Topic: Mozilla, Firebird, NN POST problems

I have a web application that uses HTML forms to pass data from the client to a mysql db on a web server via PHP. Simple.
Everything worked great when running on a W2K box, using Apache, on our LAN. Recently, we've moved the application to a web server on the WWW. We need this to be encrypted and secure, so my sys Admin advised we use this product, OpenSA, an HTTP server based on Apache.

Now I've moved all the files over to this OpenSA.

IE and Opera both act as I would expect...that is, they behave the same now as they did under unencrypted Apache on our LAN.
Mozilla, Firebird, NN7.1 now will not use the POST method of passing data.
I wrote a little
foreach($HTTP_POST_VARS as $var=>$val){
echo "$var , $val<br>\n";
}
test at the top of appropriate files.
Nothing. Nothing at all from Gecko browsers. Everything's fine with other browsers.

I've done some google searching and looked through mozilla.org and the openSA site and can't seem to find anything like this at all.

Has anybody seen anything like this before?
Any ideas?

thank you

First things first... I really see no reason for running an Apache derivate (this thing called OpenSA) instead of the real Apache. I'm strongly against all products that are based on bunch of other open source software and have no additional features (compared to the originals). As I see it, the only reason why you installed OpenSA is because you're running Windows and there're no pre-compiled binaries of Apache with SSL support for Windows platform on Apache web site. But, this doesn't mean that real Apache with SSL support doesn't exist for Windows. You can get pre-compiled Apache binaries with a bunch of modules including mod_ssl and OpenSSL for Windows from here: http://www.apachefriends.org/wampp-en.html And instructions for enabling SSL support under Windows can be found here: http://plone.org/documentation/developer/ApacheSSLWindows/wikipage_view

Now, to get to your problem... Maybe Mozilla has some problems connecting to your server via SSL. I suggest you to download the latest development version of Mozilla and try whether it works or not. Also, there may be some issues with SSL configuration on your web server...

Oh, and one more thing, in your script you're using $HTTP_POST_VARS variable to access POST data. I don't know what version of PHP is installed on your server, but you should know that $HTTP_POST_VARS is deprecated in latest version(s) of PHP in favor of $_POST global variable, so that also may be the reason why your script doesn't work...

Thank you for your prompt response, Max.

You are correct. My understanding of the situation is our Sys Admin knew of no other way to get SSL running on Apache, Windows. It is unfortunate he (or I, I guess) has not found this solution earlier. I will advise him to look into this product.

I don't know much about configuring Apache, but I've tried to read as much of the documentation as I can -- especially concerning SSL. As far as I can tell the configuration is right. That being said, I am relatively uneducated. If there are some 'common pitfalls' I should look our for, I'd appreciate the hints.

Thank you for the $_POST tip. duly noted and code changed.
I've tried accessing the post variables in numerous ways...they all work fine in IE, Opera. The array is empty; not even a Submit...nothing in the Gecko browsers.

I'm frustrated, but will look into your two links.
Any more thoughts from anybody are most certainly welcome.

Besides knowing how to setup Apache to use SSL, it's also nice to know and understand how to properly create SSL certificates (if you don't use a SSL certificate that's issued by authorized commercial SSL vendor). Even if Apache is properly configured, Mozilla may have some problems with the actual SSL certificate that you're using.

And one more thing that just came on my mind. Are you sure that you're not getting a cached page in IE? Have you tried accessing the server from some other computer with IE (and Mozilla)? If you were getting POST results in IE when you used $HTTP_POST_VARS instead of $_POST and you also get the same results now that you've switched to $_POST, I'm 100% sure that IE pulled the page from cache (because PHP would throw an error if you've used variable that it doesn't understand).




[This message has been edited by mr.maX (edited 09-28-2003).]

I'm sure it's not a cached page. I've tried ie from two different machines, and posting different data, multiple times, on each machine. Everything works ok. I've not tried Mozilla from different computers. Maybe it's some sort of local browser setting I have screwed up? I wouldn't think so, as I can still post to other websites just fine.

By the way, I'm using PHP version 4.2.2, running as an Apache module.

I know very little about Apache, and even less about SSL. That's what one pays an administrator for, right? =)
Looks like some more research is in order.

Thank you sir.
I'll report back later on my findings.

I erased everything our sys admin started and decided to have a go of it myself. I followed all the directions from that link, Mr. Max.
Easy as can be and works like a charm.
I'm no SSL expert now (or Apache expert, for that matter) but I'm smarter today than I was on Saturday...and I have a working product.
Thank you Mr. Max.

I'm very glad that everything worked out fine...

But the big question is:

Did you manage to work in any half-naked photos of nice looking women in Max's honor?

:::11oh1:::

When setting up a certificate, one is required to enter a password.
Let's just say Mr. Max would be proud...