Alex Hardy


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Archive for ‘Downloads’

Rate simpleContact

Monday, June 4th, 2007

If you have downloaded simpleContact, please take a moment to give your opinion:

Rate simpleContact at the PHP Resource Index.

Please vote objectively and only once. Your response will not just help to promote it, but give me the user insight I need to improve it with future versions.

Eating my own dog food

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

To eat one’s own dog food is a colourful way of saying that you use your product. After all, if you don’t want to use your own stuff, who will?

So far, I haven’t been using simpleContact for my contact form. Pretty ironic huh… I was using a little script that I wrote a few months ago just for this website. At the time, simpleContact wasn’t even something I’d thought to build.

Now that it’s out there though and I’ve had a bit of a breather, it was time to fix things. I’ve installed it and will be using it from now on. Visitors to this site won’t notice much of a change, but this should better equip me to identify areas where it is lacking.

If you’ve got your own ideas about how it can be improved, you know what to do!

simpleContact RSS newsfeed

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

It’s been a couple of days since I released simpleContact and I’m pleased to say that the response so far has been very positive. I’ve tidied up its blog subcategory.

There’s now an RSS newsfeed dedicated to simpleContact. You can subscribe to it to keep informed of developments without having to read my other rambles.

O’ course, you may want to read them. I like to think I can be mildly interesting :)

Introducing simpleContact, an easy way to add a contact email form and mailing list database to your website

Monday, May 21st, 2007

After many evenings in front of the computer, I can release version 1.0 of my contact form system. Though I make websites all the time in my job at The Foundry, this is the first time I’ve ever made an application for public release. I’m excited about this project, and looking forward to tackling the (rather long) list of additions I already have in mind. Here are the key features in brief:

Designed

It’s made to be easy to install, without any programming. You’ll find the forms are straightforward to incorporate into your website.

All the layout is CSS based, so you can tweak the design or re-brand it entirely.

Developed

Built in PHP and MySQL and deployed on your web site (no dependence on external services), this functionality and more is ready to use:

  • Contact and mailing list subscribe forms with server side validation
  • Web-based admin system with login to keep your messages private
  • Convenient messages inbox
  • List of email addresses on your mailing list
  • Choose contact form fields just by ticking checkboxes
  • Compose a personalised response email
  • Set which email addresses messages are sent to

Documented

It’s frustrating when tools aren’t documented well enough to use. I’ve written a setup guide in plain English, which contains what you need to know to get motoring…

Please head on over to my newly added downloads page. You’ll find more information, screengrabs and you can download simpleContact right now.