Combining MultiPage and fmbadhandler.php

[onno]

Hi!

First of all, I'd like to thank the generous author for publishing this marvellous application as freeware. And thank goodness I tried searching for existing solutions instead of trying to write something for myself -- FormMail is better than anything I could've come up with

Since the form I need in the end is a multi-page form, and because I'd also like to use the nice error handling provided by the fmbadhandler script, I've tried combining them -- of course, not after playing around with some simple examples

Multi-page works fine, and so does fmbadhandler... Until I combine them. The problem is as follows:

• When I make a 'mistake' on the first page, fmbadhandler jumps in and handles everything correctly: I can gracefully go back to the first page, with everything filled in like it's supposed to be.
• Going back and forth between the first two pages works perfectly.
• When I make a mistake on the second page, and try to go back (from the error page to the filled-in second page for correcting the mistake), the script seems to crash: my browser keeps loading, with no response coming back from the server; when I manually open up the first page of the multi-form and try to post it, the same happens (no reply from the server). It seems PHP or the formmail.php scripts 'hangs' -- although other PHP scripts still work.

Well, I am completely puzzled by this, and I'd be happy to perform any necessary tests you'd like me to do. I hope I'm not doing anything really stupid, but I've been looking at my own code for a few days now...

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,


Onno Broekmans

PS Some system information: I'm working on the server itself, which is a WinXP SP2 box with Apache2 and PHP 4.3.5. I work with FormMail 7.00 and fmbadhandler.php 1.08.

PPS I checked all the "hidden input" parameters in my form code a few times with the prescriptions in the "Multi-Page How-To", so I'm quite confident I haven't made any gross mistakes.

[russellr]

Hi,

That's sounds very strange.

I guess I'd like to see this first, and then we can go from there.

Can you make this accessible from the Internet and either post the URL or send it to me by Private Message?

If not, please ZIP up all the relevent files and email them to me at supportstaff AT tectite DOT com, and I'll check it out on a local machine.

Multi-page form support is quite new, so it's possible we have a bug and I'm happy to have close look at this for you.

[onno]

Attached, you'll find a simplified version of my code. Of course, you'd need to adapt some settings to your own server and directory structure, but I hope you can use it to reproduce the error. I haven't made the example available on my own server, since it seems it makes Apache crash.

I hope you'll find any possible bugs in either my code or in FormMail...

Regards, Onno

[russellr]

Hi,

All works fine here, except you didn't include your bad_template.

Try removing that field from the forms and see whether you can change of behaviour.

You can send me your bad_template file, too, if you want me to look at it.

[onno]

Actually, formmailtest_bad1.html is the bad-template... ('though I might have forgotten to update the reference in the forms). Strange that everything works on your server... Perhaps my PHP version is too old?

Regards, Onno

[russellr]

Hi,

Actually, formmailtest_bad1.html is the bad-template

Stupid me! Somehow I missed that.

Now I get the problem you're seeing and I'll post back with the answer shortly.

[russellr]

Hi,

I can't figure out what's going on, yet.

What I recommend is this:

1. Create a separate directory for templates
2. Create a separate directory for the second and subsequent forms
3. Put the first form, formmail, and fmbadhandler in the same directory (try the document root first).
4. Get the sample forms we provide working FIRST.

This is what we have for our sample multipage forms and it works fine.

I'll try to figure out what's going wrong, but it's going to take some time.

[onno]

Hi,

Actually, I already followed all your recommendations (I just zipped them up in one folder), except number 4: I'll try that one asap (do those examples also use fmbadhandler succesfully?).

Just one more request: would you mind replacing the e-mail address for error messages and notifications in the config section? My mail box was pretty full of FormMail messages

Thanks for your time!

Regards,


Onno

[russellr]

Hi,

(do those examples also use fmbadhandler succesfully?).

Yes they do. That's what's really very strange.

I'm wondering if the delay is actually your email addresses....maybe a DNS delay or something like that.

The sample works fine unless I try to get it to use the FormMail and FMBadHandler you sent me.

There are so many permutations and I haven't been able to spend more time on it today - I'm also tied up for the next few days so tracking down the problem won't happen until next week.

I'm 90% sure it's not a bug in FormMail or FMBadHandler because I mutipage samples work great, except when I put it all together in one directory and use your FormMail and FMBadHandler configuration.

Just one more request: would you mind replacing the e-mail address for error messages and notifications in the config section? My mail box was pretty full of FormMail messages

Yes, I'll try to remember!

[onno]

I've done another test; the same problems, I'm afraid. This is what I've done:

1. I downloaded version 6.x, and used the Upgrade Wizard to update it to version 7.01.
2. I put the formmail.php script, together with a clean version of fmbadhandler.php, in a directory myserverdir/webroot/formmailtest.
3. I completely re-did the configuration of formmail.php.
4. I downloaded the multiform example, putting multitest.htm in myserverdir/webroot/formmailtest, and pages 2 and 3 in myserverdir/formmail/multiforms.
5. I created a bad_template for fmbadhandler in myserverdir/formmail/badhandlers.

I still have the same problems. I tried playing around with some config values, but nothing helps

Perhaps I should take a close look at my version of PHP?

Oh, and btw: my form doesn't have much of a priority, so I'm not in a hurry solving this at all...

Regards,

Onno