2 ?'s forms and hmmm..dont' know what it is

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Tuesday September 23 2003 - 5:09:22 BST

I have 2 questions and I don't know how to search for the answer on google or such since I"m not sure how to actually express what I need.

1. When you click a link that isn't there anymore you get an error page. Now, for example, let's say there are two links bad. Someone comes to indexxxx.html and someone else comes to index11.html and they both get the error page can you set it up so the form knows which page they were going to and automatically sends the info when a submit button is clicked so they don't have to fill out any info?

2. Is there a way to put some kind of code in the head to 'call' a particular menu depending on the browser? Well, I'm sure there is, but I dont' know how to search to find the info and try and figure it out. The reason is that in the newer level browsers I can use version5 and do what I want and it will work in IE and Opera with no problems and works fine in Netscape 7, though it ignores my "" [yep, I'm back to trying to get a workaround to get that option to get the menu to pick up the font color that's on the page. Hergio's help works great in IE and 7 Netscape and Opera, and seems to work in Safari and something called Fire something or something like that, , but it messes up in the older versions, so I wondered if there is a way to have the page call version 3 if the browser is older? {my other option if not is to put up different pages and I'd prefer not to do that] Anyway, if there's a way, what would I search for to get the info at one of the search engines?

Thanks,
Ruth

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Tuesday September 23 2003 - 20:06:51 BST

For the detection of browser heres is an excellent link regrading detecting it and what each browser sends out as its identity. By the way, you would want to search google for 'navigator useragent' and you will get some good stuff. http://wsabstract.com/javatutors/navigator.shtml

Regarding the 'error page' letting you know if there was an error...
It sounds as if you already have an error page set up that contains a form for people to submit bad links. But if you dont, if you have access to the back end of a server, you can customize the error pages which are displayed by your server when there is a bad link, look up customizing error pages in IIS or Apache or whatever you use. If you have a server side language, you can also have the page automatically send you an email EVERYTIME it is loaded (which means someone got to a bad page) and then you dont have to rely on the user to send it. But thats another can of worms (server side languages). But once you have this page and the user gets to it, you can fill a hidden input or something with
window.location.href
This is a javascript call that pulls whatever the URL is in the browser. So you can take this value and put it into a form and have it submitted when they click submit. Let me know if this isnt what you're trying to get at.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Tuesday September 23 2003 - 21:05:19 BST

Thanks for the link on the detection. The only ones I really need to do the calling of the different menu is for Netscape 4.7 and down browsers, what I want to do seems to be handled fine in all the others I've had tested using version5.

Ok, as to the error page. I'm sure I have server side includes I remember reading about it to do something on the site. That's exactly what I want, auto email with the info on the page missing. I'm more than willing to search to find out how to do the hidden input but am not sure what I search to get that topic. Is that something to do with forms... Dang I sure feel dumb sometimes.

Ruth

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Tuesday September 23 2003 - 21:41:41 BST

I can help you easily here on the forum. Are you running the server yourself? As in, nobody is hosting the site for you, are they? You need to basically be able to sit down in front of the actual server that holds your pages. If not, email your ISP/HOST and ask them if you can send them a customized error page to use on your site and if they support email sent from within webpages.

Once you figure that out, let me know what server you are running. IIS or apache and also what server side languages you have set up, ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, etc?

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 2:44:28 BST

I don't know about the apache or IIS whatever those are, but, I do have the option to customize the 404 error page and upload it..they just say upload it as missing.html. The following is the info I did find and I'm waiting for a reply on the apache etc. part. I can also set up auto repsonders and I think that would mean I can set up for an auto send from the page to myself.


I'll let you know when I get the info on the apache or IIS part.

Ruth[/quote]

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 3:15:42 BST

Doesn't sound like she's on her own server, Dave.

