Contact Us form fails to load

[demalpas]

The Contact Us form has suddenly failed to load on our site at http://www.morethanmowers.co.uk and gives the following error:

Internal Server Error

Could not execute script "/websites/LinuxPackage02/mo/re/th/morethanmowers.co.uk/cgi-bin/mf000001.pl"

Needless to say, we have made no changes to the script mf000001.pl nor to any of the scripts that are required by this script, nor changed any permissions on the server nor made any network changes, nor made any changes to mail_form.html. The site is hosted by Webfusion who 'appear' to offer no access to error logs so that one might see exactly where the script is failing. We have asked for the logs but received no response in over 4 hours

We have restored the site in test mode with backups going back more than 6 months when we know categorically that all was working perfectly but the form still fails to load. Everything else on the site works fine.

The ISP says it is a script error but unhelpfully will not give any more details.

Has anyone had this problem before and can anyone help please?

Many thanks

Mike de Malpas

[leehack]

Have you tried a website refresh, instead of an update? Compact the database too. If that fails, then a website purge and refresh.

[demalpas]

Thanks Lee. Yes - we have done all of those to no effect - but will try them again. Desperation can make you do silly things!

[pinbrook]

you could try to replace formmail.pl in site1 with the original, then upload.

other than this it could be webfusion applying some sort of security on formmail, but i've not heard of this before.

check the script on the server is 755

[demalpas]

I have checked all though the actinic software, including the original distributions and all upgrades/backups and I cannot find formmail.pl. I have looked in the cgi-bin on the server and it is not there. I think actinic uses mailform.pl.

I have used an older version of mf000001.pl and that works in that it does not give an error and does display the form ... but the rest if the page does not display because there are no paths to any of the graphics.

I note that the older (partially working) version of mf000001.pl is 10 lines shorter than the newer non-working version. I have tried cutting the 10 lines of code from the newer version and pasting it into the older version, to make the 2 scripts the same. I also updated the Revision number on line 142. I then uploaded this older updated version to the server. It works but again, mysteriously fails to show any other graphics on the page.

I have now re-uploaded the new non-working version of mf000001.pl and get the same Internal Server Error.

I am at the end of my tether now, having spent around 7 hours fiddling with this. In the absence of being able to see any error logs, I don't really know where else to go.

Would it help if anyone were to send me a copy of there mf000001.pl? We are using actinic version 8.5.3.0.0.0.lDBH - if that helps.

Again - I have to repeat that this was all working perfectly and that for our part, we believe we have changed nothing. Our ISP still has not responded to requests to see the error logs.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Mike de Malpas

[Duncan Rounding]

Someone else may have more knowledge about how the scripts are created, but my understanding is that mf000001.pl is created by Actinic offline from mailform.pl and then uploaded to the site.

You will find a 'clean' copy of mailform.pl in:
C:\Program Files\Actinic v8\Original

Try copying that into your site1 folder and then purge and refresh the site.

[NormanRouxel]

Forget editing or taking files mf000001.pl from anyone else. This file is generated by Actinic from master file "MailForm.pl". Let us know if "MailForm.pl" is in your Site folder or not.

[demalpas]

Yes MailForm.pl is in the the Site1 folder. It appears to be the same as the version in C:\Program Files\Actinic v8\Original - i.e. same number of lines.

I can take a backup of the current version (rename it) and subsitute the version from C:\Program Files\Actinic v8\Original.

I will try that and report back.

Thanks to both of you for your advice.

Regards,

Mike de Malpas

[demalpas]

Norman,

You say that the script mf000001.pl is generated by MailForm.pl. When and where is it created please? Is it generated first on the local machine and then uploaded to the server or is it generated on the server? I am trying to understand if old versions of it on the local PC and on the server should be deleted - before a refresh is done.

Thanks for your help so far - still nothing working yet though. Have changed the MailForm.pl (got the one from C:\Program Files\Actinic v8\Original) and uploaded a new snapshot - but to no avail.

Mike de Malpas

[NormanRouxel]

MailForm.pl is processed by Actinic when you click the Upload or Refresh buttons and Actinic creates the mf000001.pl file at that time.

It looks a lot more like you have a hosting issue. Talk to them and ask if they've changed anything recently.

[demalpas]

My thanks to Norman and everyone else who helped. Having changed the MailForm.pl again and purged and refreshed the site, the 'Contact Us' form now loads correctly.

All is well that ends well - many thanks again.

Mike de Malpas