Hi,
I am struggling as usual!
The chronoforms I have written work fine as far as database is concerned, but did not seem to work at all for emails.
I getthe following messages with the 'basic demo'
This last message loses me as there are so many 'admins' involved in Joomla !!
I have Bob's Tutorial printed out by me.
[Also I am red-green colour blind so that does not help (as are many of us males).]
When I put a simple HTML form on Joomla and make its action 'Mailto my own email address' there is no problem I receive the form in my normal email labelled as coming from 'localhost'. But with chronoforms I get nothing.
What can I do or what have I failed to do ?
Help please.
--
Dave
I am struggling as usual!
The chronoforms I have written work fine as far as database is concerned, but did not seem to work at all for emails.
I getthe following messages with the 'basic demo'
* Could not instantiate mail function.
* Could not instantiate mail function.
Thank you for contacting us at Mywebsite.com, we have received your message and we will get back to you ASAP!
Hey admin, you need to configure the emaisl addresses in the admin area for the real form to be sent to YOU
This last message loses me as there are so many 'admins' involved in Joomla !!
I have Bob's Tutorial printed out by me.
[Also I am red-green colour blind so that does not help (as are many of us males).]
When I put a simple HTML form on Joomla and make its action 'Mailto my own email address' there is no problem I receive the form in my normal email labelled as coming from 'localhost'. But with chronoforms I get nothing.
What can I do or what have I failed to do ?
Help please.
--
Dave
Hi Dave,
I'm not sure, try to change the mail method in your Joomla config, but of course we know its localhost related, if you want to check how your email looks then turn ON the debug and forget it until you go live, try to seth email parameters to be the same as those of the "email to friend" one, like the "fromname, from email..et"
Cheers
Max
I'm not sure, try to change the mail method in your Joomla config, but of course we know its localhost related, if you want to check how your email looks then turn ON the debug and forget it until you go live, try to seth email parameters to be the same as those of the "email to friend" one, like the "fromname, from email..et"
Cheers
Max
Ok I did that and there are no errors shown.
I have tried putting a friend's email address as the 'to' address but he receives nothing.
I will try again and let you know.
---
Dave
I have tried putting a friend's email address as the 'to' address but he receives nothing.
I will try again and let you know.
---
Dave
Hi Dave,
Do you have a mailserver on the computer hosting the site? (If it's your home computer and you don't know then probably not.)
You can configure your site to use SMTP and use the Googel mail server mail.google.com with a valid gmail logon and password in the SMTP authorisation boxes.
Bob
Do you have a mailserver on the computer hosting the site? (If it's your home computer and you don't know then probably not.)
You can configure your site to use SMTP and use the Googel mail server mail.google.com with a valid gmail logon and password in the SMTP authorisation boxes.
Bob
Hi Bob,
My silly. It was working...just that the results were going into my 'spam' box. that is a thing to watch !
Thanks
--
Dave
My silly. It was working...just that the results were going into my 'spam' box. that is a thing to watch !
Thanks
--
Dave
HELP
Still cannot get emails to work with chronoforms !!
Nearly a year ago I tried and was lead up the garden path because it was working into my spam box.
Now I cannot get it to work at all !!
I have now got a remote dedicated server with my site as a test on it.
It all looks OK but I get a message 'COULD NOT INSTANTIATE MAIL FUNCTION' and although the chronoforms debug says 'an email has been successfully sent...' It does not get anywhere.
I have a standard download and install of XAMP, and hence PHP stuff
and a standard download and install of Joomla.
The remote server was completely empty apart from windows2003 so I thought it could be the lack of a mail system. SO I followed the windows 2003 instructions and set up an SMPT pop3 mailserver function.
But still the same error message.
SO I looked on the general joomla forum and I see that this is a very common problem.
With a very haughty response from the top that this error is caused by an incorrect setting of Joomla or an incorrect setting in php! Matter closed ! No help as to what should be the settings.
People with a hosted site are told to take the matter up with the host.
I have another program on the same dedicated server and that program does not use PHP does not use JOOMLA and does not use chronoforms, it just uses Mailto and that works fine.
I am very ignorant about email, can you please give any guidance as to how to get rid of this 'CANNOT INSTANTIATE...' error message and get chronoforms working.
