PHP feedback form in Windows Server does not work

Are there differences to PHP 4/5 on Windows servers that I should know about?

e.g. I’m using the PHP Feedback form action, and it does not work on a Windows server but it does on a Unix server.

The only thing I can spot, there is no value for "sendmail_path" - unlike Unix servers which do have a path value.

Any idea’s why? Try it here:

Windows Server Bad:- :cry: [url]http://www.bwd-search.co.uk/new/hiring.php[/url]

Unix Server OK:- :lol: [url]http://www.davidowen.me.uk/BWD/new/hiring.php[/url]

David

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There are massive differences between PHP 4 and 5, let alone between Windows and server (i.e. Unix, Linux, and Unix-like) operating systems. There exist tricks that can let Windows pretend to have sendmail, but these have to be set up on the Windows level, not in PHP. There’s a whole section of the PHP Manual devoted to Mail, and a good percentage of that is given over to "How to get Windows to behave like a server operating system." If you don’t have control over the server at the admin level, your best bet will be to send mail using SMTP, i.e. not try to get the local OS to do any part of it.

Walter

On May 11, 2007, at 6:39 AM, PrintlineAdv wrote:

[quote:71f8e0b3b2]Are there differences to PHP 4/5 on Windows servers that I should know about?

e.g. I’m using the PHP Feedback form, and it does not work on a Windows server but it does on a Unix server.

The only thing I can spot is there is no value for "sendmail_path" - unlike Unix servers which do have a path value.

Any idea’s why? Try it here:

Windows Server Bad:- [Crying or Very sad] http://www.bwd-search.co.uk/new/hiring.php

Unix Server OK:- [Laughing] http://www.davidowen.me.uk/BWD/new/hiring.php

David

[/quote:71f8e0b3b2]

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Hi David

This has come up in the past for me as well.

My client swopped IT companies and in doing so swopped iSP’s and Formmail just wouldn’t work. After a lot of sweat and my best Kung Fu moves I was ready to get in the car and go a beat these blighter’s with a rolled up copy of Macuser.

Their opening gambit was to say I needed to switch the handler to a ASP form and use get instead of post. Explaining the security loopholes in this seemed to fall on deaf ears, but none the less I had a go, and it worked to a fashion. But I still wasn’t happy.

Anyway I decided against getting in the car because of petrol and my wife was cooking a nice tea that night. So in the end I got them to host the site on a Linux box. Normal service was resumed shortly thereafter. client happy, me happy, chimps at iSP breathed a sigh of relief, no more nasty e-mails from those horrid people in Brighton about our indolent attitude to customer service :)

[quote:5398737bbd=”PrintlineAdv”]Are there differences to PHP 4/5 on Windows servers that I should know about?

e.g. I’m using the PHP Feedback form action, and it does not work on a Windows server but it does on a Unix server.

The only thing I can spot, there is no value for "sendmail_path" - unlike Unix servers which do have a path value.

Any idea’s why? Try it here:

Windows Server Bad:- :cry: [url]http://www.bwd-search.co.uk/new/hiring.php[/url]

Unix Server OK:- :lol: [url]http://www.davidowen.me.uk/BWD/new/hiring.php[/url]

David[/quote:5398737bbd]

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Thanks Roger/Walter, the hosting service is not much help, suggesting to try FormMail to see what happens but can’t tell if cgi scripts work, and there is no cgi bin, I don’t think it will work but I’ll try.

Walter, what do I have to do to send mail using SMTP?

All else fails - a ASP script as Roger suggests

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Read this page:

http://www.php.net/mail

Try doing this in the very top of the very first PHP script invoked in your Mail chain:

ini_set(‘SMTP’,’mail.yourisp.com’); ini_set(‘sendmail_from’),’youruser@…’);

Note that these values may be overridden by your ISP’s main initialization script (i.e.: you may not have permission to effect this change) and this must be set to the actual machine name of whatever server is responsible for sending mail for you. You will most likely need an SMTP server that does not require authentication. Your ISP will be various degrees of help in this regard, depending on how much Red Bull they have consumed at that point in the day/night, and whether they are chimpy button-pushers or actual sysadmins.

Walter

On May 11, 2007, at 10:25 AM, PrintlineAdv wrote:

[quote:4000803de6]Walter, what do I have to do to send mail using SMTP?[/quote:4000803de6]

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Hi David

Can you post a link to the iSP in question? I promise not to get in my car and beat them, or call them chimps, but it would really help to get the compass needle pointing on the right direction, if we could see their set up and what products they do or don’t offer. If this information is sensitive, so be it. I’d suggest a PM to WD as he’s at least 200 miles down the road to a Freeway Medal of Honour compared to me. But if you’re feeling lucky, send it over to me, I am after all, so much cheaper :)

By the way, the Formmail script doesn’t have to be in a GCi bin, just in the main directory of your site. As long as your Freeway form point’s to it’s location you should be good to go.

Going back a little while many iSP’s offered a generic Formmail script located in a communal folder, so that site builders that use their service could use it. (some still do) Just point your form to it and chocks away, but this is now quite rare.

