SCForm Frequently Asked Questions

    SCForm's been out since November, 2002.  In that time, I've received a
    few questions, requests and suggestions.  This FAQ is taken from
    those.

Index of SCForm Frequently Asked Questions (in no particular order)

     1. What means "Unable to process form at this time" in response to
        submitting?
     2. SCForm was working fine, then, all-of-a-sudden, stopped working.
        What could be wrong?
     3. Form Is Submitted Without Error, But No Email Arrives
     4. I'm getting "Cannot modify header information - headers already
        sent"
     5. SCForm is working properly, except I'm getting email notifications
        of "This form was used from an unauthorized server! ()" occasionally.
     6. I'd like additional fields in SCForm.  Will you add them?
     7. I'd like additional fields in SCForm.  How do I add them?
     8. Will you create a custom version of SCForm for me?
     9. I'm using SCForm in a framed layout.  When somebody clicks the "take
        me back" link on the response page, they get taken back to the
        wrong frame.
    10. Can I use SCForm for file uploads?
    11. Would you add flood control to SCForm?
    12. Would you add logging to SCForm?
    13. My language's alphabet has characters that show up when the web
	form is filled-out, but not in the emailed results.  Why is that?
    14. I've enabled CAPTCHA (tm) with $requireVerify, but I'm not getting
        any text image.
    15. What is the difference between setting $formProcBlankRefOkay to
	"true" and having an empty $formProcAllowedReferers?

1. What means "Unable to process form at this time" in response to
   submitting?

   The string "Unable to process form at this time" simply means that the
   attempt to mail the form failed.  There could be any number of reasons
   for this, including that your web hosting service does not
   allow/support the emailing of form data.  I suggest you contact their
   support and ask.

   You can also put a little PHP script somewhere in your web space that
   reads like this:

       <?php
	   phpinfo();
	?>

   Call it something like "info.php" and then bring it up in your web
   browser.  Under "Configuration - PHP Core," look for an entry labeled
   "sendmail_path."  For Unix-like servers, the setting should read
   something like "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -i".

	Hint: It might not be a bad idea to print or save a copy of the
	results.  That way, if things all-of-a-sudden stop working some
	day (see FAQ item #2), you'll have something from which to
	reference when things were working.

   If that's there, it may be that sendmail isn't really where PHP was
   told it should be, that sendmail isn't executable by the user i.d.
   under which your web server is running, or that your hosting service
   provider has configured it to prohibit emailing form data.  You'll have
   to talk to them about it.

   Note: If the host is not a Unix or Unix-like host of some type (e.g.:
   it's Windows), there might be no mail sending facility.

   See Also: 3. Form Is Submitted Without Error, But No Email Arrives


2. SCForm was working fine, then, all-of-a-sudden, stopped working.  What
   could be wrong?

   Assuming *you* didn't change anything, most likely something changed in
   your web-hosting environment.  You'll have to talk to your hosting
   provider to see what they changed (broke?) recently.

   See Also: 1. What means "Unable to process form at this time" in
		response to submitting?


3. Form Is Submitted Without Error, But No Email Arrives

   Assuming you put valid email addresses in "contacts.cfg," there's a
   valid and working "sendmail_path," and there's nothing that prevents
   sending email from whatever user your web server is running under: If
   you're on a MS-Windows server, perhaps your mail server software
   requires lines terminated in CRLF?  SCForm version 1.2.1 and beyond
   detect that they're running on WIN32 or WINNT, and add these.

   See Also: 1. What means "Unable to process form at this time" in
		response to submitting?


4. I'm getting "Cannot modify header information - headers already sent"

   If you're seeing something like the following, when you hit "Submit" on
   the form:

	Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent
	by (output started at .../SCForm/scfconfig.php:76) in
	.../SCForm/scformproc.php on line 421

   Check to make sure scfconfig.php does not have any trailing blank lines
   following the closing "?>" at the bottom of the file.

5. SCForm is working properly, except I'm getting email notifications of
   "This form was used from an unauthorized server! ()" occasionally.

