Beginner's Guide

CONTACT FORM
With a contact form the following question arises: "Is this content?". I think it is and have, therefore,
written it as a sub chapter of the Managing Content chapter.
On a contact form it first becomes obvious that something like a CMS is being used. Manually
created HTML pages cannot send emails as this requires a script language like PHP, for example, and a
configured server. PHP scripts can be embedded as contact forms into HTML pages, but then that part
of the website will often look different from the rest of the site. In Joomla the contact form is already
integrated and you "only" have to configure it.
Ususally, if your Joomla is running on a web server at your provider, you won't have problems with
sending emails. Locally, it's a bit more difficult because you would have to set up a mail server first.
Generally, this is not a problem but it isn't really necessary. ;-)
Joomla sends emails in different ways. You will see an overview of this in Global Configuration → Server
(Figure 1). Naturally, you would use the standard activated PHP Mail function (read more: Website and
Content Configuration).
Figure 1: Mail Server Settings
Creating a contact
In order to include a contact on your site you need at least:
Joomla! 2.5 - Beginner’s Guide
Monday, 30 January 2012! Page 92