Guestbook problems (I am back)

[valerie69357]

Hi,

Its me again. I redid my guestbook on the site and it still doesn't work. It is one of Matt's scripts. My address is http://www.neyouthrodeo.netfirms.com Go to Opinion Page, and give it a try please. I am using GoLive 5-0. Please help me. I would like this to be working soon.

Thanks
Valerie

[cyanide]

Hi Valerie,

A few things you can try...

First, is the guestbook.pl writeable by the server ?
-should probably be chmod 755 or 777

2. I see guestbook.pl is in the cgi-bin. It's possible that it will work outside the cgi-bin.

3. I noticed you're using the get method. Probably should use the Post method in the form.

[paulhiles]

Hi Valerie

I agree with cyanide's comments, providing you have the necessary permissions set for the Perl script (guestbook.pl) there shouldn't really be a problem. The form method definitely needs to be set to Post (code snippet from Matts Script archive below)

<form method=POST action="http://your.host.com/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl">
Your Name:<input type=text name=realname size=30>

E-Mail: <input type=text name=username size=40>

Hope this helps, and let us know how you get on!

Paul

[valerie69357]

I switched the GET to the POST, I did that because of what I read in my GoLive manual. They suggested that GET should be used instead of POST. But I did switch it.

On the chmod, the support guys at netfirms said that I did that on the guestbook.pl page itself by enabling the server to read/write/execute. So I did do that after I upload the page, I enable read/write/execute for owners/group/and others. Is that the correct way?

The problem I having now is an internal server problem, plus I can no longer upload using the tool bar. I can only upload by manually moving the files from the site window to the ftp window . I have NO idea how I created that problem for myself. Anyway any thoughts? I have emailed the support people at netfirms about the problem but probably won't hear back until next week.

Val

[cyanide]

I switched the GET to the POST, I did that because of what I read in my GoLive manual. They suggested that GET should be used instead of POST. But I did switch it.
When installing a script, it's best to go by the instructions / documentation provided. Don't go by a general web editor. Did you make any other changes that GoLive suggested? If you did, you may want to backtrack and un do them.


On the chmod, the support guys at netfirms said that I did that on the guestbook.pl page itself by enabling the server to read/write/execute. So I did do that after I upload the page, I enable read/write/execute for owners/group/and others. Is that the correct way?
Again, read the docs (http://www.scriptarchive.com/download.cgi?s=guestbook&c=txt&f=README)
It says "chmoded read/execute for users of your httpd. (chmod a+rx)"


The problem I having now is an internal server problem,
A very common error and one of the problems with perl, because it doesn't tell you what exactly the problem is. How about the path to perl (at the top of guestbook.pl ? (#!/usr/bin/perl)
On your host it may be different


plus I can no longer upload using the tool bar. I can only upload by manually moving the files from the site window to the ftp window .
I don't know what this means exactly, but you should also be sure you're uploading in ASCII mode, not binary.

[Narasinha]

Hi,

Its me again. I redid my guestbook on the site and it still doesn't work. It is one of Matt's scripts. My address is http://www.neyouthrodeo.netfirms.com Go to Opinion Page, and give it a try please. I am using GoLive 5-0. Please help me. I would like this to be working soon.

Thanks
Valerie

Hi Valerie,
I looked at the page, and downloaded the Guestbook files from Matt's Script Archive. 500 errors are tough to track down sometimes. I've had some that have given me fits. I didn't see anything wrong with the code on your pages, ao I'm assuming there is a configuration problem with the guestbook.pl file or the file permissions. You mentioned that you set the read/execute permissions on guestbook.pl (chmod 755). Did you set the read/write permissions for guestbook.html and guestlog.html (chmod 666)? It didn't record any errors in the log file (guestlog.html) so it didn't get that far into the program. What do you have in the configuration section of guestbook.pl? The section has this before it's customized for your site:


$guestbookurl = "http://your.host.com/~yourname/guestbook.html";
$guestbookreal = "/home/yourname/public_html/guestbook.html";
$guestlog = "/home/yourname/public_html/guestlog.html";
$cgiurl = "http://your.host.com/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl";
$date_command = "/usr/bin/date";

The options below that are either 1 for on or 0 for off, so shouldn't be a problem. The mail configuration (if enabled) below that is like this:


$mailprog = '/usr/lib/sendmail';
$recipient = 'you@your.com';

Of course, sendmail may not be available on the system.

Those are the most likely places for any problems as far as I can see. I just uploaded the files to my own persoanl home page at http://balder.prohosting.com/djohnson/guestbook.html and it seems to work okay there, except fot the guestlog.html file. It wrote blank information into that file for some reason. If you'd like any help setting the right variables in the guestbook.pl then we just need to know what the actual path is to your files. According to the printenv program on your server space at netfirms, your document root path is /mnt/web_i/d09/s16/a000pspk/ (though that sounds odd to me) so your config section should look like this:


$guestbookurl = "http://www.neyouthrodeo.netfirms.com/guestbook.html";
$guestbookreal = "/mnt/web_i/d09/s16/a000pspk/guestbook.html";
$guestlog = "/mnt/web_i/d09/s16/a000pspk/guestlog.html";
$cgiurl = "http://www.neyouthrodeo.netfirms.com/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl";
$date_command = "/usr/bin/date";


If that and the read/write/execute permissions are set right, then it's a more exotic problem. I have a short little environmental variable checking script that you can use to get the proper variables from your own cgi-bin directory so that those paths can be set if those above don't work.

Narasinha

[Narasinha]

Aha! I think I found some of the problem.


On the chmod, the support guys at netfirms said that I did that on the guestbook.pl page itself by enabling the server to read/write/execute. So I did do that after I upload the page, I enable read/write/execute for owners/group/and others. Is that the correct way?

I think perhaps this was misunderstood. When I submitted the form with blank information it complained that the comments field was blank. Then when I filled in just a couple things I got the following response when I tried to submit it:

Not Found
The requested URL /cgi-bin/guestbook.pl (chmod a+rx) was not found on this server.

One problem appears to be in the configuration. The text (chmod a+rx) is what you do to the files, not what should be added to the configuration. You can usually do this from your FTP program when you do not have shell access at the account.

You'll need to check over the lines in the configuration section again, and re-upload the files. Then from within WS-FTP or CuteFTP, etc., you can (from Windows) right-click on the appropriate file, bringing up a menu with CHMOD as one of the choices. A small window will be brought up with the read/write/execute ability for owner/group/world. Make the appropriate changes there. Evidently the guestbook.pl program is already world-executable since it will run to a certain extent.

Narasinha

[valerie69357]

I want to thank everyone who has written. I just had to rebuild the hard drive on my Mac, so I have been busy with other things besides Nebraska Youth Rodeo. However, I am going to download the codes fresh and use your suggestions. When I get it up, I will post again.

Thank you

[valerie69357]

I downloaded a guestbook script from Freebok http://www.freebok.net/user/help/introduction.html

I really recommend this script, especially for people new to web design and those who are using a free hosting service. They seem very compatible. I also got my uploading problems resolved.

Check out the guestbook (Opinion Page) at http://neyouthrodeo.netfirms.com

I have added few more bells and whistles. Also had a breakthrough using LiveMotion, and Image Ready. Created a few cool (I think) extras to my personal site: http://optionsinart.netfirms.com I will be adding a guestbook to that site in the future also.

Thank you to everyone