Goldangit, another stupid web question

anarky · Post by **anarky** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:47 pm

I'm working on updating/designing a webpage for my sister-in-law's boss, and I'm running into a fricking brick wall.

He wants two web forms that will send information via e-mail. Seems simple enough, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

When I try using the FrontPage way (I'm discovering that FrontPage is a piece of shit, like all other Microsoft products, so no need to tell me that), I run into an error that the server does not have the FrontPage extensions.

He's using a Cobalt RAQ4 server. What that means, I have no fucking clue, so please be gentle in your comments. It seems like massive overkill for what he needs, but long story short, it's free. I know there's a way to get in there and activate FrontPage extensions, but have no clue how to do it.

His old site used a CGI form (FormMail.pl) from Matt's Script Archive (http://www.scriptarchive.com). I updated the IP and domain information to use on the new site, but that doesn't work either.

He was going to set up e-mail addresses at his new domain, and I know that the server is set up to send e-mail. But when I asked him to send an e-mail to verify the address was working, it looks like it was forwarded through SBC and Yahoo, so I'm not even sure the domain name is set up on the right server!

I have absolutely no idea how to fix this problem. I think that if I could figure out where the SendMail protocols (did I even say that right?) reside on the server, I could redirect the script to the right place. (I think it's not located on the same relative location as on the old server.)

Is there a way to find where it's located? Or an easy way to fix the FrontPage extensions? Or (God forbid, but if it works as a temporary fix, I'm willing to do it) have the mail routed through a different server than the site?

I told the guy I knew how to design web pages and knew nothing about servers. I don't think he had any clue what that meant. I'm going to try to get the contact info for whoever actually has the server, but not sure if that will work. In any case, I need to come up with something by the end of the week, even if just a temporary fix, because I really don't want my sister-in-law to get in trouble with her boss (annoying though she can be at times).

So in other words, to quote the great Jar Jar Binks, any hep here'd be hot.

Post by **vynsane** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 6:56 pm

you don't need to know anything about servers to get a form emailer to work... you just need to know how to format the form and have it point to the right script, and have the script set up the correct way... check out my contact page here

http://www.vynsane.com/contact.html

just view the source...

and check out this script (what i'm using right now...)

http://www.tectite.com/

the coolest thing about this script, other than the price ($0) is the fact that they have an online upgrade system, wherein you upload your last version of the script, they add the stuff that updates it without changing your settings, and create a .zip package of you old version (just in case...) plus the new one IMMEDIATELY! i don't have a clue how they did that, but i'm glad they did. it's the easiest thing ever!

it's the best by far i've ever tried. there's heavy documentation on every step of the process at the top of the script.

don't even bother with frontpage. all WYSIWYG editors suck. hand-coding in araneae is the balls.

http://www.ornj.net/software/araneae/

anarky · Post by **anarky** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:05 pm

Gotcha. You are a mega-lifesaver. I'll have to give this a shot. . . but I'm pooped with messing with this stupid code for the moment. [se]

anarky · Post by **anarky** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:10 am

Dangit, vyn, I'm running into just about the same problem as before, only the error message is worded differently.

The web pages are under a directory http://www.companyname.com/web, and the form is in a subdirectory called cgi-bin. I keep getting an error that says:

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">This URL is a Form submission program.
It appears the form is not working correctly as there was no data found.
You're not supposed to browse to this URL; it should be accessed from a form.

Your form submission was processed by (7.04), available from http://www.tectite.com. height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I'm not sure, but my guess is the same trouble is causing this as was causing problems with the old script I had: this script can't access the root.

I've dug around in the Tectite forums, and may have found the answer. I'll keep you posted, but in any case, thanks again. You truly rock at web design.

BTW, I find FrontPage fairly useful for some things, but use the HTML editor at least as much as the preview screen. I just know jackshit about Java and all other languages besides HTML. Well, I know BASIC (not Visual BASIC) and a bit of Logo, but moving a stupid turtle on the screen isn't very useful for this stuff, is it?

anarky · Post by **anarky** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:08 pm

Man, I am an idiot. No, scratch that. I am king of the fucking idiots of Moronsylvania, population: me.

I've been screwing around behind the scenes trying to find what the hell the root directory was, where the mail server was located, etc. And I upload Tectite's sample HTML form, and POOF! it works.

Digging around, I found ONE misplaced line of code that was causing the entire form to malfunction.

I'd sing a bad song lyric of shame now, but I'm too busy cleaning the shit off my nose after extracting my head from my own ass.

jjreason · Post by **jjreason** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:12 pm

I have brown shoes.

Post by **vynsane** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:15 am

i'm glad you got it sorted out! which line was in the wrong place? it's always best to use the sample form, and then edit it to your specs. that's what i did with my contact page.

anarky · Post by **anarky** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:12 pm

< form > was inside a table, while </ form > was outside. Something about opening it in FrontPage and adding a new field screwed it up, I think, as it was working on the old site.

Post by **vynsane** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:05 pm

yup, that'll do it... espeically if you're using a "strict" doctype, or xhtml.