PHP and index.html and 405 error

[thunderlizard]

Fourscore and ten years ago a friendly web designer made me a static html website(they were all the rage back then). I've added a feedback form (feedback.html) to it, which does this

<FORM NAME=FEEDBACK ACTION="process-feedback.php" METHOD=POST>

-process-feedback.php being a script that looks at the input controls' values, puts them in an email, and sends it to me.

When I click the 'submit' button on feedback.html, I get an error:

405 method not allowed: The requested method POST is not allowed for the URL /process-feedback.php

The wise armchair web developers on ExpertSexchange and the like all blithely say "Delete the index.html from the root folder, and it will work". And they are quite right - it does, beautifully. But I DON'T WANT to delete index.html because it is pretty darn integral to the website.

Is there some kind of "third way" where I can get my post to work, without ripping the guts out of the nice linked-together html site, e.g. tell PHP to ignore index.html?

The web server is a 3rd party hosted one, running Apache. So I'm not allowed to reconfigure the server, but I am allowed to put config files and stuff within the folders of my website. Apparently there's something called .htaccess files - can they rescue me?

This is my first day of contact with PHP or Apache (& ideally my last) so I promise not to laugh at any suggestions. Oh and don't worry about potential knock-on effects to other php scripts, because I promise there aren't any.

[Fred Bloggs]

Now hear's an answer from a Mechanical Engineer! Make index.html into index.php

OK, I'm not a web author!

[Ardesco]

Sounds like an Apache configuration error to me. I'm assuming apache 1.3 (I think Apache 2 allows you to post .html files by default).

create a file called .htaccess in the folder your feedback.html is in and populate it with the following:

AddHandler cgi-script .html

That should make apache parse html files as cgi files hence allowing the post.

[thunderlizard]

ooh - I'll give that a go!

[thunderlizard]

oh, and...


well I did it and it worked.

Actually it was a bit odd. I did exactly as you suggested and got a "not authorised" error on all the pages in my \feedback\ folder. I also noticed that the .htaccess file wasn't visible in my FTP view, as if it had been immediately eaten after upload. So in an attempt to isolate variables, I deleted the \feedback\ folder, and re-filled it again, but without the .htaccess. And it has worked nicely ever since!

I'd only just upgraded my hosting to allow PHP, so there's a small possibility that it hadn't been 100% enabled until some point this week. But Ardesco you clearly know your stuff, and your web hosting service might find itself with an extra customer when renewal time comes around!

[Ardesco]

[Fred Bloggs]

Well done, comments made about web hosting duly noted.

[Jog On]

Now hear's an answer from a Mechanical Engineer! Make index.html into index.php

OK, I'm not a web author!

This will kill your search engine rankings if you have any

[Fred Bloggs]

I migrated a website from static html website to a php based CMS website (phpnuke based). The website has been in the top 2 to 5 on Google for about 7 years. The change from index.htm to index.php made no difference what so ever to Google.

[Jog On]

I migrated a website from static html website to a php based CMS website (phpnuke based). The website has been in the top 2 to 5 on Google for about 7 years. The change from index.htm to index.php made no difference what so ever to Google.

You changed it when?

I recently was going to change all my pages from .html to .php and was told that renaming them would make the SE's see them as new files?

http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/to...OPIC_ID=220411

Are you saying this is untrue?