The problem assignment appears to the user (student) as a form and every form must have an action telling the computer what to do with the form. There are basically only two alternatives:
Let the users computer take care of it aka "mailto" form action
and
Let a special program on the server take care of it aka Form CGI.
There are plusses and minuses to both and they are outlined below.
"Mailto" Form Action | Mail Form CGI | |
---|---|---|
Ease of Use | Easy to Use | Can be difficult to set up unless there is one provided by your ISP and even then it might not be adaptable to your needs. If you use the free form cgi recommended for TestMakPro3 you will need to know your ISP's path to PERL and Sendmail. This should be readily available. You also have to give it permissions (755) on the server for your users to be able to use it. http://www.zzee.com/solutions/linux-permissions.shtml There are other easier options, such as, http://www.response-o-matic.com/ , but they usually involve advertising or money. |
Reliability | Possible Problems:
|
Very Reliable |
Security | Mailto forms have two serious security flaws
|
TestMakPro3 is set up to use the simple form mail cgi (called generiform cgi) available at http://www.cgi101.com/ The earlier version of TestMakPro used a earlier version of this cgi that was susceptible to abuse by spammers. The current version appears to properly address this issue. |