I have very little hair left to tear out.
--
dave
Still cannot get emails to work with chronoforms !!
Nearly a year ago I tried and was lead up the garden path because it was working into my spam box.
Now I cannot get it to work at all !!
I have now got a remote dedicated server with my site as a test on it.
It all looks OK but I get a message 'COULD NOT INSTANTIATE MAIL FUNCTION' and although the chronoforms debug says 'an email has been successfully sent...' It does not get anywhere.
I have a standard download and install of XAMP, and hence PHP stuff
and a standard download and install of Joomla.
The remote server was completely empty apart from windows2003 so I thought it could be the lack of a mail system. SO I followed the windows 2003 instructions and set up an SMPT pop3 mailserver function.
But still the same error message.
SO I looked on the general joomla forum and I see that this is a very common problem.
With a very haughty response from the top that this error is caused by an incorrect setting of Joomla or an incorrect setting in php! Matter closed ! No help as to what should be the settings.
People with a hosted site are told to take the matter up with the host.
I have another program on the same dedicated server and that program does not use PHP does not use JOOMLA and does not use chronoforms, it just uses Mailto and that works fine.
I am very ignorant about email, can you please give any guidance as to how to get rid of this 'CANNOT INSTANTIATE...' error message and get chronoforms working.
I have very little hair left to tear out.
--
dave
Hi Daffy,
It's one of those messy problems that really isn't a Joomla problem. Fredrik will know more about this but here's my two penn'orth.
Joomla (through PHP) provides several methods to connect to a mail server - but neither provide (nor should provide) a mail server. That's a service that goes along with hosting and can be done in several ways.
I run XAMPP which comes with the Mercury Mail server - though you have to set this up if you need it. For historic reasons I run a local commercial mailserver (FTGate from Floosietek.com) and so can connect my local test sites to that if I want them to send email.
Each Joomla site needs to have the Email server setup configured in the Global Configuration | Server | Mail Settings box. What those settings should be will usually come from the hosting companies FAQs.
There is though a general purpose setting that will work 90%+ which is to use the Google SMTP server with a valid Gmail sign-in. (This will work as long as the hosting company hasn't blocked external SMTP servers.)
ChronoForms passes the emails to Joomla which tries to pass them to the configured mail server.
Not sure how much this helps.
Bob
It's one of those messy problems that really isn't a Joomla problem. Fredrik will know more about this but here's my two penn'orth.
Joomla (through PHP) provides several methods to connect to a mail server - but neither provide (nor should provide) a mail server. That's a service that goes along with hosting and can be done in several ways.
I run XAMPP which comes with the Mercury Mail server - though you have to set this up if you need it. For historic reasons I run a local commercial mailserver (FTGate from Floosietek.com) and so can connect my local test sites to that if I want them to send email.
Each Joomla site needs to have the Email server setup configured in the Global Configuration | Server | Mail Settings box. What those settings should be will usually come from the hosting companies FAQs.
There is though a general purpose setting that will work 90%+ which is to use the Google SMTP server with a valid Gmail sign-in. (This will work as long as the hosting company hasn't blocked external SMTP servers.)
ChronoForms passes the emails to Joomla which tries to pass them to the configured mail server.
Not sure how much this helps.
Bob
Thanks for your prompt as usual reply Bob !
I dont have a host as such. I have just rented a corner of an empty server on which he has installed windows2003. I have dowmloaded and installed Xamp stuff and Joomla and firefox.
I have tried to set up the windows 2003 emailserver but that has not helped.
So perhaps I need to try to set up mercury mail and if that does not cure things I will try to create a gmail account on the server.
Will let you know if anything works !!
--
dave
I dont have a host as such. I have just rented a corner of an empty server on which he has installed windows2003. I have dowmloaded and installed Xamp stuff and Joomla and firefox.
I have tried to set up the windows 2003 emailserver but that has not helped.
So perhaps I need to try to set up mercury mail and if that does not cure things I will try to create a gmail account on the server.
Will let you know if anything works !!
--
dave
Hi Dave,
It's much easier to create a new Gmail account and use their SMTP server than to mess around setting up a mailserver of any kind (5 minutes versus a couple of hours).
