General Architecture All the functionalities of NetForum rely on the same basic scheme: Information is sent from the visitor's web browser to your E-mail account. Your computer retrieve the information from the mailbox. HTML files are generated based on the information. The HTML files are uploaded to the remote, HTTP server. Each component in this scheme is examined in greater detail below.

Web Browser

The web browser can accepts information from the user in two manners; either by launching an external E-mail program or with HTML form.

Launching E-mail program

When the user clicks on a Hyperlink...

[Post a message] or [Reply to message]

the browser responds by launching the E-mail program. After the user is done typing in his/her message, it is sent to the said address. The URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) of the links in this particular example are mailto:"[NetForum:Message_forum]"<leong@mail.ocf.berkeley.edu> and mailto:"[NetForum:Message_forum]"<leong@mail.ocf.berkeley.edu>?Subject=Re:We will flatten you! respectively. The E-mail address may look a bit unusual; the extra information (in quote) makes message meant for NetForum distinguishable from your personal E-mails. Some E-mail programs (most notably MS-Exchange) are known to misbehave when they encounter the specially formatted E-mail address.

HTML form

By now most of us should have encountered HTML forms. Usually, the information entered into a HTML form is sent to the HTTP server, and processed by a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script. The same information, however, can also be sent to a E-mail account, using the “mailto:” action, rather than the usual “http:”. For the example below, the method is mailto:"[NetForum:Resource_list]"<leong@mail.ocf.berkeley.edu>.

Submission of HTML form via E-mail is supported by Netscape Navigator 3.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+

E-mail Account

Your E-mail account is the intermediate storage area for information sent by the visitor of your web site. There, at the mail server, messages and completed forms sit and wait for your computer to retrieve them for processing.

The E-mail account in question must be a POP3 (Post Office Protocol) account. Those provided by free E-mail services, such as HotMail or Juno, won't cut it.

It can be the account you use for personal E-mail, since mail intended for NetForum specially marked (see section on E-mail program above).

Your Computer

Periodically, your computer logs onto the mail server and retrieves any new mail. The mail is unpacked, processed and relevant information is saved. NetForum then updates the HTML files which represent the message forum or voting booth, to reflect the new addition and any other changes.

The key word here is periodic. The process described above needs to occur at a sensible frequency. Otherwise the information sent by your visitor would merely be queuing up in your mailbox.

Remote Server

The remote server here refers to the computer which hosts your web site.