As you can imagine, at WillMaster.com we receive a lot of questions -- about our scripts and about CGI in general. Questions are posted on the Q&A Forum at http://MasterCGI.com/ and questions arrive as personal emails.

This article contains questions and their answers that I believe some WillMaster Possibilities readers might learn from. Most are paraphrased:

 
Q. I was wondering if it is possible to have two Master Daily Content scripts on one website for different purposes. Shauna

A. Yes, you can install multiple copies of Master Daily Content. If appropriate in your situation, install them in separate directories, like /cgi-bin/mdc1/ and /cgi-bin/mdc2/ On the other hand, if the installations are in the same directory then the program names must be different and the data directories they use must have different names.

 
Q. I wonder if it is possible to make a form execute two actions with the same value? Something like "action=blah.cgi action=huh.cgi value=eek". Zeb

A. Zeb, while only one action="_____" can be specified, dual action can be forced with the JavaScript onClick command. Like this:

<form method="POST" action="script.cgi" onClick="MyJS()">

MyJS() can be a function to do whatever, including creating a popup with a message. MyJS() must, however, return the value "true" -- if "false" is returned then the normal action="_____" tag won't execute.

 
Q. I am attempting to get the Master Webpage Mailer going. I have specified the path to perl 5 on my system with is /usr/bin, but it still isn't working. What am I missing? Norris

A. Your path to Perl might be /usr/bin/perl instead of /usr/bin

Also, there is a list of things to check at the http://mastercgi.com/faq/ page.

 
Q. I've just tried to install the Master Board script on my server. I'm not new to installing scripts. My problem is when I try to run it, I get the following message: "Notice: Can't get file" BinA.

A. Check:

1. The file "emailtemplate.txt" must be in the "MBdata" directory in order for the program to find it.
2. The two web page template pages must be on the server in the location specified in the script. (UNIX/Linux file names are case sensitive.)

 
Q. I am using Recommend Pro 3.0 as a form in HTML email. When sending the form, I get: "Your browser didn't send me the URL of the form you're using..." I tried to send it as a hidden field, but I am afraid that's not the way to overcome the check in the script. How may I use Referrer Pro in email? Wilhelm

A. In order to use the recommend form in an email and have it work every time, the referrer check must be disabled. Here is how to to it:

At about line 47 of the script, you'll see:

unless($ENV{HTTP_REFERER})

Immediately above that line, type:

return 1;

You'll end up with:

return 1;
unless($ENV{HTTP_REFERER})

A note of WARNING: If you disable the referrer check, anyone can use your installation of the script to spam people. All they have to do is save the form to their own hard drive (or create their own form) and fill in people's names and addys, paste in their spam message, and click the button. They could send it to hundreds of people at a time.

 
Q. I know it is possible to insert variables into an html file and have a CGI program fill them in, but don't know how to do it. How would you do this from within a CGI script? Judy

A. Your script will first need to retrieve a template page. That can be done by opening and reading the file or by using the get function of module LWP::Simple.

Once the page is in your program (we'll assume the page is in variable $Page), search $Page for placeholders and replace them with custom information. For example, all [[NAME]] placeholders might be replaced with a name obtained via a form, with code similar to:

$Page =~ s/\[\[NAME\]\]/$FORM{name}/sg;

Once replacements are complete, the script prints the page to the browser. Simply use:

print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
print $Page;

The HTML source code of template pages must use complete http://... URLs instead of relative URLs for images, style sheets, etc., because the server location of the CGI program may be different than usual web pages (thus breaking relative URLs).

 
Q. I've installed Master Recommend, and confirmed the location of Perl (version 5+) and SendMail with my web host. But when I submit the form, no emails get sent. I've checked that the name and location of the template file is correct. RE: Sendmail, I asked my host about required flags and they said -t is optional. I've tried it with and without -t, and neither worked. The directory definitely has cgi access, and I'm confident that the permissions are set correctly. Any other suggestions as to why no emails get sent? Bob

A. If the program works otherwise, then it is almost certainly the path to sendmail that is in error. Use Master Pre-Installation Tester from http://willmaster.com/master/pit/ to see if the location you were given is indeed correct.

Note that the path to sendmail almost always begins with a slash: /

Also, when you type the location in the globals.cgi file, don't put it into quotes and don't follow it with a semi-colon.

You're correct, Master Recommend can use sendmail whether or not you specify the -t flag.

 
Q. I am sorry to bother you but HostPro sent me the following message when I could not use Master Search.cgi on their site. "I uploaded perldiver.cgi to your site to see which PERL modules are currently installed and the LWP::Simple is not. Could you please provide us with a link to information about this module so that we may setup a case to our admins to see if they will install it." Please, could you help? Martin

A. The page http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=module&query=LWP has several different distributions. Probably the one your hosting company will decide to install on their servers is "libwww-perl-5.53_94" by Gisle Aas. Details about that particular distribution are at http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libwww-perl

LWP::Simple is a module used by many Perl programs to fetch pages from the net. I'm sure HostPro will see the benefit of having it available for their hosting customers.

 
Q. Master Form works great! However, for drop down fields where a response is required, somehow the user is able to submit the form successfully without choosing an option. The first field of the form is a selection called "-Choose One-" and it has no value assigned to it. How do I make this work correctly? Do I need to add an extra validation? Monica

A. Browsers tend to send the contents of the selection label to the CGI program when no specific value is specified. In other words, "-Choose One-" is being sent to the CGI script as the value of the form field. Thus, Master Form thinks the required field has been satisfied.

The solution is to specify a value="" (2 quotation marks with nothing between them) for the form field labeled "-Choose One-"

When a field is required, Master Form checks to see that there is at least one word character (alphanumeric and a few other printable characters) in the form field. A value="" ensures there is no word character.

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That's it for this week :)

By: Will Bontrager

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