"Sometimes" - Form Emails - Error Messages

Hello Everybody.
My first post in your community🙂 hoping you can help.

i have been using Chronoforms for about a year now and have used pretty much nothing else when it comes to forms and joomla... i've been pretty happy with it so far, but suddenly it seems i have a problem.

i have a joomla 1.5 site setup showcasing domain names (3>d>domain>names)

... in total there are over 400 domains listed with their very own profile page (not the best profile page, but a page to itself, nonetheless) so there are over 400 pages (or articles)

... on each domain name profile page, there is a universal form for any visitor to be able to request more information or pricing for that specific domain name... plus a standard contact page as well.

you can visit the main site by going to 3d>Domain>Names.info

Here is how i accomplished this:

... i created one universal form (very simple, 4 field form with a comment box)
... i then created a chronoform module of this exact form
... i then placed that new module (the new form) within each domain profile page using another very helpful plug-in called "Modules Anywhere".

Sounds easy enough and it is/was..
... the form worked great - i tested regularly with each batch of new names added and felt very comfortable adding new items.
... however, the form does not seem to be working properly anymore.

I have noticed a nice rise in visitors in general, but mostly to the contact page..
normally, this would amount to a request or two, but lately, nothing at all - even with the spike.


i am unable to specify WHEN i have gone off course, but i am estimating that it is within the past two months (sorry)

Here are the problems i am encountering when submitting any random form:

1) - SOMETIMES the form sends the email and sometimes it does not.
2) - SOMETIMES i get an error message that states 'You are not allowed to access this URL"
3) - SOMETIMES the 'debug' works and sometimes it does not (for example, debug was ON when i get the error message from number 2 above but no
4) - When completing and submitting the form, it SOMETIMES takes you to the proper 'Thank You, Your Form Has Been Submitted Page' afterwards (unless there is an error message) ... but i don't always get an email.


I have all the same mixed results using firefox, internet explorer 8 and while using the iphone - 'Sometimes' yes, 'Sometimes' no.


Some Notes:
• There are no dashes in the form name, as i have encountered that problem previously.
• Registration is not required on this site - it's completely open, so sessions shouldn't be a problem (?)
• 'Email results' is obviously checked
• 'Mysql engine or type' is set to ENGINE
• 'Check Token' is set to ON
• All Email fields are enabled and appear proper (To, Subject, Fromname, FromEmail)
• Most recent 'debug' error message:
Warning: implode() [function.implode]: Invalid arguments passed in /home/content/x/x/x/xxxxx/html/xxxx/libraries/joomla/database/database/mysql.php on line 540


Debug is presently set to ON for testing, so if anyone would like to try and take a peek and see if they see something i am unaware of, please feel free to do so. I would love the help.

If there is any other information someone might need to help figure this out, please let me know and i will do my best to uncover it.

Any suggestions would be great.
Thank you so much everybody.

Hi jvin3d,

What is the site URL please?

Irregular results are fairly unusual with ChronoForms. Usually either it works or it doesn't so I'm curious what might be changing with your site.

Bob

Hello GreyHead and thanks for helping me with my problem.


you can visit the main site by going to 3d>Domain>Names.info


no spaces
(i'm sorry for the confusion, but i only typed it like that so the spiders don't grab the name and the term)

Hi jvin3d,

Sorry, it never occurred to me to just remove the >s

I can see a couple of problems straight away.

a) The form name begins with a number. This may cause a problem as PHP variable names can't start with a number

b) Two of the input names have dashes. This causes a problem with MySQL and is probably the cause of the error message you see. You need to make this change in the form input names and the database table column names.

c) The To and From Email addresses are the same. Your ISP may see this and drop the email as it appears to be to yourself. (You do have a second To address in for testing which may be making this OK for the moment.

I submitted the form a few times from a couple of pages using FireFox without any other problems

Bob

Note: You need to refresh the DB Connection after any changes to database column names. In the Form Editor click the DB Connection tab and set the Connection to 'No'. Click the 'Apply icon in the toolbar to save the form, open the DB Connection tab, set the Connection back to 'Yes' and re-save the form. This will refresh the copy of the table information that ChronoForms uses.

... i have just completed all the tasks you outlined in your last post and it still does not work properly.

• I changed the form name to 'THREE' instead of '3'
• I updated all contact pages and mdules with the new 'THREE' spelling
• I then removed all dashes in any and all form names
• I updated all the email form with all proper form names
• i updated the form field names in the 'Auto Generated Code with no dashes
• i changed the 'to' field in the 'setup email' settings.
• i updated the 'DB Connection' by turning it off, applying, and then turning it on and applying again.


I have attempted to fill out the contact form after each change made, and not one of them have come through, nor have the ones that you sent. Not a one, so i guess the good news is is that it's not 'sometimes' anymore, it's 'all the time' ( haha .. trying to keep it light🙂)


Considering how light the form is and that updating one module updates 400 pages, i just may setup an entirely new form and drop that in instead of spending more time on this...it may just be quicker anyway.



Thanks again for your help GreyHead - i definitely appreciate it.

Hi jvin3d,

There's still something not right with the Database query. The error message (see below) refers to this line of code

$this->setQuery( sprintf( $fmtsql, implode( ",", $fields ) ,  implode( ",", $values ) ) );

where the column names and corresponding values are linked up. It looks as though either $fields or $values may be empty (you can't tell which from the error message).

Bob

Warning: implode() [function.implode]: Invalid arguments passed in /home/content/j/v/c/jvcreati/html/3ddomainnames/libraries/joomla/database/database/mysql.php on line 540

Well now i'm not so sure what's going on...
... i did create a new form - totally different name, most of the same settings as i crosschecked with a couple of other sites i know of to be using chronoforms successfully...
.. and this don't work either.

Three attempts - one through the contact page, and the others through the interior pages using the module.... submit correctly redirects you to the thank you page and all on the front seems good... still no emails though.
I have swapped the 'to' and 'from' email addresses in the back-end to see if maybe there was something funny there, but still no good.

I guess my next task should be to check out another contact form to see if the problem occurs with that form and to find out if this is my database/website or the chronoforms.

(**BTW.. i also sent myself about 20 emails to make sure it wasn't the email itself)

Thanks again for your help.🙂