Bob
It's much easier to create a new Gmail account and use their SMTP server than to mess around setting up a mailserver of any kind (5 minutes versus a couple of hours).
Bob
Hi Daffy & Bob,
Unfortunately, XAMPP isn't quite my cup'o'tea.. But then again, I'm one of those who prefer self-torture by setting everything up from scratch😉
From what I've read all around, the Mercury Mail Transport System included in XAMPP-Win is a neat and potent Mail Transport Agent - with a habit of causing problems when not properly setup.
With a Win 2003 Server edition OS, the provided mailserver is rather basic, but well functional for simple relaying. You'll find a short guide here: http://www.ilopia.com/Articles/WindowsServer2003/EmailServer.aspx
Now for the origin of the error; this comes down to this set of options in your php.ini file governing the mail() php-function:
If you set the sendmail_* settings, the smtp* ones are ignored, and php will try to execute the commandline in sendmail_path. If this results in an error (command not found, no permissions, etc) you get the "Could not instantiate mail function" error.
If you, on the other hand, leave those unset, php will try to connect to the server:port pointed by the smtp and smtp_port settings. If the connection is refused, you also get this error.
The first step is to determine which mailer you are using (commandline client or direct smtp connection). In most cases, you probably want to use direct smtp, as I find the commandline client to be cumbersome at best under Win32.. The setting localhost:25 would work well with most setups, just make sure you've got a mailserver listening on localhost port 25..
Be adviced, these settings does not support authentication, so you cannot use services such as GMail here, and you'll need to configure your SMTP-server of choice to not require authentication for local clients (also known as anonymous access).
Now, if we're content with only using Joomla, then you could use the Joomla site configuration to use Sendmail with GMail or similar (as this implementation does support authentication). Be adviced though, that any calls to mail() will still generate this error, so you'll have to use Joomla's API for sending mails.
Since you merely want ChronoForms up'n'running, I suppose this isn't much of an issue at the moment, but still worth keeping in mind.
Let me know if you'd like further assistance setting up the SMTP-server on your system.
/Fredrik
Unfortunately, XAMPP isn't quite my cup'o'tea.. But then again, I'm one of those who prefer self-torture by setting everything up from scratch😉
From what I've read all around, the Mercury Mail Transport System included in XAMPP-Win is a neat and potent Mail Transport Agent - with a habit of causing problems when not properly setup.
With a Win 2003 Server edition OS, the provided mailserver is rather basic, but well functional for simple relaying. You'll find a short guide here: http://www.ilopia.com/Articles/WindowsServer2003/EmailServer.aspx
Now for the origin of the error; this comes down to this set of options in your php.ini file governing the mail() php-function:
[mail function]
;SMTP = localhost
;smtp_port = 25
;sendmail_from = me@example.com
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
;mail.force_extra_parameters =
If you set the sendmail_* settings, the smtp* ones are ignored, and php will try to execute the commandline in sendmail_path. If this results in an error (command not found, no permissions, etc) you get the "Could not instantiate mail function" error.
If you, on the other hand, leave those unset, php will try to connect to the server:port pointed by the smtp and smtp_port settings. If the connection is refused, you also get this error.
The first step is to determine which mailer you are using (commandline client or direct smtp connection). In most cases, you probably want to use direct smtp, as I find the commandline client to be cumbersome at best under Win32.. The setting localhost:25 would work well with most setups, just make sure you've got a mailserver listening on localhost port 25..
Be adviced, these settings does not support authentication, so you cannot use services such as GMail here, and you'll need to configure your SMTP-server of choice to not require authentication for local clients (also known as anonymous access).
Now, if we're content with only using Joomla, then you could use the Joomla site configuration to use Sendmail with GMail or similar (as this implementation does support authentication). Be adviced though, that any calls to mail() will still generate this error, so you'll have to use Joomla's API for sending mails.
Since you merely want ChronoForms up'n'running, I suppose this isn't much of an issue at the moment, but still worth keeping in mind.
Let me know if you'd like further assistance setting up the SMTP-server on your system.
/Fredrik
Ha ! Just tried reversing the use of the two ISPs. use btinternet on the remote and gmail on the home. Once again error at the end which tries to use gmail and fine from remote to home using btinternet. This is a slow process.
