CampaignFoundations.com

The utility of hosting a website in the interactive web is the ability to get feedback from the users of your site. Perhaps the simplest way to do that is with a contact form. Of course your site comes pre-configured with donor, subscription and volunteer forms if you want them. But the Contact module permits you to quickly set up a contact form and have user feedback appropriately routed within your organization to the key campaign supporters who are ready to followup with the voters of your district.

Here is how to do this.

On the ?q=admin/build/modules page, among the base modules, enable the module called: 'Contact' and described as: 'Enables the use of both personal and site-wide contact forms.'

At the ?q=admin/user/access#module-contact page, determine which user groups will have the privilege to: 'access site-wide contact form', in the contact module.

Use the ?q=admin/build/contact page, opened in one tab, to monitor your progress, as you set up your contact pages. This page offers useful documentation on how this module is meant to work. Next, in another tab or window, open up ?q=admin/build/contact/add, perhaps by using the 'Add Category' tab and define a contact form, settings its category, recipients, an auto-reply message to the form submitter, its weight and whether it should be the default in the list of subject categories.

Finally use the 'Settings' tab to get to the ?q=admin/build/contact/settings page. Here you can add the copy which should appear on your contact form, say a postal address and phone number or a brief message. You can also set some security controls on your forms.

Next, if you are using the captcha module to prevent graffitti on your site, then make sure captcha is working for you on the contact forms as follows. Go to the ?q=admin/settings/captcha page. You probably want to use this form to enable captcha on the comment forms for at least the anonymous and authenticated users. Depending on how well you know and trust your other users, you might consider enabling captcha for even other user groups.

Now go to the contact form at: ?q=contact. And adjust it using the links above until you get it right.

If you have questions or get stuck, give us a call. We'd be happy to help your campaign get this working on your site.