cgi newbie

ok...i think we may be getting somewhere.

Suzanne when you say that all of the page and file extensions should be .shtml does this mean that you should have index.shtml, index2.shtml, index3.shtml, index4.shtml, etc.??? The current pages are index.shtml, and the rest end with .html or htm.

and you say "link to a .txt file of the code you are using?" There is no .txt file that i can find. What I am seeing in the files on my FTP is a counter folder and inside that ffolder is a file named access_count. It doesn't have .txt at the end. Should it???

I have already changed permissions for the cgi-bin.

After sifting through their files, I find 3 index.shtml.bak. and several of the files have a copy of them with .bak at the end of them too. These are not linked anywhere on the web site that I can find. Haven't got a clue what they are for.

The guestbook came from Earthlink but I believe that they use the code from Matts Script Archive becuause I see reference to that web site in the code.

Geeze...if I get this problem fixed I will have accomplished a great feat!

Quote: and you say "link to a .txt file of the code you are using?" There is no .txt file that i can find. What I am seeing in the files on my FTP is a counter folder and inside that ffolder is a file named access_count. It doesn't have .txt at the end. Should it???

Oh, gracious, no, there shouldn't be a .txt by default. I mean that you should make a copy of your index.shtml file and name it index.txt so we can view it with all the SSI includes. If we just view source, we'll only see that there is an error, but not if it's in your syntax, et cetera.

Every page that has the counter on it should have a .shtml extension. Not necessarily every page on the site (unless they all have includes or executable directives on them). Do you understand the distinction I'm making? I can give you examples if not.

From your code & earthlink in combination:

You Are Visitor

That's the whole thing.

Is there a folder called "counter" in your /cgi-bin/? From the instructions from Earthlink, you can CHMOD them both to 755. Don't worry if you've already CHMODed the cgi-bin.

Also, you can't check the settings with WS_FTP (LE or Pro) -- it only shows you what setting you last used. So when in doubt, redo it. Re-CHMOD the cgi-bin (since Earthlink allows it, apparently) and the /counter/ directory within the cgi-bin to 755.

The guestbook, though, may need more advanced help, as it's giving me the good old forbidden error.

Suzanne

Kenny2 -- you can't see SSI once it's been parsed by the server, so you will never see it by viewing source. Which is why I asked for the raw code.

Suzanne,

At least I know that the access_count file is named correctly.

I copied the index.shtml and changed it to index.txt and it doesn't have anything any different from what you see when viewing source. This means that there is some code that is not on the page doesn't it?

I understand about the .shtml extension being only on the pages that you have a guestbook or counter (for example) on.

I am brain-dead now so I think i will let this rest a while and do some more reading on the subject to see if I can grasp something.

All of the posts have been very helpful and even though my problem isn't solved I do have a better understanding of what should be happening.

Hey, I did learn how to CHMOD today! Didn't even know where to begin yesterday.
:jump:

Do you have this on your page?

'

You must have something like that or it wouldn't show the [an error occurred ...] error message on your page.

If you upload index.txt, I'll be able to see your raw code and maybe see some of the problems.

I know this is frustrating -- it will be until some little thing falls into place and suddenly it will all be oh so clear.

Suzanne

Ok... did I do this right?

you did fine!

the code is in place fine, as well.

I want you to do the following:

1. CHMOD the cgi-bin to 755
2. CHMOD the /counter folder within the cgi-bin to 755

Try it again.

If this doesn't work, tell me what files are within the /cgi-bin/counter/ folder.

Suzanne

chmod successful. but counter doesn't work.

I figured screen shots would be better considering there are so many files there.

These are in www/counter folder.

These are in the cgi-bin folder. Lookslike a lot of un-needed stuff to me.

http://www.aavfd.org/cgi-bin/counter gives me a 500 internal server error, so I suspect that permissions are what's at fault.

Try what I said above, and if it doesn't work, tell me what's in the folder and I can advise further.

Isn't black box work delightful?

Suzanne

P.S. WHOOPS! Simulpost, sorry about that. Have you tried a graphic counter?

http://www.aavfd.org/cgi-bin/counta

That works.

Try reCHMODing the counter file itself to 755.

Suzanne

Ok I re-chmoded cgi-bin, counter folder and file in counter colder.

Hey that link does work. Now shouldn't that link be somewhere on the index.shtml page?

Just curious.. have you edited the counter file at all?

you have the default -- counter -- on the index.shtml page.

counta is a variant (from the earthlink file description)...

I can't tell what's going wrong, but the graphic files are working fine, so perhaps choose one of those for now?