--
Dave
--
Dave
Thanks Frederick, I do indeed still need help. I posted a reply to your message but it did not appear! I suspect I failed to press the right button.
I have joomla in two places one on a remote server and the other on my home computer.
Both were set up with bog-standard Xampp and bog standard Joomla.
Following some comments by Bob I set up a gmail account on the remote server and I have an account with btinternet on my own computer.
I set up a simple chronofrom with nothing but a greeting and a submit button.
If I triggered this form on my computer (using btinternet) the greeting arrived at the remote server OK
If I triggered the form (with appropriate address changes) on the remote I got an error message 'cannot connect to the smtp server' and nothing arrived at the home computer.
I only used smtp because I could not get other methods to work at all.
So home joomla to remote server using mail.btinternet as the host = OK
and remote jommla to home using smtp.gmail.com as the host fails.
So as I say in the previous, out of order, reply I swapped the isp.s around and then remote to home worked while home to remote failed. So it was just the gmail which was failing.
I would like to use the simpler mail system but it just won't work. Both joomlas have presumably the same php.ini because I havn't touched it, although if I could find it I would look hard at them.
Anyway thanks Frederick and Bob for your help...but I am still struggling.
--
Dave
I have joomla in two places one on a remote server and the other on my home computer.
Both were set up with bog-standard Xampp and bog standard Joomla.
Following some comments by Bob I set up a gmail account on the remote server and I have an account with btinternet on my own computer.
I set up a simple chronofrom with nothing but a greeting and a submit button.
If I triggered this form on my computer (using btinternet) the greeting arrived at the remote server OK
If I triggered the form (with appropriate address changes) on the remote I got an error message 'cannot connect to the smtp server' and nothing arrived at the home computer.
I only used smtp because I could not get other methods to work at all.
So home joomla to remote server using mail.btinternet as the host = OK
and remote jommla to home using smtp.gmail.com as the host fails.
So as I say in the previous, out of order, reply I swapped the isp.s around and then remote to home worked while home to remote failed. So it was just the gmail which was failing.
I would like to use the simpler mail system but it just won't work. Both joomlas have presumably the same php.ini because I havn't touched it, although if I could find it I would look hard at them.
Anyway thanks Frederick and Bob for your help...but I am still struggling.
--
Dave
Hi Dave,
Had a go at XAmpp myself, and the default settings in php.ini should suffice as they point to localhost:25. This would suggest that the mail service is not running or does not accept emails for relaying. You could try following this guide to manually send one or more messages:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323350
That should give a rough idea how the smtp-service is doing.
GMail:
Did you use the appropriate port number and hostname? Security should be set to TLS
Host: smtp.gmail.com Port: 587
/Fredrik
Had a go at XAmpp myself, and the default settings in php.ini should suffice as they point to localhost:25. This would suggest that the mail service is not running or does not accept emails for relaying. You could try following this guide to manually send one or more messages:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323350
That should give a rough idea how the smtp-service is doing.
GMail:
Did you use the appropriate port number and hostname? Security should be set to TLS
Host: smtp.gmail.com Port: 587
/Fredrik
Thanks again Frederick for your advice.
I used smtp.gmail.com with the port set to 25 and no 'security' setting.
All these initials leave me floundering.
TLS stands for 'Times Literary Supplement' doesn't it ?
But I will try it as you say.
One article started by saying check that the DNS on your NIC is correct.
I dont know about DNS or whether my NIC is any good at all !🙂
I read somewhere that the 'Host' should be localhost but on a remote server that cannot be right can it?
I put some other software on this server which needed the URL to access and I put in the correct server address and it failed so I put in address/localhost and it was happy. Too much of this work seems trial and error!.
Thanks again
Dave.
I used smtp.gmail.com with the port set to 25 and no 'security' setting.
All these initials leave me floundering.
TLS stands for 'Times Literary Supplement' doesn't it ?
But I will try it as you say.
One article started by saying check that the DNS on your NIC is correct.
I dont know about DNS or whether my NIC is any good at all !🙂
I read somewhere that the 'Host' should be localhost but on a remote server that cannot be right can it?
I put some other software on this server which needed the URL to access and I put in the correct server address and it failed so I put in address/localhost and it was happy. Too much of this work seems trial and error!.
