Hi again! :)You wrote:
>
> colors here are terrible! Can't read the dark blue areas. Have to scan them with mouse to see anything.
I agree - I will have to fix this subito!! :(
> I can see the cgi-bin directory when in
> FTP_PRO but can't get to it with a browser.
I know. This is something which really surprised me in the beginning too when I had my first domain on Colossus (back in '98...). My support person at the time just said to place cgi scripts anywhere (as an example in a folder called "cgi-local") but into the cgi-bin. Please do not ask me why Colossus server machines are set-up that way because I do not know the answer to that but I got to like the system. Basicly any directory you create can execute cgi scripts if you chmode it correctly.
The below text is taken from the Colossus tutorial and to me it does not agree with what I wrote above but it may still help somehow:
Quote
What are cgi-bin scripts?
"cgi" stands for "common gateway interface", a fancy name meaning computer programs running on the web server that can be invoked from a WWW page at the browser. The "bin" part alludes to the binary executables that result from compiled or assembled programs. It is a bit misleading because cgi's can also be Unix shell scripts or interpreted languages like Perl.
A typical use for cgi is the processing of online forms. When the user fills in the boxes on the form and hits the SUBMIT button, the cgi program specified in the html will be run at the server, and the information in the boxes become available to the program as parameters. The program, being a program, can then do anything the programmer wanted it to do.
FormMail.pl, for example, is a program that gathers up the contents of the boxes on the form and emails them to a specified destination, then sends a WWW page confirming the action.
Where should I put cgi-bin scripts?
Put your cgi-bin scripts in the WWW subdirectory named cgi-bin. For example, /www/htdocs/company/cgi-bin/script.
If your domain is named company.com, you would then access your scripts using the ScriptAlias for your cgi-bin: http://www.company.com/cgi-company/script.
What is the path of date, mail, perl ...?
To find the path of the program date, type which date. Do this for any program that you need your cgi-bin script to access.
I see lots of perls, which one should I use?
They should all be the same. /usr/bin/perl should work nicely.
Charges
Being the nice guys that we are, we are providing the following standardized scripts for free: feedback forms, imagemaps, and page counter scripts.
FEEDBACK FORMS AND SIMILAR FORMS
FormMail.pl is a program that takes the contents of fill-in boxes on a form and emails them to a specified destination.
We provide FormMail.pl in the cgi-bin directory of each machine. Details are provided below.
Please understand that FormMail.pl will NOT be in your cgi-bin directory. We store it in the main cgi-bin directory of each machine. The instructions given will allow you to use it without copying it to your cgi-bin directory.
How to use FormMail.pl
FormMail.pl is a universal WWW form to E-mail gateway. There is only one required form input tag which must be specified in order for this script to work with your existing forms. Other hidden configuration fields can also be used to enhance the operation of FormMail on your site. The action of your form needs to point towards FormMail.pl, and the method must be POST or GET in capital letters. An example of a simple form, order.html, using FormMail.pl can be found at the end of this section.
Below is a list of form fields you can use and how to implement them.
There is only one form field that you must have in your form, for FormMail.pl to work correctly. This is the recipient field.
Field: recipient
Description: This form field allows you to specify to whom you wish for your form results to be mailed. Most likely you will want to configure this option as a hidden form field with a value equal to that of your e-mail address.
Syntax: input type=hidden name="recipient" value="email@your.host.com"
Field: subject
Description: The subject field will allow you to specify the subject that you wish to appear in the e-mail that is sent to you after this form has been filled out. If you do not have this option turned on, then the script will default to a message subject: WWW Form Submission
Syntax: If you wish to choose what the subject is:
input type=hidden name="subject" value="Your Subject"
To allow the user to choose a subject:
input type=text name="subject"
Field: email
Description: This form field will allow the user to specify their return e-mail address. If you want to be able to return e-mail to your user, I strongly suggest that you include this form field and allow them to fill it in. This will be put into the From: field of the message you receive. If you want to require an email address with valid syntax, add this field name to the 'required' field.
Syntax: input type=text name="email"
Field: realname
Description: The realname form field will allow the user to input their real name. This field is useful for identification purposes and will also be put into the From: line of your message header.
Syntax: input type=text name="realname"
Field: redirect
Description: If you wish to redirect the user to a different URL, rather than having them see the default response to the fill-out form, you can use this hidden variable to send them to a pre-made HTML page.
Syntax: To choose the URL they will end up at:
input type=hidden name="redirect"
value=
" TARGET=_blank>http://your.host.com/to/file.html"
To allow them to specify a URL they wish to travel to
once the form is filled out:
input type=text name="redirect"
Field: required
Description: You can now require for certain fields in your form to be filled in before the user can successfully submit the form. Simply place all field names that you want to be mandatory into this field. If the required fields are not filled in, the user will be notified of what they need to fill in, and a link back to the form they just submitted will be provided.
To use a customized error page, see 'missing_fields_redirect'
Syntax: If you want to require that they fill in the
email and phone fields in your form, so that
you can reach them once you have received the mail,
use a syntax like:
input type=hidden name="required" value="email,phone"
Field: env_report
Description: Allows you to have Environment variables included in the e-mail message you receive after a user has filled out your form. Useful if you wish to know what browser they were using, what domain they were coming from or any other attributes associated with environment variables. The following is a short list of valid environment variables that might be useful:
REMOTE_HOST - Sends the hostname making a request.