I'm off to bed. With the other's working, I think it's time to go back to Earthlink and ask them for assistance.

Suzanne

P.S. Perhaps in a couple of days we can tackle the guestbook, lol!

Hot dang!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!

ok the problem was the file name in the code on the index.shtml page.
It was and should have been

Guess someone who jive talks did that one. HEHEHE!!!

Hey Suzanne, thanks so much for your help. Now I am going to see if the guestbook works.

Guest book doen'nt work. I am going to follow the steps that we have done with the counter and if I can't get it I will do it tomorrow.

I owe ya one Suzanne!;0 You don't know how relieved I am.

the counter only seems to work when the index.shtml is seen in the address bar. If you type in the other it doesn't show. You can leave that page and come back and it works.

I was reading something about having your index.shtml listed before your index.html in a tutorial. I think it said something about httaccess or someting like that. Am I on the right track with this?

Here is the link where i saw this:

http://www.bignosebird.com/sdocs/enable.shtml

Quote: Originally posted by mairving
If it doesn't work at 766, it won't work at 755, since there are less permissions.

No, it's just that one is readable and the other is writeable. Their octal values are a bit misleading IMO.

What files have you got in your home directory?

Have you got a index.html and a index.shtml?

Depending on your server set up, the index.html file will have higher precedence over index.shtml and will be the one displayed to the user. And that's where your problem is. You should never have more than one index file in your directory.

.htaccess should include:

'This line sets the priority of the files. The server will look for index.shtml first. If it can't find it, it will look for index.html, and so forth.

I thought that might be the problem from reading tutorials. This is what is in the htaccess file. The only thing I have altered here for posting are the ***** in the last two lines. Where do I put what you posted above?
Oh, I don't know if it matters or not but I am using dreamweaver. I suppose the person who originally did the site used FP.
_________________
# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*

order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all

order deny,allow
deny from all

AuthName
AuthUserFile /web/******/******/www/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /web/******/******/www/_vti_pvt/service.grp

Also, like I had mentioned earlier in my post, they have three home pages. I have no idea why.

They are index.html, index.shtml and aavfd3.html. I will fix this but just in case you look at the site and notice this.....I am aware of it.

Mark

Hmm. Mine was set up (as default installation - version 2) to default to

index.html index.htm home.html home.htm'

I have to explicity state that I want to turn on SSI and that's why it doesn't assume to pick up a directory index for it. Which makes sense...

Mark has what you need, just copy what Mark wrote and put it in your .htaccess file and leave the rest untill you know what they are and what they do.

Definitely get rid of the three index pages, that's just going to cause problems. The reason the counter doesn't work on the top domain level is because the default page is index.html, which you now know won't work because it's not parsed by the server.

It doesn't matter if you use Dreamweaver unless they are using some Front Page extensions. From the look of the site, I doubt they are, but if you are cleaning up the code (I recommend you try validating it, for instance), then you will be probably replacing anything that used FP.

___________________________________
# -FrontPage-
IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*
DirectoryIndex index.shtml index.html index.htm

order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all

order deny,allow
deny from all

AuthName aavfd.org
AuthUserFile /web/******/******/www/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /web/******/******/www/_vti_pvt/service.grp

Also, just a for future reference bit, you can make any page name the default page for a folder using the DirectoryIndex line. I used it to set carterjackson.com/joshua/photogallery/ to photos.php so I wouldn't have to have an index page in that directory, and could keep the photos in their own directory anyway.

Suzanne

P.S. You don't owe me anything, just keep asking questions and helping! Glad you got the bits working. Now about that guestbook, I recommend you wander to the scripting languages forum and post about it. List the script name, including a link to the source code if applicable, and where you are trying to get it to work, and what, specifically, your errors are. Someone there will be able to steer you in the right direction, hopefully.

Thanks guys and Suzanne. I changed the htaccess file and now it goes to the .shtml page. The counter works and the guestbook works.

Now I can concentrate on building new pages and changing everything over.

You all are life savers!!!
And good teachers.

Quote: Originally posted by Wil
Mark

Hmm. Mine was set up (as default installation - version 2) to default to

version 2 of what? Are you running Apache 2? *drool* I've read a bit about it, but I'm going to wait for it to come out of beta before I install it.

Yeah, running Apache 2 - but only on my local box!! My actual hosting provider is still stuck in the 90's .. even running perl 5.005_03 (1997)!! At least it's stable though, they are waiting for the next release of woody (I think).

Cheers

How can i get an image to show up in this guestbook? Do I need to put the image in another file also like the guest book file or the cgi-bin file?

All I can see are the place holders for the image. The code is there.