Thanks again
Dave.
Well those suggestions got me into trouble !!
The microsoft kb article could be useful but that gave the response 'cannot connect to ..name.. port 25' So I could take it no further.
This seemed to suggest a firewall or something so I found the security settings and disabled them but still same message.
I thought I would check again that the chronoform worked OK if I used my normal ISP and email address and indeed no error message came. So back to look to see if the email had landed. INstead there was an ERROR 553 in my mail and a suggestion that somebody may be spoofing my emails !!
Please would I reconfirm all my email addresses.
I am really stuck now. Perhaps I got the 'machine name' wrong referred to in the mirosoft article. I have met computer name before but not 'machine name'.
Back to the grindstone.
--
dave
The microsoft kb article could be useful but that gave the response 'cannot connect to ..name.. port 25' So I could take it no further.
This seemed to suggest a firewall or something so I found the security settings and disabled them but still same message.
I thought I would check again that the chronoform worked OK if I used my normal ISP and email address and indeed no error message came. So back to look to see if the email had landed. INstead there was an ERROR 553 in my mail and a suggestion that somebody may be spoofing my emails !!
Please would I reconfirm all my email addresses.
I am really stuck now. Perhaps I got the 'machine name' wrong referred to in the mirosoft article. I have met computer name before but not 'machine name'.
Back to the grindstone.
--
dave
Hi Dave,
The 'cannot connect to ...' message could be a firewall setting, however, the most likely cause is that the mail service is not running at all.
Using your ISP:
ISP's generally don't allow "outsiders" to use their servers for sending emails (Relaying). The 553 error actually means "Relaying Denied". If the system is hosted by your ISP, then I suggest you get in touch with them and ask them how to sort out this issue. If the system is hosted elsewhere, then I doubt you'll have much success using their email servers.
Using GMail:
You will not be able to send emails using port 25 on smtp.gmail.com.
TLS in this case stands for "Transport Layer Security", and is an encryption scheme that allows a plaintext connection to request an encryption handshake at any point of the session (whereas SSL requires the handshake to be done immediately, or the connection will be dropped).
"localhost" simply means "this system" or "this computer". If the system does run a SMTP-service, then you could use localhost as the "SMTP Host". However, we've concluded that there is no service running (or blocked by firewall), so we either have to use some different email server (such as GMail), or get the one on the system working properly.
All in all, it very easy to get lost in all this. Simply trying things at random rarely results in a successful outcome. At first, I would probably ask the person providing the system if there's any email servers available along with the rented server. As a second option, if there are none available, is to either run your own email server or use GMail's servers (with a valid account).
Don't bother with the from and to email addresses until you've got your SMTP server settings properly (be it in php.ini or Joomla site configuration).
/Fredrik
The 'cannot connect to ...' message could be a firewall setting, however, the most likely cause is that the mail service is not running at all.
Using your ISP:
ISP's generally don't allow "outsiders" to use their servers for sending emails (Relaying). The 553 error actually means "Relaying Denied". If the system is hosted by your ISP, then I suggest you get in touch with them and ask them how to sort out this issue. If the system is hosted elsewhere, then I doubt you'll have much success using their email servers.
Using GMail:
You will not be able to send emails using port 25 on smtp.gmail.com.
TLS in this case stands for "Transport Layer Security", and is an encryption scheme that allows a plaintext connection to request an encryption handshake at any point of the session (whereas SSL requires the handshake to be done immediately, or the connection will be dropped).
"localhost" simply means "this system" or "this computer". If the system does run a SMTP-service, then you could use localhost as the "SMTP Host". However, we've concluded that there is no service running (or blocked by firewall), so we either have to use some different email server (such as GMail), or get the one on the system working properly.
All in all, it very easy to get lost in all this. Simply trying things at random rarely results in a successful outcome. At first, I would probably ask the person providing the system if there's any email servers available along with the rented server. As a second option, if there are none available, is to either run your own email server or use GMail's servers (with a valid account).
Don't bother with the from and to email addresses until you've got your SMTP server settings properly (be it in php.ini or Joomla site configuration).
/Fredrik
This topic is locked and no more replies can be posted.
