Re: How do I insert a cgi script into Publisher page?

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Your way of using Google to find the relevant help information on a host
makes sense. Probably a lot faster. Thanks for the suggestion.

DavidF

"Spike" <zero_spam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23PpQ9e6sJHA.1208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
David

Good response. Each time I write ISP I keep telling my self that someone
somewhere is going to go to AOL and look for their site, then I get over
it. You are correct, I should refer to the hosting service. I use to do
absolute paths until I figured out the relative ones. As you said, there
are some newbie's here and absolute is better to get things started. I do
have some PHP things I am working on that REQUIRE absolute paths. As far
as the help areas, when people post their hosting service I go to my
search engine and enter forms and the hosting service and most of the time
I get what I need. That seems faster than going on line to the host and
looking for help. Example: enter forms godaddy into Google and scroll
down to the godaddy link "http://help.godaddy.com/article/512"; and there
it is.

I have two PHP mailers just about ready. One is a straight forward form
mailer working with publisher forms and the other is script form that
requires the sender to put in a 4 number code to send (stops spammers).

Spike

"DavidF" <Nope@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uzLjc85sJHA.1208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Spike,

Good job. I will try to follow the instructions myself when I have time
to see where or if things are unclear to me. A few first impressions
though:

Though Publisher uses 'ISP' I think that may be confusing to some as my
ISP is not where I host my website. Instead of using just 'ISP', perhaps
it would be useful to define 'ISP/website host' at least the first time
you use ISP or just use 'website host' instead. Perhaps this is picky as
I knew what you meant, but others might not.

You alluded to this several times, but you might be more specific about
how different ISPs/Website hosts offer different form handler programs,
and that the user should go to their webhost 'help' section, or perhaps
'Support', 'Knowledge Base' or maybe even 'FAQs section' to find what
form handler the host supports and the directions for using their form
handler. From my experience of going to the various hosts this
information can be hard to find sometimes, so I also always look for a
search field in the 'help' section and search for 'forms'. That almost
always saves me time in finding the information. I am of course not
suggesting that you use all these words, but perhaps in your own more
succinct style ;-), give the poster a little more direction of how to
find what forms their host supports and how to find the directions. Once
they do, chances are your directions will be work in general regardless
of what forms handler program they have.

You and Don tend to use relative links and paths, but I think that it
might be more clear if posters use absolute links/paths in general. For
example when you double click the submit button, and then the 'form
properties' button, and the 'use a program from my ISP' then this is what
is given as the sample link:
http://example.microsoft.com/~user/ispscript.cgi I guess what I am
saying is that people can sometimes understand an absolute link easier
than they can a relative one.

I will try your directions to see if I can follow the rest but it looks
like good information. I will look forward to trying out your PHP
directions too. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I think
helping people move away from FPSE is a good idea...especially since they
can use FTP uploading.

DavidF


"Spike" <zero_spam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Om2AXQxsJHA.2532@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
David

I put together a routine that I use with success: Look it over please
and see if I make sense. I will do another one for PHP. I am leaning
towards PHP more and more as it is somewhat easier if you like modifying
scripts.

======
CGI Mail form
If your ISP supports cgi and has a form handling program then a form
created in publisher will function using FTP upload rather than front
page server extensions to upload the pages.

You must tell the server what e mail address you want the form results
sent to. Some ISP's are different than others. Check with the ISP help
section on handling forms for that information.

Locate the cgi form handler file on the server. It is probably in the
cgi or cgi-bin folder. Again ISP's are not all the same.

For example, if the form handler is in the cgi folder and it is named
myform.cgi then the path for the handler in publisher will be "
/cgi/myform.cgi " without the quotes.


In publisher create a page for your form and build the form.
In the form properties window select "Use a program from my ISP"
In the action section insert the path you discovered above. Example for
godaddy.com is " /cgi/gdform.cgi " without the quotes.

From method is Post

In the hidden fields window: enter under Item "subject" no quotes an
in the item value for subject enter a subject line that you want on the
form when you receive it.


Below the subject enter "redirect" no quotes if you want have a thank
you page built and in the item value enter the path to your thank you
page

Example: " /thank_you/thankyou.htm " the thankyou.htm file is located
in the thank_you folder in the root directory.
The thank you page may have a link back to the page where you came from
or any where else you so desire or an auto redirect script with a delay.
The auto redirect script is inserted using the HTML fragment function
and looks like:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="4; url=/index.htm">

In this case the time delay is 4 seconds and the page that will come up
is the index.htm.

