Need major help with message boards!

[localmusicnow]

I am trying to just create a simple message board or discussion pages, and
while the posting goes fine, it never seems to shup up really. The guestlog
I currently have is supposed to show the messages below after you post, but
it does not. So then, I tried to do the Discussion Board thing (which is
live but not linked to my site currently), and you can post, but the messages
do not appear anywhere? I have tried with and without frames. Not sure what
to do!!! Please help!

 

[Ronx]

Please give links to the problem pages.

 

[localmusicnow]

The ones currently linked to the site are a "Sign" page and a "read" page,
but it is just not very smooth:

http://www.localmusicnow.net/sign_the_guestlog.htm
and

http://www.localmusicnow.net/guestlog.htm

The ones that are live that I just can't seem to get working right and I
have not linked to are any one of:

http://www.localmusicnow.net/message.htm
http://www.localmusicnow.net/guest_book.htm
http://www.localmusicnow.net/disc4_frm.htm
http://www.localmusicnow.net/disc6_toc.htm

I would love to get any of these working smoothly! Appreciate any help.
Thanks!

 

[Ronx]

http://www.localmusicnow.net/message.htm
posts to itself, and will therefor never do anything. The action attribute
MUST be to a form handler - either FP extensions or some other technology
using server side script (example PHP on a Unix server)

http://www.localmusicnow.net/guest_book.htm
The form handler - insert.php - has not been uploaded to the server.

guestlog.htm should be in the _private folder, where the permissions are set
to allow the posts to be written. This page is inted to be included in the
guestbook page - sign_the_guestlog.htm in your case.
guestlog.htm also has a misplaced </body> tag, and appears to have picked up
parts from the guestbook form page. Redo the guestbook, and move
guestlog.htm into the _private folder. DO NOT EDIT this file.
See my comments on optimisation below.

The other pages, I suspect the problem lies with over use of HTML code
optimisation. The only safe optimisation is removal of leading whitespace.
Removing comments, other whitespace etc. will lead to problems - some
browsers cannot cope with long lines of HTML, humans cannot easily debug bad
HTML, and removing comments may break webbots.

 

[localmusicnow]

I would really prefer to use one where people can use a username or
something, but I tried using the simple one - redoing the guestlog. And it
still does not post? I did not edit anything at all. It even created a
folder in the private folder, which I thought would make it work. I can't
figure out how to set the allowances to allow people to post. Is that my
problem? Thanks for all your help. The current page is very simple -
www.localmusicnow.net/guestbook.htm

 

[localmusicnow]

RE:
http://www.localmusicnow.net/message.htm
posts to itself, and will therefor never do anything. The action attribute
MUST be to a form handler - either FP extensions or some other technology
using server side script (example PHP on a Unix server)

I created a new page message.html in put that in the private folder, would
that do it? I tried it and it did not work.

RE:
http://www.localmusicnow.net/guest_book.htm
The form handler - insert.php - has not been uploaded to the server.

I created a new page insert.php and put it in the private folder, and it did
not seem to make a difference.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

How are you creating the guest book, locally or directly on the live/remote server in FP?

Please provide the steps from the point of launching FP

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================

 

[localmusicnow]

I do not know how to answer question 1. But I can tell you what I do.

I open Front Page, and my website folders generally open automatically.
Then, I hit File Publish Site, then Remote Website Properties.

I initially then tried New Page and chose Guest Book. I did not check "Just
Add Web Task" because I did not know what it meant. After trying to follow
some previous suggestions, I did absolutely nothing except save the page - I
called it guestbook.htm. I did not make any other changes. That seemed to
automatically create a folder in the private folder called guestlog.htm. I
then went immediately to the site www.localmusicnow.net/guestbook.htm and
left a message, and it did not work.

For www.localmusicnow.net.message.htm and guest_book.htm, I used some of my
friends' sites' message boards and tried to make them my own - without
success.

 

[sheetrum]

Here is the code for a page that I know works fine for me. Please note the
file as being: "_private/guestlog.htm" that is the recipient of all input
from the guestbook.


<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<title>We</title>
<meta name="Microsoft Border" content="none">
</head>

<body>

<p>
<!--webbot bot="PurpleText" preview="Guest Book - Use this page to collect
the reactions of visitors to your web site. All of the comments submitted by
users will go to a different page, 'guestlog.htm' by default, which is then
included below. If you want to use a different file to capture comments,
change the File Name selected in the Form Properties dialog and in the Page
URL of the Include component below the form." -->
</p>
<hr>
<p>We'd like to know what you think about our web site. Please leave your
comments in this public guest book so we can share your thoughts with other
visitors.</p>
<form method="POST" action="--WEBBOT-SELF--">
<!--webbot bot="SaveResults" S-Label-Fields="TRUE"
B-Reverse-Chronology="FALSE" S-Date-Format="%d %b %Y"
S-Time-Format="%H:%M:%S" S-Builtin-Fields="REMOTE_USER Date Time"
U-File="_private/guestlog.htm" S-Format="HTML/DL" -->
<h2><strong>Add Your Comments</strong></h2>
<p><textarea name="Comments" rows="8" cols="52"></textarea></p>
<p><input type="submit" value="Submit Comments">
<input type="reset" value="Clear Comments"><br>
<br>
<em>After you submit your comments, you will need to reload this page with
your browser in order to see your additions to the log.</em></p>
</form>
<!--webbot bot="Include" tag="BODY"
u-include="_private/guestlog.htm" --><hr>
<h5>Author information goes here.<br>
Copyright © 2001 by [OrganizationName]. All rights reserved.<br>
Revised:
<!--webbot bot="TimeStamp" s-type="Edited" s-format="%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S
%Z" -->.</h5>

</body>

</html>


That should do it for yo.

 

[Ronx]

First of all, disable all HTML optimisation, when publishing or anytime
else. Removing whitespace makes it VERY DIFFICULT to debug your code, and I
do not have the time for it. The optimisation may be killing your pages.

Your latest guestbook posts to a guestlog.htm that is in your root folder.
Move this page to the _private folder.

The guestbook.htm is missing the line
<!--webbot bot="Include" tag="BODY" u-include="_private/guestlog.htm" -->

This line adds the guestlog entries into the gueatbook. Either you or the
HTML optinmisation you are using, are deleting this from the guestbook page.
The same, or similar, line is missing from the relevant page in your
discussion web, which is why the table of contents in the discussion web is
empty.

As for message.htm - this requires a insert.php to be created and uploaded.
insert.php is a PHP form handler that, presumably, inserts whatever is
entered in message.htm into wherever it is inserted. Placing an arbitrary
file in the _private folder will not fix anything there.