Contact Us - another wasted day!

[Donald Gray]

V8.5
According to page 98 of the Advanced Users Guide V1.3 (Downloaded recently), it is possible to add extra fields to the Contact Us form.

This is just perfect for what I need.

Rather than mess about with Notepad, I purchased the latest version of UltraEdit text editor so that I had a decent programme to do the job with...

So, I followed the instructions assiduously and as per the book, I added the ONE field to start off with.

Unfortunately, the book does not agree (or vice versa) with the code in MailForm.pl... I was able to proceed to step 15 with no problems but getting to step 16 & 17 the required code to be altered 'ain't' there!

However, I proceeded with the rest of the exercise and completed the modification.

Excited, I uploaded the simple mod clicked on 'Contact us' and got:
According to page 98 of the Advanced Users Guide V1.3 (Downloaded recently), it is possible to add extra fields to the Contact Us form.

"Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

Yes, I did check and recheck the code changes, all the comas, brackets colons full-stops were in the correct places, no miscreant # crept in where they were not needed.

Still got the server error...

All I can assume at this moment is that the AUG is out of date on this point. What a waste of time and effort!

Has anyone out there with a decent working script I can beg, borrow or steal?

I will want to add about 6 extra mandatory fields...

Thanks

[NormanRouxel]

I think that in spite of all you've said above that you've made a typo.

I just followed the steps in the Advanced Guide (except that steps 16 and 17 were omitted as the code to be patched is no longer there).

[Donald Gray]

I think that in spite of all you've said above that you've made a typo.

I just followed the steps in the Advanced Guide (except that steps 16 and 17 were omitted as the code to be patched is no longer there).

Thank you for that, Norman. I truly appreciate your efforts.

I checked and double checked and then checked again. (I did find a couple of synatax errors) But didn't find anything else after tripple checks.

The fact that you managed it sort of proves that I have made a mistake. I have restored everything but have made copies of the modified MailForm.pl. I will go through it again tomorrow - I truly would like to get it working...

Just a thought - I used the code in section 4 (required field) - Im using V8.5

[NormanRouxel]

I didn't try the (required field) bit. I used 8.0.4 but MailForm.pl is identical between 8.5.0 and 8.0.4.

If you have access to your servers error log, it will pinpoint the failing line.

[Donald Gray]

I didn't try the (required field) bit. I used 8.0.4 but MailForm.pl is identical between 8.5.0 and 8.0.4.

If you have access to your servers error log, it will pinpoint the failing line.

SUCCESS - Yippeeeeee!!!!

Thanks to you Norman, I went through the code letter by letter - On the third attempt I spotted the error. I had put a ) instead of a }

It looks big here but in the text editor, the middle spike of } was almost invisible - that's why I missed it.

If you had not insisted that typo was the problem and that you had got it working, I think I would have possibly given up on the form.

Once again Norman, a big thanks...

[NormanRouxel]

Woohoo. It's a lot more reliable to copy / paste from the Advanced Guide rather than typing anything. A lot easier on the fingers too!

Perl is extremely unforgiving of mistakes and when it's a cgi-bin script all you get is "Internal server error" which doesn't help a lot.

[Donald Gray]

Woohoo. It's a lot more reliable to copy / paste from the Advanced Guide rather than typing anything. A lot easier on the fingers too!

Perl is extremely unforgiving of mistakes and when it's a cgi-bin script all you get is "Internal server error" which doesn't help a lot.

Noted.
I did a printout of the AUG - all 159 pages and have bound it into a book - I was working from that - I didn't think of copy & paste other than once I got it working....

So far I have now 4 extra fields and doing much copy/pasting there but testing at each stage for the dreaded "Internal server error" !!
I must admit that this is my first venture in Perl but I am starting to 'see' some of the syntax...

Time for kip! Been at it for15 hours