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 3:17:21 BST


Those are two entirely different puppies, Ruth. Let me know if you need/want details.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 5:28:42 BST

Ooops, I should have specified that. No I don't have my own server. So far I've not received a response about the apache/IIS things though they will respond. I've never had trouble with them, they've always responded to questions and pretty quickly. Is there some other way for me to find that out? I'm not sure what the differences are, though when I thought about it I realized that autoresponders wouldn't be what Dave was mentioning. What exactly is meant by allowing email being sent within pages? I mean, I get email sent to me if someone fills out my guestbook..I had the .pl file set up so it notifies me when there is a signature. Is that what you mean, well something like that?

Ruth

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 14:47:59 BST

As for finding out what kind of server they are running, sometimes if you have a 'control panel' where you are allowed to make modifications to your server and site setup it will tell you what's there. You say they are responsive, so we'll wait.

Dave is asking because the instructions he will give you depend on the server. Apache typically runs on Mac and Unix systems, while IIS is Windoze.

It sounds like they might have a script running on the 'missing' page that traps the URL of the page request that brought it there, then pops that into an e-mail to you. The guestbook is a script. Your visitor fills out a form with his info, it is grabbed by the script, maybe dumped into a database, and sent on to you.

What is the URL/name of your hosting company? Maybe we can find out that way.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 16:49:37 BST

It's addr.com. It says it offers both FTP [via any FTP program or our on-line system] and shell [also known as telnet] access to a UNIX machine. Does that mean it's apache, since it's UNIX? And it doesn't send me anything from the error page.... Though I think there's some kind of log that I can check. It says it has some kind of proprietary something that keeps all the stats. I've never bothered to check it so I don't know about it, It's only a personal site... my poetry and some links and my semi artistic design

Ruth

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 17:06:45 BST

Ruth,
John hit the nail on the head as to why I am asking about your server. But I would be willing to bet all my marbles that you are running on an Apache (or Unix-based) server. Due to the list of supported features and languages you gave, and seeing that some are very nice (JSP,Java,PHP) and none are ASP, that would make me think its not a Win server. And I just probed your server ....
Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) mod_perl/1.27 PHP/4.2.3 mod_fastcgi/2.2.12 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510 mod_jk/1.2.0 mod_ssl/2.8.11 OpenSSL/0.9.6g
So yup, its apache.

The .pl (perl) script you are using in your guest book is ALOT like what you will be using in your error page. If you set up the guestbook page, you should know how its sending the emails. In that page, you send an email when someone submits a signature, right? Well in the error page, you just want it to always send out an email, so every time it gets loaded, an email is created. Because if someone is viewing it, something is wrong.

Using that script you should be able to pull the URL and plug it into the email, and send that to yourself. If you want, specifically ask your host if it would be possible to upload an error page that includes an email script to notify you whenever its viewed. They may having something already in place or a FAQ guiding you through it. If they leave you hangin, we should be able to help you out.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 17:52:55 BST

I'm sorry. I don't know how it works. I tried doing it myself but was not sure what I was supposed to do and was afraid I'd mess something up, so in the end I just clicked the button for them to 'set up the guest book' since it was free. I don't think it's set to send mail... in the pl file it's coded as 0 for both $mail and $remote_mail. It asks The only thing that refers to mail that is set to 1 is $linkmail, whatever that is. ..... And that's the only complaint I have about the help at addr. They have an 800 number but the techs talk tech...

Ruth

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 18:10:57 BST

Yeah you will need to set up a similar thing for the error page. Maybe another .pl file that has almost the same setup, just it will email all the time. If you can copy your code in the .pl file and email me it, I can look at it and tell you what you can do. Also your guest book code as well. You'll need to copy and paste them into an email because a URL wont help me.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday September 24 2003 - 18:27:41 BST

Yes I can do that, or should I just send you the files so you can open them?
You want the pl file and also the addguest page? the one with the form coding on it? There are actually 4 pages...guestbook.html, addguest.html, guestlog.html and the guestbook.pl The guestlog and guestbook don't have any coding on them, only the addguest and guestbook.pl

Ruth