Important note: This is a critical review and not a sales letter or an ad!
 

Format

Cgi Perl- script/PHP- script (delivered as an ASCII-file) plus instruction files (delivered as html-files)

Review

What this script does

MasterForm is a formprocessing cgi-script. This means that this script will make it possible for your visitors to submit messages to you through a form on your web site.

Each time someone uses your form, his or her message, email-address, name etc. can be stored in a database. Thus you can easily go back, later on, and check old messages if you have to cross check something. This will come in very handy, for instance if you're going to set up a FAQ for your web site. Then you can just go back to your archives and see which questions have been asked repeatedly. Those questions you then add to your FAQ.

Unlike most other formprocessing scripts, MasterForm has an added feature which can be very helpful: It allows you to set up multi-page forms. 

Actually this was the reason I found MasterForm especially interesting in the first place. You can find a lot of formprocessing scripts on the Internet (many of them free), but I was looking for a script that allowed me to set up multi-page forms.

The reason I wanted to set up multi-page forms was that you can do some really neat things by such forms. What I had in mind was a very unique kind of marketing survey which had to be based on multi-page forms. So, you can imagine how glad I was to understand that this script was able to do that for me.

But this script does more than just giving your visitors the possibility to send messages to you, important as that is.

MasterForm makes it possible for you to hide your email address from spammers who spider your site in order to catch your email address.

If you've made the same mistake that I've made, namely to print your email address on your web site, you probably know how important it can be to hide it from spammers. If you knew all the spam I get each and every day, because I made the mistake of making my email visible to the publich on my web site, you'd immediately understand how important it can be to hide it. And if you've just set up a web site, I strongly advice you to hide your email address.

Another feature which I want to mention, is that you can forward the email-address of your visitor to an autoresponder. Of course you have to be careful not to misuse this. If you do, you can be accused of spam. But used ethically, this can be a very profitable feature for you.

When your visitor has filled in the form you've set up, you can also lead him or her to a web page of your choice. For example, you can let this web page contain a link to a free report, which you give your visitor as a way of saying thank you for using your form.

If you use these two features (forwarding the info to an autoresponder in combination with setting up thank-you-pages), you can use your forms to implement a complete marketing campaign.

Features

Here is, at a glance an overview over what this script will do for you:

• Process forms on your web site (including on your secure pages).
• Set up multi-page forms.
• Hide your email address from spammers.
• Store names, email-addresses, messages etc. from your forms, in a database (which can be exported to a spread-sheet/database program, if you like).
• Set up printable forms that are prefilled with facts. Your visitors just need to fill in their personal information and print out (or save) the forms.
• Forward the information your visitor has entered in the form to one or more recipients of your choice. You can even forward the email-address of your visitor to an autoresponder if you want to do that.
• Can be used with practically any kind of form.

Ease of set-up

The MasterForm script itself is very easy to set up. Even if you've never installed cgi-scripts before, the programmer of the script, Will Bontrager, has made it really easy for you. You just need to upload the script in ASCII format. You don't need to make any changes to the script itself. Just upload it and change the cmod permissions (like you have to do for almost all cgi-scripts) which is much easier than it may sound to.

And if you're totally new to installing cgi-scripts, you'll find much help in the FAQ pages on Will's web site. So, setting up the script itself just can't be much easier.

However setting up your form and changing the templates (if you want to do that) may seem a little bit difficult to some people - especially if you want to set up a complicated multi-page form.

But Will Bontrager has made it really easy to set up forms. Will has added several example forms (templates), which you can adjust and use on your site. In the documentation to the script, Will shows you exactly how to adjust the forms to your web site.

Besides, Will has written a book, "Create HTML Forms - A Tutorial", which you can download for free. This book is a complete tutorial on how you can make your own forms.

So, in my opinion Will has gone out of his way to make it as easy as possible to set up forms.

The documentation for MasterForm is really good, as it's the case with all Will Bontrager's scripts. It's evident that Will has invested a lot of work not only in creating the script, but also in writing an excellent documentation. 

Some time ago I bought another multi-page cgi-script which worked fine. But it was a pain to set up the script because the documentation was not only bad, it seemed to be directly misleading at places. The script was good enough, but the documentation was awful. This is definitely not the case with the documentation for MasterForm. This documentation is really good, detailed and still easy to understand.

Besides, Will has made it really easy to forward the information your visitors has entered in each form (in multi-page forms) from one page to the next. This means that it'll be much easier to set up multi-page forms. When I set up the another multi-page forms script, it was much more difficult to do this. But I found it really easy to do this in MasterForm.

Ease of using

Once you've set up MasterForm, the script is really easy to use. Actually you don't need to do anything, except letting your visitors do the work (and that isn't too hard for you, uh? :-)

Of course, if you want to check your database (which save the information your visitors has entered in your form), you'll have to open it and read it.

Besides, it's evident that you'll have to read the emails (with the info from your visitors) which MasterForm generates for you.

But once the script is set up, that's practically all you have to do. Now, you've turned your web site into a more interactive site.

Even if you want to use one of the more advanced features in the script (such as using multi-page forms), the script will automatically do almost all the work for you once it's set up and running. That's the beauty of good cgi-scripts. They help you to automate your site, while making it more useful for your visitors.

Overall assessment

There are many formprocessing cgi-scripts on the market today. Many of them are free (for example Matt Wright's Formail script). 

And you'll find many of the same features in other scripts that you'll find in MasterForm.

However, in my opinion, what makes MasterForm stand out, is the added features that Will Bontrager has built-in in this script.

MasterForm is more secure to use than many other form-processing scripts. You can use it to generate multi-page forms. You can forward the information to one or more recipients (or an autoresponder). Finally, the documentation for MasterForm stands in a category for itself. The documentation is really, really good. And this is very important, if you ask me.

According to Will Bontrager's web site, his philosophy is to go the extra mile. And he really does that.

In my opinion, MasterForm is one of the absolute best form-processing scripts I've ever seen - probably the best.

Price (at the time of this writing)

US $45.00

About William Bontrager

Who is William Bontrager? Click here for the answer!
 
 

Buying information

Website 

http://www.willmaster.com

Email

http://willmaster.com/contact.shtml

Snail mail

William and Mari Bontrager
RR 1, Box 271-B
Solsberry, IN 47459
USA

Phone

812.935.8269