Question

Having a strange problem regarding the postback of a form I’ve created. The answer will probably be really simple, but I can’t seem to see it.

I have a form that a user can fill in if the page a video is on, isn’t working. It pre-populates fields based on the current video selected, and allows the user to fill in other fields, and send the email to me for support.

The problem
The fields are pre-populated correctly, but one of the fields ‘Page’, although pre-populated correctly, doesn’t pass the value to the button submit method.

the clientside code
(includes some mootools javascript, this works)

<asp:Panel ID="pnlVideoProblem" runat="server" Visible="false">
        <h2>Report a video/learning tool issue</h2>
        <div class="keyline"></div>
        <fieldset class="emailform">
            <ul>
                <li><label>Name <span class="error">*</span></label><asp:TextBox ID="txtVideoName" runat="server" MaxLength="60"></asp:TextBox>
                <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator33" runat="server" CssClass="error" ControlToValidate="txtVideoName" ErrorMessage="Required"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator></li>
                <li><label>Email <span class="error">*</span></label><asp:TextBox ID="txtVideoEmail" runat="server" MaxLength="100"></asp:TextBox>
                <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator35" runat="server" CssClass="error" ControlToValidate="txtVideoEmail" ErrorMessage="Required"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                <asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="RegularExpressionValidator7" runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtVideoEmail" Text="Invalid email" ErrorMessage="Email address is not in the correct format" ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*"></asp:RegularExpressionValidator></li>
                <li><label>OTHER FIELD</label><asp:TextBox ID="txtOtherField" runat="server" MaxLength="10"></asp:TextBox></li>
                <li><label>Video ID</label><asp:TextBox ID="txtVideoID" runat="server" ReadOnly="true"></asp:TextBox></li>
                <li><label>Browser/Version </label><asp:TextBox ID="txtVideoBrowser" runat="server" MaxLength="100"></asp:TextBox></li>
                <li><label>Flash Version </label><asp:TextBox ID="txtFlashVersion" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></li>
                <li><label>Page </label><asp:TextBox ID="txtVideoPage" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></li>
                <li><label>Visible error messages </label><asp:TextBox ID="txtVisError" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine" Rows="6" MaxLength="4000"></asp:TextBox></li>

            </ul>
            <asp:Button ID="btnSubmitVideoIssue" runat="server" CssClass="subbutton" Text="Submit report" OnClick="btnSubmitVideoIssue_Click" />
        </fieldset>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            window.addEvent('domready', function () {
                document.id('<%= txtVideoBrowser.ClientID %>').set('value', Browser.Platform.name + ", " + Browser.name + " " + Browser.version);
                document.id('<%= txtFlashVersion.ClientID %>').set('value', Browser.Plugins.Flash.version + "." + Browser.Plugins.Flash.build);
            });
        </script>
    </asp:Panel>

the page-behind code for the button
(there is no reseting of the values on postback)

protected void btnSubmitVideoIssue_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (CheckEmptyCaptcha() == false)
    {
        //this field is hidden in css and empty. if it has been filled in, then an automated way of entering has been used.
        //ignore and send no email.
    }
    else
    {
        StringBuilder sbMessage = new StringBuilder();

        emailForm = new MailMessage();

        sbMessage.Append("Name : " + txtVideoName.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Email : " + txtVideoEmail.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Other Field : " + txtOtherField.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Video ID : " + txtVideoID.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Browser : " + txtVideoBrowser.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Flash Version : " + txtFlashVersion.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Visible error messages : " + txtVisError.Text.Trim() + "<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Url referrer : " + txtVideoPage.Text.Trim()+"<br>");
        sbMessage.Append("Browser : " + Request.UserAgent + "<br>");

        if (txtVideoBrowser.Text.Contains("ie 6"))
        {
            sbMessage.Append("<strong>Browser note</strong> : The PC that made this request looks like it was using Internet Explorer 6, although videos work in IE6, the browser isn't stable software, and therefore Javascript errors may occur preventing the viewing of the page/video/learning tool how it was intended. Recommend that the user upgrades their browsers to the latest version of IE.<br>");
        }
        Double flashver = 0.0;
        if(Double.TryParse(txtFlashVersion.Text, out flashver))
        {
            if(flashver < 9.0)
            {
                sbMessage.Append("<strong>Flash version note</strong> : The PC that made this request is currently using flash version "+flashver+". Flash version 9 or greater is required to view videos. Recommend user upgrades their flash version by visiting http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer<br>");
            }
        }
        else
        {
            sbMessage.Append("<strong>Flash version note</strong> : It doesn't look like flash is installed on the PC that made this request. Flash is required to view videos . Recommend user installs flash by visiting http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer<br>");
        }

        emailForm.To.Add(new MailAddress("[e-mail]"));
        emailForm.From = new MailAddress(txtVideoEmail.Text.Trim(), txtVideoName.Text.Trim());
        emailForm.Subject = "[ERROR] - [VIDEO ISSUE] from " + txtVideoName.Text.Trim();
        emailForm.Body = sbMessage.ToString();

        emailForm.IsBodyHtml = true;
        bool sendSuccess = false;

        try
        {
            SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient();
            smtp.Send(emailForm);
            sendSuccess = true;
        }
        catch
        {
            pnlVideoProblem.Visible = false;
            pnlFailure.Visible = true;
            ltlFailure.Text = "There was a problem sending your feedback, please go back and try again.";
        }
        finally
        {
            if (sendSuccess)
            {
                pnlVideoProblem.Visible = false;
                pnlSuccess.Visible = true;
                ltlSuccess.Text = "Thank you, your feedback has been sent. Click close to return to the website.";
            }
            else
            {
                pnlVideoProblem.Visible = false;
                pnlFailure.Visible = true;
                ltlFailure.Text = "There was a problem sending your feedback, please go back and try again.";
            }
        }
    }
}

the form values

Name : User
Email : [e-mail]
Other Field : aab123
Video Learning ID : 5546
Browser version : win, firefox 9
Flash version : 11.102
Page : https://www.awebsite.com/library/video/5546
Visible error messages : ewrwerwe

the resulting email

Name : User
Email : [e-mail]
Other Field : aab123
Video ID : 5546
Browser : win, firefox 9
Flash Version : 11.102
Url referrer : 
Visible error messages : ewrwerwe

Video ID and Page/Url Referrer are populated on (!IsPostBack)

(!IsPostBack)

pnlVideoProblem.Visible = true;
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["vid"]))
{
    txtVideoID.Text = Request.QueryString["vid"];
}

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["other"]))
{
    txtOtherField.Text = Request.QueryString["other"];
    txtOtherField.ReadOnly = true;
}
txtVideoPage.Text = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(Request.QueryString["ref"]);
txtVideoPage.ReadOnly = true;

any ideas? I have a brick wall i can hit my head against based on how simple the answer is.

Answer 1

Solved 🙂

After a tiny ray of sunshine i remembered I had this

RewriteRule ^/pop/(.*[^/])/report-issue/([a-fA-F0-9]{32})-([0-9]+)$ /pop.aspx?tp=$1&pg=report-issue&vid=$2&other=$3&ref=%{HTTP_REFERER} [L]

as a rewrite rule, which then led me to take a closer look at whether the form fieldswere actually was wrapped in a postback. Lo-and-behold, they werent.

I’ve wrapped a !postback around the querystring variable reading section and it works!

brick wall needs to be very thick.

thanks to those that tried to help!