving alone is not enough. As long as the configuration is not activated, the form does not work with your settings.

Choose a meaningful name, because it will appear later in the form call. With several forms using different spam protection, a name like anfrage_captcha helps.

Step 2: Select the templates

Take a set from the Materials and proceed as follows for each template you need:

In the Materials, open the folder of the desired set.
Save the template with the .htm extension under the specified name in your template directory, for example benutzer/templates/translation.

Do not mix templates from different sets. The templates of a set are matched to the supplied configuration, especially in the sets with captcha.

Step 3: Edit the templates

The saved templates can be used directly or adapted to your design with an HTML editor. One rule overrides everything else.

INQUIRY tags and shop tags are not the same

INQUIRY is a separate program with its own tags. The names are similar, but the suffixes differ.

Purpose	Shop tag	INQUIRY tag
Field label	`A-<Name>_text`	`A-<Name>_descr`
HTML name of the field	`A-<Name>_input`	`A-<Name>_name`
Field default value	`A-<Name>`	`A-<Name>_value`
Error marker	`A-<Name>_error`	`A-<Name>_error`
Error text	`A-<Name>_errormessage`	your own text in the `A-<Name>_error` bracketing

For the HTML name of the input fields, you must use the INQUIRY tags in the form. With the shop tags, the data does not arrive and the customer cannot submit the form. This is the most common cause of a form that seemingly does nothing for no reason.

This is what the same field looks like in both places. In the shop, for example on ws_address_combined.htm:

<label for="~A-FirstName_input~" class="~A-FirstName_error~">
   ~A-FirstName_text~{A-FirstName_required} *{/A-FirstName_required}
</label>
<input type="text" name="~A-FirstName_input~" maxlength="~A-FirstName_max~"
       value="~A-FirstName~" id="~A-FirstName_input~" class="~A-FirstName_error~">
{A-FirstName_errormessage}~A-FirstName_errormessage~{/A-FirstName_errormessage}

In the form template:

<label for="~A-FirstName_name~" class="~A-FirstName_error~">
   ~A-FirstName_descr~
</label>
<input type="text" name="~A-FirstName_name~" maxlength="~A-FirstName_max~"
       value="~A-FirstName_value~" id="~A-FirstName_name~" class="~A-FirstName_error~">
{A-FirstName_error}Ihre Fehlermeldung{/A-FirstName_error}

As a single tag, A-<Name>_error outputs the string _error in case of an error and nothing otherwise. The tag is therefore intended as a suffix to a class name, for example class="feld~A-FirstName_error~".

Prefilling fields for logged-in customers

If the form is included on a shop page via WS-ExternInclude(), all shop tags are additionally available in the form template. This allows you to prefill a field for logged-in customers: you keep the INQUIRY tag for the name and use the shop tag for the value.

<input type="text" name="~A-FirstName_name~" maxlength="~A-FirstName_max~"
       value="~A-FirstName~" id="~A-FirstName_name~" class="~A-FirstName_error~">

The name remains the INQUIRY tag; only the value is swapped. If you swap the name as well, you once again have a form that transmits nothing.

For the shop tag to return a value, the address field must be activated in the AddressFields-Txt section of shop.config.

Select lists

For salutation, title, and country, there is only one tag each in the form, which generates the complete list.

~A-Salutation_list~
~A-Title_list~
~A-Country_list~

In the shop, on the other hand, you build the same lists yourself from a loop:

<select name="~A-Salutation_input~" class="{A-Salutation_error}is-invalid{/A-Salutation_error}">
   {@A-Salutation_data}
      <option value="~A-Salutation_code~" ~A-Salutation_selected~>~A-Salutation_value~</option>
   {/@A-Salutation_data}
</select>

Pay attention to the spelling of the email field. The shop tag is called A-E-Mail with hyphens, the INQUIRY tag A-Email without. If you mix them up, you can search for a long time.

Reference: A tags (billing address) · D tags (delivery address) · AddressFields-Txt section · WS-ExternInclude()

Step 4: Add the call

Place a link to the inquiry template anywhere in the shop.

<a href="~WS-SSLLoadTpl(anfrage.htm)~">Zum Kontaktformular</a>

Alternatively, include the form in the middle of an existing shop page with WS-ExternInclude(). Only this way are the shop tags also available in the form.

~WS-ExternInclude(https://ihre-domain.de/cgi/inquiry4.cgi?inq4=ihre-shopid&ini=anfrage.config)~

Reference: WS-SSLLoadTpl()

Spam protection

Forms on the web are scanned and filled out automatically by programs. INQUIRY4 provides several countermeasures that can be combined.

Captcha

A captcha poses a task that cannot be solved by machine, or only with great effort. INQUIRY4 supports these methods:

Method	Type
Arithmetic task	posed in the form itself, without a third-party service
Google reCAPTCHA v3	invisible assessment in the background, with a score
Friendly Captcha v1	computational puzzle in the visitor’s browser, without user interaction
captcha.eu	European provider

The arithmetic task is the only method that works without a third-party service. All others transmit data to the respective provider and therefore require a data protection assessment. Friendly Captcha and captcha.eu are usually the simpler cases here compared to reCAPTCHA.

With reCAPTCHA v3, Friendly Captcha, and captcha.eu, you can define what should happen in the event of a technical failure. With fail-closed, the inquiry is rejected; with fail-open, it is let through. fail-open keeps your form reachable but opens the door to spam for the duration of the failure. The shop can notify you of each such case by email.

Other measures

In addition to the captcha, INQUIRY4 checks the input further:

Measure	Effect
Honeypot fields	fields invisible to humans. If one is filled out, the inquiry is rejected and the incident is logged
Blacklisting	inquiries with certain content are rejected
Regular expressions	additional check patterns applied to the input

Honeypot fields cost the visitor nothing and catch a good share of simple spam programs. They therefore make sense even if you already use a captcha.

Forms with file upload

In combination with the WEBSALE upload module, customers can upload any files with an inquiry or registration. Guide: Upload module for forms with INQUIRY

Performance requirements

INQUIRY4 is a separate program on the server, so calling it consumes computing power and is billed via the performance units.

If you include a form in a shop page via WS-ExternInclude(), two programs run: the shop and INQUIRY. This consumes correspondingly more and slightly increases the page’s processing time. For a contact form, this is negligible. For a form that is included on every product page, it is worth keeping an eye on.

Guide: Performance units

Guide: Reload and submit forms via AJAX
Guide: Template types: Inquiry templates
Guide: AJAX functions
Materials: Materials for INQUIRY

​What a form consists of

​Before you start

​Step 1: Create the configuration in the Online Service Area

​Step 2: Select the templates

​Step 3: Edit the templates

​INQUIRY tags and shop tags are not the same

​Prefilling fields for logged-in customers

​Select lists

​Step 4: Add the call

​Spam protection

​Captcha

​Other measures

​Forms with file upload

​Performance requirements

​Related topics

What a form consists of

Before you start

Step 1: Create the configuration in the Online Service Area

Step 2: Select the templates

Step 3: Edit the templates

INQUIRY tags and shop tags are not the same

Prefilling fields for logged-in customers

Select lists

Step 4: Add the call

Spam protection

Captcha

Other measures

Forms with file upload

Performance requirements

Related topics