Max script CGI form, how does it work?? (real basics)?

Question

I'm trying to make a working feedback form and it's proving a hard task to say the least. I've downloaded this:

http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html

Which i've been told is very popluar. But how do i get it to work. All i'm trying to do is have a really simple form that can be filled in a return basic information like name, email and query.

Can someone give a bullet proof explaination of how to get this up and running.

I've create a form in dreamweaver. It's targeting the mailform cgi script, which is in the cgi bin of the website. I've replaced a few fields in the script with the web address, ip and email address, i've changed the permissions settings (which i think are right, but they might be wrong)

But still nothing!!

Pleeeeeeease help someone!

Answer 1

well, thats just a perl script turned cgi. Maybe you should check to make sure you actually have perl installed in /usr/bin because thats what the script is calling.



Then, you have to make sure that sendmail is installed in /usr/lib because thats where the script is calling sendmail. (Check the sendmail log too)



Then of course, if you still don't know whats going on, then its time to start steping through the code. Start putting a lot of if/then statements in the code at each step. (i.e if code fails, write the failure to a file)



You need to:

- find out if the script was actually executed

- if it was executed, at what step did it fail

Answer 2

No. My atheism is me doubting your claims to know that the particular hypothetical God, that you are imagining, is actually real. Doubt is not narcissism. Narcissism is a lot more like you smiling at the thought that some hypothetical creator of the universe is fascinated by your every thought and action, because such a hypothetical fascination makes perfect sense to you. -- Regards, John Popelish

Answer 3

Hi I think I may have answered a previous question of yours. Not sure if I can keep it that simple though!



For what it's worth here are a few trouble shooting points to watch for.



First, and it may be obvious to you, but just in case the cgi-bin directory is normally at the same route level as your htdocs directory, and it is not a directory you can create yourself. if you don't see the cgi-bin directory you need contact you ISP.



Next is your form correct. Below is the simpliest of HTML forms which I know will work with FormMail. Ensure the action points to the location of the FormMail script on your website, and that the recipient value is your email address.

Check Perl Form script is working

Are the permissions correct. If you get an error 500 message from the server when you click the send button check the permissions of the formmail.pl are set correctly -they should be:

Owner = Read, Write, Execute (WRX);

Group = Read, Blank, Execute (W-X);

Other = Read, Blank, Execute (W-X).



If the permissions are correct the the Perl script should provide you with some error message such as the one below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Error: Bad/No Recipient

There was no recipient or an invalid recipient specified in the data sent to FormMail. Please make sure you have filled in the recipient form field with an e-mail address that has been configured in @recipients. More information on filling in recipient form fields and variables can be found in the README file.



FormMail V1.92 © 1995 - 2002 Matt Wright

A Free Product of Matt's Script Archive, Inc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Now for the perl script! The two key area to look at are:



@referers = ('yourdomain.co.uk');



@recipients = (&fill_recipients ('yourdomain .co.uk'), '^youremail@ yourprovider\.com');



Note the ^ and \ in the email adress are very important.

Also I have had to include word spaces or para returns in the above to prevent the Yahoo server thinking I'm trying to hack into it - just remove them.



Hope the above may be of help



Last resort try this site: http://www.formmail.com/



Best of luck.