Best thing since sliced bread...

[Monica]

Hi all... here I go again about CGIEMAIL. Exit out of this thread, if you can't take another minute of my cgiemail ranting! http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

I'm still a CGI newbie, though I do have a UBB, UBB guestbook, WWWboard under my belt. What I REALLY want, is to install CGIEMAIL, and can't seem to install it!

I've downloaded it from http://web.mit.edu/wwwdev/cgiemail , but I just can't seem to install it! I've asked my ISP for a copy (they use it as well, and agreed with me, it's the best thing since sliced bread). My ISP is unsure if they can 'just' transfer a copy over to me. They have so nicely offered to let me continue using theirs (my forms are currently routed for processing to my ISP, and then back to my site at FQ)... but I'd rather keep everything related to my site, "at home".

If any FQbies can help... I'd be sooooooo grateful! The instructions from MIT are Greek to me.

If you don't know what CGIEMAIL is... think of it as a magical golden egg in your cgi-bin. Once you have it in your cgi-bin... you never have to touch it again. Now... when you process a form, the cgiemail processes the forms input info, and magically appears on a corresponding text file, then gets sent to the designated mailbox. I can write anything I want on my text, as well as have a field required or optional. I can have it redirect the user to a thank you page, or what ever. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Example:
If I ask on the form, say I named it pizza.html ...
What is your name? _____________
What is your email? ____________
Favorite pizza topping? ________

On my pizza.txt, the ONLY thing I have to type is:


To: me@mydomain.com
From: [required-email]
Subject: Pizza Form


For the the best [required-topping] pizza in town, email [required-name] at [required-email].


If I don't care what their favorite topping is, leaving the field optional... [topping] will be used on the form and text.

I hope I've made sense. It's sooo easy to create text files for your forms, and a gazillion times better then form mail (JMHO).
I'm a neat freak, and like my directories all nice and tidy... and with cgiemail, I keep a handy dandy "form" directory.

Anyhoo... If anyone can help me... I'll send Maui Caramacs (chocolaty nouget macadamia nuts) as a thank you!

Mo http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Marc]

Hello,
I donwloaded, extracted, and uploaded the contents of the .tar file to my website in a cgiemail-1.6 directory.
I then used that Telnet program when I click Start - Run and I type telnet, in the Windows taskbar. I log in.
I go to the cgiemail-1.6 directory. Mine is located in /big/dom/xdigitaldynasty/www/forms/cgiemail-1.6. So i type cd www, then cd forms, then cd cgiemail-1.6. Ok in the CGIemail build instructions its say to type ./configure. When I do that it says permissioned denied. I dont know what to do from there sorry...that was my first try at telnet.

[This message has been edited by Marc (edited 03-14-99).]

[jenili]

Caramacs, ooooh, yum! :-q I'll be your slave for a box of Caramacs!

OK, more seriously, let's see if this helps. You should be able to just download the binaries and not hassle with compiling it. Get 'em here -- copy everything except cgisco.
http://web.mit.edu/wwwdev/arch/i386_linux2/cgi-bin

Next, ftp them to your cgi-bin directory -- maybe a subdirectory you create just for this proggy, since you like to keep everything in neat folders.

Then you need to make them executable. If your FTP client lets you change UNIX permissions, great. Set 'em to 700.

If it doesn't, you'll be logging in with telnet or SecureCRT to do this. Enter these commands at the prompt.
cd ~/../cgi-bin/cgiemail-or-whatever-you-called-the-folder
chmod 700 *

Next, test it out. Browse to yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/cgiemail-or-whatever/cgiemail/
If it sends you to the "Using cgiemail" page, you're in like Flynn. Otherwise, c'mon back and let us all know what error messages you receive. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif


------------------

jeni

[Monica]

Hi Jeni,

Thanks so much! I followed your instructions to a T. This is what I got...


The requested URL /cgi-sys/cgiemail/TESTforms/test.txt was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

I used my ftp to chmod it to 700. The files I d/l'd, had a .exe on em... Is that how they should be? Additionaly, my path on my form was to /cgi-bin/... not /cgi-sys/ as stated in the error message.

If you can still help me... TWO boxes of Caramacs for you!

Danke, danke, danke!
Mo :-)

[Monica]

Oh... and I forgot... I didn't make a subdirecty for those files. I'm living on the edge, and just stuck em in my cgi-bin. But I have since deleted them... to start fresh again. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Del]

<some thinking out loud>

Okay, it gives the error of "/cgi-sys/cgiemail/TESTforms/test.txt not found". You said the prog lives in cgi-bin (naturally). Is it safe to assume that the program's name is 'cgiemail'? If so, it seems as if this is one of the hairy "path info'd" programs (where cgiemail is the prog name, and /TESTforms/test.txt is the path info).

Now, if it truly is a path info'd program;

Earlier there was some fun with users trying to use path info'd scripts in their accounts. It seems that the server got confused when the user's script was called, and ended up looking for it in cgi-sys, which is where the community scripts live. Since the program wasn't there, it returned a 404 error.

Fast forward to a couple days ago, and the recent posts regarding changing your community script URLs to /cgi-sys from /cgi-bin. I believe that this new setup should cure the problem of having path info'd scripts/progs not being found in each user's cgi-bin. I could be totally wrong about this though, so now I guess I'll have to await further info from Andrew or Deb.

Del

[This message has been edited by Del (edited 03-15-99).]

[Deb]

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like Del http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif And yep, it's one of the reasons we are wanting/needing to make that change server wide.

For your domain, Monica, if you are ok with us turning off your ability to use 'cgi-bin' on the pre-installed scripts only, then I'll have terra (the sysadmin) do that for you today. This should make your cgiemail work http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif But it also means that if you are using any pre-installed scripts from the server (mailform, counters, etc) that you will need to change them from cgi-bin to cgi-sys as noted in the Server News forum.

If the above makes sense to you and you are ok with it... toss an email to Support@FutureQuest.net noting that you want to be able to use the path info'd scripts and need the cgi-bin/cgi-sys to happen now.

Deb

[Monica]

Tahhhhhdahhhh!!!!!!!!!! It works, it works!
I never thought I'd see the day, when from my test form I'd see my "Your submission is on its way!" redirect page!!!

Hoo hoo! Deb and Terra... Danke and Mahalo nui loa! Jeni... I couldn't have done this without you! Double Danke! I wasn't kidding when I said I'd send Caramacs! Can you please email me, so I can send? http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif
solosnow@lava.net

Hugs and champagne!
Monica :-)

[Monica]

I'm ashamed... I forgot to say thank you to Del and Marc as well! A great big Thank You for your input!

With tons of Aloha,
Monica http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif
In cgiemail bliss...