Mirror Image Form Processor

As you are probably aware, almost all form processing systems simply take the user supplied information from your form and send that data to you in a plain text format that looks nothing like your original form. See the example below:

Your Original Form:

What the Results You Get Look Like:

Results of Online Form Submitted on January 23, 2003 at 16:40:34 hours as Detailed Below: ___________________________________________________________ Name: Joe Smith Email: joe@joe.com Day Phone: 303-555-7890 Evening Phone: 303-555-6793 Mailing Address: 1234 Mains Street > Denver, CO 80345 Credit Card Type: Visa Credit Card Number: 4444 4444 4444 4444 > Expiration Month: 01 Expiration Year: 05 Cardholder Name: Joe P. Smith

In the majority of cases, the above system works fine. There is really no need to have the results look just like the original form. In those cases, our Standard Form Hosting or Gateway Database Hosting will work fine.

HOWEVER, if your particular need dictates that the results of a form submittal (either secure or non-secure) have the exact same format and look of the original form, then our MirrorImage system is for you. Using the same form as the above example, our MirrorImage system would send you a HTML attachment such as the below:

Using the MirrorImage Processor:

Personal Information
*Name	Joe Smith
*Email Address	joe@joe.com
*Day Phone	303-555-7890
*Evening Phone	303-555-6793
*Complete Mailing Address	1234 Mains Street Denver, CO 80345

Credit Card Data
*Card Type	Visa
*Card Number (1234 2345 1234 1234)	4444 4444 4444 4444
*Expires	01 05
*Cardholder's Name (who is the card issued to?)	Joe P. Smith

If you would like to see a live demonstration of the MirrorImage System, make sure you are currently online and then go to our Demo Order Form - the Demo Order Form contains further instructions and will walk you through the system.

The MirrorImage processor supports virtually all types of form fields including text box, text area, radio buttons, checkboxes, and single or multiple select selection boxes. In essence, upon the submission of your form, the system grabs a copy of the form and replaces all the forms fields with the data supplied for those fields. The data is formatted bold and Italic to stand out from the text of your form.

Pricing:

A one-time set-up fee of *$40 and $5 per month hosting (payable semi-annually). Initial fees total $100.

* The set-up can actually range between $25 - $100+. Setting up a form to use this special processor can be much more difficult than you would think. The initial set-up fee will be determined and agreed to before your order is finalized.

Tips on Designing Forms for the MirrorImage System:

As indicated above, the set-up fee for this service can vary greatly. That is due to the amount of time we need to spend modifying your form to work properly with the script. Although it sounds simple in theory, there are hundreds of little details that must be correct for a form to function properly under this system. The better prepared your form is when we get it, the less time we have to spend.

Using Java Scripts for Form Field Validation or pricing calculations: The use of Java Scripts is permitted - as long as the opening and closing tags look exactly like this: <script></script>. MirrorImage will remove all scripts contained in such tags before producing the results page.

Field Names: It is imperative that each field of the form have a unique name. This goes against standard form design in reference to checkboxes and radio buttons. It is common to use the same field name for multiple checkboxes and radio buttons that are related. Usually, each button or box would have a different value. However, this will not work with MirrorImage! Each form field MUST have a unique field name="". It does not matter what the field names are - the entire form could be filled with "field1", "field2" through "field 500" - as long as each field name is unique. Also, don't use special characters in the field names. The underscore "_" is acceptable - but don't use - ! # ? *, etc., etc - special characters don't belong in field names!

Leave adequate space for the results: Most good looking forms are set-up in tables. When designing a form for the MirrorImage system, remember that the system will reproduce your original form replacing the form fields with the supplied data. Therefore, think about what you expect the user to supply for each field when designing your form. For example, while a set of fields may look great in a small table on a section of your form - it might mess up the formatting of the form if one of the fields may require a very long answer from the user. This one answer may push the entire table into a shape that interferes with the rest of the form.

If you prefer, we can design your form(s) that are specifically formatted to use MirrorImage:

Please contact us for pricing at support@softwaresolutions.net and provide us with the URL to your site and all applicable details or use the sign-up form for your inquiry.

Modifications to forms after initial install: There is no charge for simple modifications such as Email address or URL linking. There is no charge if you change your existing form(s) and send us the new form to upload to the secure server. However, if we perform modifications such as product or pricing changes, etc., you will be billed at the rate of $50 per hour for such work.

We will not host forms for Adult related sites, Hate sites or the like. We reserve the right to reject any form at our discretion and will refund any fees paid for this service if a form is rejected.

Details on designing or using existing order forms in a secure environment: While it may be desirable to design your order forms using the same backgrounds or other graphics to match your main web site, this is not conducive to order forms in a secure SSL environment. When web pages are called through a SSL server - all elements of the page must be transmitted again - even if they were just put into a browser's cache. Additionally, because of the encrypting involved, a SSL connection is much slower than a standard HTTP call. Therefore, when designing your forms (or modifying an existing form), it is best not to use any background or other graphics.