Anyway, get the info over if you can and lets see if we can put this to bed.

Kind regards RogerG

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I’d suggest a private email to WD, since he never reads any PMs. (Being in the US and all, we don’t have PMs.)

Walter

On May 11, 2007, at 11:31 AM, RogerG wrote:

[quote:f664caf45a]I’d suggest a PM to WD[/quote:f664caf45a]

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[quote:f8545b2779=”RogerG”]Hi David

Can you post a link to the iSP in question?[/quote:f8545b2779]

Here’s the link [url]http://www.technetworks.co.uk/[/url]

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They say any .asp script will work ‘anywhere’ (no cgi bin) so I got FromMailASP to try over the weekend

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Is moving ISPs out of the question for some non-technical reason?

These prices are quite high for what they offer, and the whole Microsoft angle gives me the itchies at a fundamental level.

150 to 200 pounds sterling is about 3-400 US$ these days, and you can buy a whole co-located server per year for that kind of cash. James at HaveHost will let you have a shared server for about $65 a year, IIRC.

Walter

On May 11, 2007, at 12:40 PM, PrintlineAdv wrote:

[quote:0433837d89] RogerG wrote: [quote:0433837d89]Hi David

Can you post a link to the iSP in question? [/quote:0433837d89]

Here’s the link http://www.technetworks.co.uk/

[/quote:0433837d89]

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If you fancy tinkering with the PHP file the PHP Feedback Form action creates (<filename>-go.php) then you could have it accept a form submission from your MS hosted site. There are some security issues here that you would have to tie down but it could work. Regards, Tim.

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[quote:88daaed8b6=”waltd”]Is moving ISPs out of the question for some non-technical reason?

These prices are quite high for what they offer, and the whole Microsoft angle gives me the itchies at a fundamental level.

150 to 200 pounds sterling is about 3-400 US$ these days, and you can buy a whole co-located server per year for that kind of cash. James at HaveHost will let you have a shared server for about $65 a year, IIRC.

Walter[/quote:88daaed8b6]

No client want to stay there, and not take up our own hosting service on Unix servers. Not as cheap as Havehost, as the £ is very strong. But loads of features to make life easier for Fellow Freewayers if they want to contact me.

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[quote:49fdb63eea=”Tim Plumb”]If you fancy tinkering with the PHP file the PHP Feedback Form action creates (<filename>-go.php) then you could have it accept a form submission from your MS hosted site. There are some security issues here that you would have to tie down but it could work. Regards, Tim.[/quote:49fdb63eea]

Tim,

I would be happy to do that - I’ve done some PHP so I’m not a total stranger to it, if I knew what I should change? Could you expand on the subject?

David

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Are you kidding? We have PMs every evening! Usually followed by AMs after midnight. :-)

Although some people only have pms once a month, and seem pretty upset about that. :-(

waltd wrote: [quote:115e374a6f]I’d suggest a private email to WD, since he never reads any PMs. (Being in the US and all, we don’t have PMs.)[/quote:115e374a6f]

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This is all so confusing. In England, they have PMs in their government but not on their clocks.

Walter

On May 11, 2007, at 7:50 PM, The Big Erns wrote:

[quote:f4dbabfcf2]Are you kidding? We have PMs every evening! Usually followed by AMs after midnight. :-)[/quote:f4dbabfcf2]

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And their clocks move in the opposite direction from our hemisphere :-)

waltd wrote: [quote:537dc311ce]This is all so confusing. In England, they have PMs in their government but not on their clocks.[/quote:537dc311ce]

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Sorry if this sounds dumb, but …

I installed MySQL from one of the installers mentioned here from the Entrophy guy in Switzerland.

I installed a while ago and cannot remember what if anything I did about setting up access to it.

Can anyone suggest if there are defaults I can use to access it. I’ve got CocoaMySQL installed and connect to a webserver.

Best wishes Peter

================================ Peter Tucker, Oxford UK pgt@…

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on 12/5/07 18:01, pandion at pgt@… wrote:

[quote:028f24b22f]Sorry if this sounds dumb, but …

I installed MySQL from one of the installers mentioned here from the Entrophy guy in Switzerland.

I installed a while ago and cannot remember what if anything I did about setting up access to it.

Can anyone suggest if there are defaults I can use to access it. I’ve got CocoaMySQL installed and connect to a webserver.

Best wishes Peter

[/quote:028f24b22f]

Best wishes Peter

================================ Peter Tucker, Oxford UK pgt@…

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Hey guys, For a good Windows server contact form solution, I like using “Forms To Go” as it can easily be configured to work on Windows servers (creates ASP, CGI as welll as PHP scripts). You set up your form as normal and then apply the script in Freeway using Page >Form Setup. If you need to authenticate the message, like I did with the hosting I am using, in FormsToGo just go to Settings > Languages > ASP and add one of your email accounts (specifically the smtp setting, email and password) to do the heavy lifting.

I don’t work for FormsToGo but I really like all of the options they have. Really robust.

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