Traditionally, the Microsoft Exchange Electronic Forms Designer or Microsoft® Visual C++® is used to create custom forms for use with Microsoft Exchange Server. Forms can also be created with CDO for use with a Web browser, a usage that provides the advantage of platform independence when viewing messages and using forms. Regardless of hardware and operating system, if a Web browser can be used on a given computer, it can render any message or form written using CDO.
Technically, the World Wide Web has no concept of e-mail forms, or even e-mail messages. On the Web, only pages are rendered. Still, each page can contain a set of controls that provide nearly all the functionality offered by a form created with the Electronic Forms Designer or Visual C++.
Active Server Pages renders messages and forms using a collection of ASP scripts. These scripts contain not only the CDO code that handles information received from users, but also the HTML code that interacts with users. This code includes input boxes, option buttons, and list controls that a standard message does not include.
For details about form creation steps, see Creating the New Classified Ad Form.