How do I send an E-mail from a webpage?

Question

I've been trying to learn the basics of HTML, and in doing this I've been designing my own rudimentary webpage. I don't plan on making it public at all, but it's good to help me to learn all of the different aspects of both HTML and CSS. In doing this, I've added a Contact section on one of the pages, that includes both an email address and a form that allows for an E-mail to be sent, I used one of the tutorials on W3Schools to create it. For the purposes of this I have removed my own email address, and replaced it with someone@example.com , but here is the output of this specific part of the code:

However, whenever I try to fill the form in to test it, I get this pop-up message. If I click cancel, then nothing happens, but if I click OK then then the mail app on my computer is opened. But the message that I typed into the form isn't there, and the E-mail address that I type into the box to send from is just changed to the default address on my computer.

So what can I do to prevent this pop-up message, and to just send the e-mail to me?

Here is the relevant code from the HTML document:

<h2 style = 'font-weight:normal'><a name = 'Contact' id = 'Contact'></a>Contact me:</h2>

<p>
  You can reach me at: someone@example.com <br />
  Or by just using the form below
</p>

<form action = 'mailto: someone@example.com' method = 'post' enctype = 'text/plain'>
  <input type = 'text' name = 'name' placeholder = 'Name'> <br />
  <br />
  <input type = 'text' name = 'mail' placeholder = 'E-mail'> <br />
  <br />
  <input type = 'text' name = 'comment' size = '50' placeholder = 'Comment'> <br />
  <br />
  <input type = 'submit' value = 'Send'>
  <input type = 'reset' value = 'Reset'>
</form>

If HTML isn't going to be enough to send an e-mail from a webpage, and I need another language to write a program that can do it, I am quite competent in Python, and I know C# to some extent. However, I've never used JavaScript, PHP, Perl, or anything else (I don't know what sort of languages would be appropriate)

Answer 1

If you want to submit the form to go to an email it's simple really. You could use a simple server-side language like PHP. You'll need 3 files. One file that houses the front-end form contents, one file that processes the form once the user hits the submit button and a thank you page after the form gets sent to let the user know that the form has been submitted. Here is a demo below.

HTML:

 <form action="processor.php" method="post" id="myForm">
        <label for="firstname"></label>
        <input type="text" name="firstname" placeholder="First Name" id="firstname" required>
        <label for="lastname"></label>
        <input type="text" name="lastname" placeholder="Last Name" id="lastname" required> 
        <label for="email"></label>
        <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Email" id="email" required>
        <label for="comments"></label>
        <textarea rows="4" cols="32" name="comments" id="comments" placeholder="Questions & Comments"></textarea>
        <input type="submit" value="Submit">
    </form>

PHP (processor.php file)

/***********************************************************/
/*******   Set the receipient email address below   ********/
/*******   And set the subject line of the email    ********/
/*$recipient_email = "testemail@yahoo.com";*/
$recipient_email = "testemail@yahoo.com";
$email_subject_line = "Mail from Website";

/***********************************************************/
/***********************************************************/

if(isset($_POST['firstname']))
{
$firstName = $_POST['firstname'];
    $lastName = $_POST['lastname'];
    $email = $_POST['email'];
    $comments = $_POST['comments'];

   if(!empty($firstName) && 
    !empty($lastName) &&
    !empty($email) &&
    !empty($comments))
   {

$message = "Name: $firstName, Lastname: $lastName, Phone: $phoneNumber, 
Email: $email, Comments: $comments";

send_mail($email, $message, $recipient_email, $email_subject_line);

   }
}

function send_mail($email, $message, $recipient_email, $email_subject_line)
{
$to = $recipient_email;
$from = $email;
$subject = $email_subject_line;
$headers = "From: {$email}" . "\r\n" . 'Reply-To:' . $email . "\r\n" . 'X-
Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
}

header("Location:thankyoupage.php");

thankyoupage.php (After data has been submitted)

<div class="thankyoucontainer">
    <h1>Thank you, your message has been submitted.</h1>
    <a href="index.php">Go back to home page</a>
</div>