REMOTE_ADDR - Sends the IP address of the remote
host making the request.
REMOTE_USER - If server supports authentication
and script is protected, this is the
username they have authenticated as.
This is not usually set.
HTTP_USER_AGENT - The browser the client is using
to send the request.
There are others, but these are
a few of the most useful. For more
information on environment variables, see:
http://www.cgi-resources.com/Documentation/Environment_Variables
Syntax: If you wanted to find the remote host and
browser sending the request, you would put
the following into your form:
input type=hidden name="env_report"
value="REMOTE_HOST,HTTP_USER_AGENT"
Field: sort
Description: This field allows you to choose the order in which you wish for your variables to appear in the e-mail that FormMail generates. You can choose to have the field sorted alphabetically or specify a set order in which you want the fields to appear in your mail message. By leaving this field out, the order will simply default to the order in which the browsers sends the information to the script (which is usually the exact same order as they appeared in the form.) When sorting by a set order of fields, you should include the phrase "order:" as the first part of your value for the sort field, and then follow that with the field names you want to be listed in the e-mail message, separated by commas. Version 1.6 allows a little more flexibility in the listing of ordered fields, in that you can include spaces and line breaks in the field without it messing up the sort. This is helpful when you have many form fields and need to insert a line wrap.
Syntax: To sort alphabetically:
input type=hidden name="sort" value="alphabetic"
To sort by a set field order:
input type=hidden name="sort"
value="order:name1,name2, name3,etc..."
Field: print_config
Description: print_config allows you to specify which of the config variables you would like to have printed in your e-mail message. By default, no config fields are printed to your e-mail. This is because the important form fields, like email, subject, etc. are included in the header of the message. However some users have asked for this option so they can have these fields printed in the body of the message. The config fields that you wish to have printed should be in the value attribute of your input tag separated by commas.
Syntax: If you want to print the email and subject fields
in the body of your message, you would place the
following form tag:
input type=hidden name="print_config" value="email,subject"
Field: print_blank_fields
Description: print_blank_fields allows you to request that all form fields are printed in the return HTML, regardless of whether or not they were filled in. FormMail defaults to turning this off, so that unused form fields aren't e-mailed.
Syntax: If you want to print all blank fields:
input type=hidden name="print_blank_fields" value="1"
Field: title
Description: This form field allows you to specify the title and header that will appear on the resulting page if you do not specify a redirect URL.
Syntax: If you wanted a title of 'Feedback Form Results':
input type=hidden name="title" value="Feedback Form Results"
Field: return_link_url
Description: This field allows you to specify a URL that will appear, as return_link_title, on the following report page. This field will not be used if you have the redirect field set, but it is useful if you allow the user to receive the report on the following page, but want to offer them a way to get back to your main page.
Syntax: input type=hidden name="return_link_url" value="http://your.host.com/main.html"
Field: return_link_title
Description: This is the title that will be used to link the user back to the page you specify with return_link_url. The two fields will be shown on the resulting form page as:
return_link_title
Syntax: input type=hidden name="return_link_title"
value="Back to Main Page"
Field: missing_fields_redirect
Description: This form field allows you to specify a URL that users will be redirected to if there are fields listed in the required form field that are not filled in. This is so you can customize an error page instead of displaying the default.
Syntax: input type=hidden name="missing_fields_redirect"
value="
Field:" TARGET=_blank>http://your.host.com/error.html"
Field: background
Description: This form field allow you to specify a background image that will appear if you do not have the redirect field set. This image will appear as the background to the form results page.
Syntax: input type=hidden name="background"
value="
Field:" TARGET=_blank>http://your.host.com/image.gif"
Field: bgcolor
Description: This form field allow you to specify a bgcolor for the form results page in much the way you specify a background image. This field should not be set if the redirect field is.
Syntax: For a background color of White:
input type=hidden name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"
Field: text_color
Description: This field works in the same way as bgcolor, except that it will change the color of your text.
Syntax: For a text color of Black:
input type=hidden name="text_color" value="#000000"
Field: link_color
Description: Changes the color of links on the resulting page. Works in the same way as text_color. Should not be defined if redirect is.
Syntax: For a link color of Red:
input type=hidden name="link_color" value="#FF0000"
Field: vlink_color
Description: Changes the color of visited links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is.
Syntax: For a visited link color of Blue:
input type=hidden name="vlink_color" value="#0000FF"
Field: alink_color
Description: Changes the color of active links on the resulting page. Works exactly the same as link_color. Should not be set if redirect is.
Syntax: For a visited link color of Blue:
input type=hidden name="alink_color" value="#0000FF"
Any other form fields that appear in your script will be mailed back to you and displayed on the resulting page if you do not have the redirect field set. There is no limit as to how many other form fields you can use with this form, except the limits imposed by browsers and your server.
order.html, an example form using FormMail.pl
Form
Automatic form creation
Use Brain to create forms to your specifications. Brain creates forms using FormMail.pl.
Unquote
> Shouldn't the following work?
> http://www.xxx.org/cgi-bin/xxx.cgi
It does on Alabanza as an example but does not on Colossus - our mommy hosting company.
Use as an example: http://www.xxx.org/cgi-local/xxx.cgi instead.
ip: private
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