Forms driving me crazy

[Simon]

My Environment:
Client: WinXP Pro, Fp2003, Service Pack 2, IE 6
Server: Win 2K, IIS5, FP Server Extensions 2002, Service Pack 4

My Problem:
I have created a brand new FrontPage 2003 web from scratch with two asp
forms, list.asp and contact.asp. I used the form properties dialog box to
create two new access databases with the appropriate connections.

I then publish the web to my test server (which is under my control)
I then open list.asp in a browser, complete the fields and click submit. No
confirmation page or anything. All that happens is an empty list.asp page
reappears. Of course nothing is written to the list.mdb database.

However contact.asp works fine. I fill in the form, click submit and I get a
confirmation page. Data shows up in the database. All is well.

Both these forms are part of the same web posting to different databases in
the fpdb directory. The permissions are identical!!!

Both forms, their connections and the receptor databases verify fine.
According to FP the link between the forms and the databases is ok.

Why does one form work and while the other sits there like a lump?

I have gone though some of the posts in this forum. I have made the changes
suggested by Jim to show the errors in the browser. No errors appear so I
get no feedback from that quarter.

Help. This is frustrating and it seems to be a common problem. The best
thing about FP2002 was the ease of creating forms. FP 2003 seems to have a
problem.

Simon

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

You need to carefully check all fields names in your form against your processing page and your db
- as an interim check have the form display the results on the processing page



| My Environment:
| Client: WinXP Pro, Fp2003, Service Pack 2, IE 6
| Server: Win 2K, IIS5, FP Server Extensions 2002, Service Pack 4
|
| My Problem:
| I have created a brand new FrontPage 2003 web from scratch with two asp
| forms, list.asp and contact.asp. I used the form properties dialog box to
| create two new access databases with the appropriate connections.
|
| I then publish the web to my test server (which is under my control)
| I then open list.asp in a browser, complete the fields and click submit. No
| confirmation page or anything. All that happens is an empty list.asp page
| reappears. Of course nothing is written to the list.mdb database.
|
| However contact.asp works fine. I fill in the form, click submit and I get a
| confirmation page. Data shows up in the database. All is well.
|
| Both these forms are part of the same web posting to different databases in
| the fpdb directory. The permissions are identical!!!
|
| Both forms, their connections and the receptor databases verify fine.
| According to FP the link between the forms and the databases is ok.
|
| Why does one form work and while the other sits there like a lump?
|
| I have gone though some of the posts in this forum. I have made the changes
| suggested by Jim to show the errors in the browser. No errors appear so I
| get no feedback from that quarter.
|
| Help. This is frustrating and it seems to be a common problem. The best
| thing about FP2002 was the ease of creating forms. FP 2003 seems to have a
| problem.
|
| Simon
|

 

[mvb]

I've seen this problem when pointing as ASP form to and .htm 'thank you' or
'form submitted' page.

Follow Stefan's instructions then try to rename (if it's not already) your
submitted page to a non-.asp file name.

Matt

 

[Simon]

Thanks Stephan, Matt,

I used the create database button in the form properties-options dialog box
to generte the database so the form fields and the database fields should be
a perfect match. The only field that I have in there that I never used
before is the file upload button. That does not save the uploaded file to the
databse but to a houseimages folder that is part of the web.

I also did not create any special confirmation page being content to use the
plain vanilla "thank you page" created by frontpage.

Are you saying that i should rename my forms page list.asp to list.htm? I
though that forms developed in frontpage needed to be .asp files.


Thanks
Simon

 

[Ronx]

The file upload will require either:
1) frontpage2002 extensions, which means you cannot use any database
interaction with the form, and the page must be named with an .htm
extension
2) An ASP upload component and custom written scripting to do the
upload and save the file. The form handler can, in this case, also
add data to a database. If using FP database wizards the page must be
..asp, if entirely custom written the form can be .htm (if there are no
asp elements within the page) or .asp, but the form handler must be
..asp.

For processing the form data you have the choice of using asp or the
FrontPage extensions, you cannot use both.

 

[Simon]

Hi Ron,
my questions are below your comments.

The file upload will require either:
1) frontpage2002 extensions, which means you cannot use any database
interaction with the form, and the page must be named with an .htm
extension

I have FP Server extensions installed. Are you saying that I cant use FP
server extensions 2002 with a database? If so why does one of the forms
work.? They both write to access databases generated by frontpage 2003.

2) An ASP upload component and custom written scripting to do the
upload and save the file. The form handler can, in this case, also
add data to a database. If using FP database wizards the page must be
..asp, if entirely custom written the form can be .htm (if there are no
asp elements within the page) or .asp, but the form handler must be
..asp.

Does this mean I can use the file upload form field in a form that wries all
the other fields to the fp generated access database? Why then does microsoft
include all the field types including the file upload field on the same menu?
I was hoping to store the file in the database but the only option in the
file upload form field properties dialog box is to a folder.

Simon.

 

[Ronx]

Inline
--
Ron Symonds
Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

Hi Ron,
my questions are below your comments.


I have FP Server extensions installed. Are you saying that I cant
use FP
server extensions 2002 with a database? If so why does one of the
forms
work.? They both write to access databases generated by frontpage
2003.

No. I am saying that you cannot use FP extensions to _process_ the
form when a database is involved. The form must be processed by some
server-side technology (ASP for example) other than the extensions.
The extensions are still used for other puposes like publishing, hit
counters, forms that do use the extensions. Just because the
extensions are there does not mean they are used.

Does this mean I can use the file upload form field in a form that
wries all
the other fields to the fp generated access database? Why then does
microsoft
include all the field types including the file upload field on the
same menu?
I was hoping to store the file in the database but the only option
in the
file upload form field properties dialog box is to a folder.

Yes you can use the field in a form that adds data to a database, but
you must write your own code to upload and save the file. This
normally requires an upload component installed on the server. It is
best (at least when using an Access database) to save the file to a
folder and save a link to the file in the database. In this case the
form field properties are not of much use, since the file is not
uploaded by the extensions.
The property sheets for the form fields assume you are going to use
the extensions to process the form. If the data is going to a
database, the extensions cannot be used, but that does not prevent the
use of different technologies to process the form fields, including
the file upload.

If you used the extensions to process the form, the file upload field
would upload the file to a specified folder, and other fields would be
saved in a text file and/or emailed to you.

When you insert the file-upload field, you are immediately asked where
the files should be uploaded to. However, if the form properties are
set to use other technology (ASP, CGI, etc) for processing the
destination folder information is lost, as though it had never been
recorded.