   Probably web-crawlers/-spiders tripping across scformproc.php
   directly.  In this case, there'll be no referrer, thus the empty
   "()"s.

   (Maybe some day I'll add some code to scformproc.php to ignore hits
   with an empty referrer and all other fields empty.  That would
   eliminate this spurious warning.)


6. I'd like additional fields in SCForm.  Will you add them?

   Not unless I feel they would be of wide-spread interest.  SCForm is
   designed to be a simple, secure contact form.  I plan to keep it that
   way.  (If the download stats I'm seeing, and the comments I'm
   receiving, are any guide: The vast majority of SCForm's users like it
   just the way it is.)


7. I'd like additional fields in SCForm.  How do I add them?

   Adding additional fields to SCForm requires modifications to the form
   page (scform.php) and the form processor (scformproc.php).  How to do
   that requires an understanding of PHP and HTML.  If you check
   http://jimsun.LinxNet.com/jimboeken.html, you'll find reading
   recommendations for both of these subjects.

   WARNING: Adding extra fields, and processing for them, *may* compromise
   SCForm's security.  SCForm is written to be secure.  If you mess with
   it, be sure you know what you're doing!


8. Will you create a custom version of SCForm for me?

   Certainly.  Email me and we'll discuss my consulting rate.


9. I'm using SCForm in a framed layout.  When somebody clicks the "take
   me back" link on the response page, they get taken back to the wrong
   frame.

   You'll need to modify scfresp.php.  What you'll need to do is
   site-specific, so I can't tell you exactly what you'll need to do.


10. Can I use SCForm for file uploads?

    Not as-delivered.  SCForm is a *contact* form.


11. Would you add flood control to SCForm?

    I don't plan to do that.  Adding flood control would require that
    SCForm maintain some kind of database (for state/memory).  This would
    require either a database account (e.g.: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Berkeley
    DB, etc.) or filesystem write access by the unprivileged web server
    process.  All of these induce complexity and create potential security
    issues.  Both are counter to two of SCForm's primary goals: To be
    simple and secure.

    Update: It occured to me recently that I could accomplish this with
    PHP sessions.  I'll look into it.


12. Would you add logging to SCForm?

    I don't plan to do that.  See: "Would you add flood control to
    SCForm?" (just above) for an explanation.

    If they're available to you: All the logging you should need should be
    available in your web server's and mail server's logs.


13. My language's alphabet has characters that show up when the web
    form is filled-out, but not in the emailed results.  Why is that?

    Probably the character set specified in scform.php is incompatible
    with your language's character set.  Prior to SCForm-1.2.2, the
    character set was specified as "utf-8."  This was changed to
    "iso8859-1" in SCForm-1.2.3, allowing all Western characters to
    render.  If your character set is Cyrillic, you probably need
    iso8859-5, Japanese might need SHIFT_JIS or EUC-JP, etc.

    If you change the charset in scform.php, don't forget to change it to
    match in scfresp.php, as well.


14. I've enabled CAPTCHA (tm) with $requireVerify, but I'm not getting any
    text image.

    Either your web host doesn't have GD graphic library support built
    into PHP or you're accessing the contact page with cookies disabled.
    Do the phpinfo() thing detailed in FAQ #1 and look for --with-gd
    under "Configure Command" in the first section, and a "gd" section
    further on down the page.

    If you're using PHP 5 and a version of SCForm older than release
    1.2.5, change the variable names $_HTTP_SESSION_VARS to $_SESSION in
    the two places in scform.php, or upgrade to SCForm 1.2.5 or later.

15. What is the difference between setting $formProcBlankRefOkay to "true"
    and having an empty $formProcAllowedReferers?

    An empty $formProcAllowedReferers means the referer (from where the
    form was submitted) won't be checked at all, whether it's empty or
    not.  Having a non-empty $formProcAllowedReferers and setting
    $formProcBlankRefOkay = true will allow submissions when the referer
    is empty, but will check it for validity when it's not.

Original Created: 27 Jun., 2004
         Updated: 10 Mar., 2007