Debugging Forms

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Super Steve - 22 Jul 2008 06:30 GMT

I'm trying to debug a form handler (written in PHP) and in the past
I've used a tool like cg-eye at http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/cg-eye/cgeye.cgi
to test things like this.

However now cg-eye doesn't seem to be sending form data to my form
processing script.

I've looked around to see if there are any other online tools that let
you specify a URL to submit a request to, along with a list of field
name / value pairs, and that then shows the result, but I can't find
anything! There are plenty of HTTP header viewers, but they don't let
you submit form data with the request.

I've also tried looking for a program that I could run locally on my
computer but couldn't find anything suitable (plenty of sniffers but
nothing that would submit a request).

Does anyone know of anything that I could use for this kind of thing?

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Steve Swift - 22 Jul 2008 18:22 GMT

> I've looked around to see if there are any other online tools that let
> you specify a URL to submit a request to, along with a list of field
> name / value pairs, and that then shows the result, but I can't find
> anything! There are plenty of HTTP header viewers, but they don't let
> you submit form data with the request.

While I don't recommend it for production work, if you modify your form
so the ACTION is http://www.swiftys.org.uk/cgi-bin/test then you will
see an analysis of all the form data submitted with your request.

Of course, doing this you have to trust that my server won't record the
data that you submit, and use it for nefarious purposes. As it happens,
it doesn't record anything (I've got better things to do with my time)
but then he would say that, wouldn't he?

Signature

Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

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Super Steve - 22 Jul 2008 22:26 GMT

> > I've looked around to see if there are any other online tools that let
> > you specify a URL to submit a request to, along with a list of field
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> --
> Steve Swifthttp://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.htmlhttp://www.ringers.org.uk

I tried submitting to your script and received the following back:

<HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFD0><TITLE>CGI Test</TITLE></HEAD>
<FONT SIZE=+3><U>CGI/1.1 test script report:</U></FONT><BR>
</TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></
TABLE></TABLE>
<H2>Syntax Error</H2>
<H3>Routine not found</H3>
21 *-* If method = 'POST' then call PostCheck

Looks like there's something wrong with your script?

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Steve Swift - 24 Jul 2008 11:44 GMT

> <H3>Routine not found</H3>
> 21 *-* If method = 'POST' then call PostCheck
>
> Looks like there's something wrong with your script?

Well, you could be the first person to call that routine using "POST"
for quite a while. Now fixed. Thanks for the heads-up!

Signature

Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

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Pierre Goiffon - 28 Jul 2008 16:54 GMT

Not sure I have understood right your needs ? Do you want to show
exactly what is submitted to the server for an existing form ? If so,
why don't use one of the amazing Firefox extension like Live Http
Headers, Firebug, Web developer toolbar (and there should be more who
presents the data submitted)

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Scott Bryce - 28 Jul 2008 17:01 GMT

What prevents you from writing one yourself?

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Webmaster Forum / HTML, CSS, Scripts / HTML / July 2008

Debugging Forms