=========

"DavidF" <Nope@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uq5TZ$vsJHA.4968@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Spike is the one with the most experience with using something other
than FrontPage Server Extensions to power the forms, so hopefully he
will jump into this thread and offer some more information. But in the
meantime...

I don't think you will have to "name your order form". I think what
Spike was suggesting was that the way you wrote the link was
incomplete, and that you needed to add the extension. I would just try
it and see what happens. One thing to keep in mind is that unless you
make that link an absolute link instead of a relative link, it won't
work from your local computer. It is looking for the cgi folder on your
server when you use the relative link. So you may have to upload your
pages in order to test it.

Here is another resource for you that might help explain the forms in
Publisher:
Reference: Web forms:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/CH063576891033.aspx

If you test it and it still doesn't work as per Spike's suggestions
after uploading the pages, then post back and let us know. Also provide
us a link to your host and specifically where on the host website it
gives you the instructions for using the forms program in the cgi
folder. Then perhaps we can help further.

DavidF


"Monika" <Monika@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6311AA11-01D7-45E5-97D3-7FE0D0E55A91@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oh, I did not know that David B has been inactive for some time. But
now
looking at the date ...

Anyway, yes, I saw Spike's advise and it was very helpful to a certain
point
( I now know whre to put the command) but did not solve my problem.
His
command was /cgi/myform.cgi. Does this mean that I will have to name
my order
form. In fact, I inserted this order form by using one of the
templates and
would not know if this one has a name and were to find it.

Sorry, if I sound a little daft but since this is my very first
website, I
am a little lost presently :-). Thank you very much for your support.

Monika

"DavidF" wrote:

David Bartosik has been inactive for a number of years now, so I
wouldn't
hold my breath waiting for an answer from him.

I see that Spike answered your other post. Did that give you enough
information?

DavidF

"Monika" <Monika@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ACBEF744-3AF2-4A31-8BAA-BBF4275791C9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
David,

I would need some advice about this subject too. Could you explain
to me
how
to find out the URL of the script? Will I have to ask my server or
should
I
be able to find out going into my account with the server?

Thank you very much.

Monika

"David Bartosik [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

You have to use the form controls under "Insert, Form" to build a
form.
You
then set the form properties (under submit button) to run the host
side
cgi.
You'll see under the form properties the option to "use my ISP's
program",
you set that option to the URL of the script. Once on your server
the
form
is filled out by the user and the submit button then hands the
values of
those form controls over to the cgi script. After that it is up to
the
script and your host side programming to do whatever.

David Bartosik - [MSFT MVP]
www.publishermvps.com
www.davidbartosik.com

"Randy" <Randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:D6FD6E83-C9DB-4AF1-B31D-85FAD833762D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On my web site http://www.randypoole.com I have a contact form
so I can
get
info from my clients, However it does not work. Do I need a cgi
script
on
my
host to get it to work or something else I'm not doing right? I
want it
to
send me the info, then redirect them to a page so they can
search for
homes.












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Relevant Pages

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    ... Each time I write ISP I keep telling my self that someone somewhere is going to go to AOL and look for their site, ... One is a straight forward form mailer working with publisher forms and the other is script form that requires the sender to put in a 4 number code to send. ... Though Publisher uses 'ISP' I think that may be confusing to some as my ISP is not where I host my website. ... If your ISP supports cgi and has a form handling program then a form created in publisher will function using FTP upload rather than front page server extensions to upload the pages. ...
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  • Re: How do I insert a cgi script into Publisher page?
    ... If your ISP supports cgi and has a form handling program then a form created ... You must tell the server what e mail address you want the form results sent ... any where else you so desire or an auto redirect script with a delay. ... link to your host and specifically where on the host website it gives you ...
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    ... If your ISP supports cgi and has a form handling program then a form created in publisher will function using FTP upload rather than front page server extensions to upload the pages. ... The thank you page may have a link back to the page where you came from or any where else you so desire or an auto redirect script with a delay. ... Also provide us a link to your host and specifically where on the host website it gives you the instructions for using the forms program in the cgi folder. ...
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  • Re: How do I insert a cgi script into Publisher page?
    ... is not where I host my website. ... If your ISP supports cgi and has a form handling program then a form ... You must tell the server what e mail address you want the form results ... any where else you so desire or an auto redirect script with a delay. ...
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