Element Undefined in Form

[prosnake]

Hello:

I have approximately 1000 people per day who fill out our form on the web. probably 20 or 30 times per day, I get an "element lname undefined in form" message. (a try-catch sends me an email about the prob). I have searched the web thoroughly, and it is not a improper naming of the form element or doubling up on form elements issue.

What is happening is that the user fills out their zipcode, a little processing goes on and some session variables are set. The user arrives at a more detailed form. When they fill out the form and press submit, it goes to a processing page and quickly throws the error.

Any ideas?

[Guest]

Can you show the code? It seems that the form variable isn't being set and when it submits, it's undefined. If it's not a required field, you should add a check to see if it is defined (i.e. isDefined("Form.variablename")) or set a cfparam to the form variable.

[prosnake]

there are several hundred lines of code but i took out some lines that should be enough to give the idea. remember what is strange is that maybe 5% of the time when the post gets over to appProc.cfm, the whole form structure is empty. (Know this from wrapping try/catch around the first processing statement using a form var, sending me an email with a dump of "form") some of the appProc.cfm code is below the first code:

<cfparam name="local_fname" default="">
<cfparam name="local_lname" default="">
<cfif isDefined('url.hasError')>
<cfset focusThis=url.hasError>
<cfset local_fname=url.fname>
<cfset local_lname=url.lname>
</cfif>

<form name="contactInfo" method="post" action="appProc.cfm">
<cfoutput>First<input type="text" maxlength="20" name="fname" class="cfname" value="#local_fname#"<cfif hasError EQ "fname"> style="border-color: ##ff0000;border-style:solid;"</cfif>/></cfoutput>
<cfoutput>Last <input type="text" maxlength="30" name="lname" class="clname" value="#local_lname#"<cfif hasError EQ "lname"> style="border-color: ##ff0000;border-style:solid;"</cfif>/></cfoutput>
<input class="submit" name="Submit" type="submit" value="Get Quote!"></td>
</form>

some of the code from appProc.cfm:

<cftry>
<cfif form.fname EQ "">
<cfset errorMessage = "Sorry! Please enter your first and last name.">
<cfset hasError = "fname">
<cflocation url="app.cfm?hasError=#hasError#&email=#form.email#&zip_code=#form.zipcode#&fname=#form.fname#&lname=#form.lname#&address=#address#&city=#form.city#&state=#form.state#&hphone=#form.hphone#&wphone=#form.wphone#&wphonex=#form.wphonex#&curIns=#form.curIns#&curPremium=#form.curPremium#&a1birthMonth=#form.a1birthMonth#&a1birthDay=#form.a1birthDay#&a1birthYear=#form.a1birthYear#&a1gender=#form.a1gender#&a1heightFt=#form.a1heightFt#&a1heightIn=#form.a1heightIn#&a1weight=#form.a1weight#&a1smoker=#form.a1smoker#&a2birthMonth=#form.a2birthMonth#&a2birthDay=#form.a2birthDay#&a2birthYear=#form.a2birthYear#&a2gender=#form.a2gender#&a2heightFt=#form.a2heightFt#&a2heightIn=#form.a2heightIn#&a2weight=#form.a2weight#&a2smoker=#form.a2smoker#&q12months=#form.q12months#&visibility=#form.isvis#&errorMessage=#errorMessage#" addToken="yes">
<cfelse>
<cfinvoke component="validator" method="dataScrubber" returnvariable="form.fname">
<cfinvokeargument name="field_data" value="#form.fname#">
<cfinvokeargument name="scrub" value="name">
</cfinvoke>
<cfinvoke component="validator" method="validator" returnvariable="isvalid">
<cfinvokeargument name="field_data" value="#form.fname#">
<cfinvokeargument name="fieldtype" value="text">
</cfinvoke>
<cfif isvalid EQ 'FALSE'>
<cfset errorMessage = "Sorry! Please enter a valid first and last name.">
<cfset hasError = "fname">
<cflocation url="app.cfm?hasError=#hasError#&email=#form.email#&zip_code=#form.zipcode#&fname=#form.fname#&lname=#form.lname#&address=#address#&city=#form.city#&state=#form.state#&hphone=#form.hphone#&wphone=#form.wphone#&wphonex=#form.wphonex#&curIns=#form.curIns#&curPremium=#form.curPremium#&a1birthMonth=#form.a1birthMonth#&a1birthDay=#form.a1birthDay#&a1birthYear=#form.a1birthYear#&a1gender=#form.a1gender#&a1heightFt=#form.a1heightFt#&a1heightIn=#form.a1heightIn#&a1weight=#form.a1weight#&a1smoker=#form.a1smoker#&a2birthMonth=#form.a2birthMonth#&a2birthDay=#form.a2birthDay#&a2birthYear=#form.a2birthYear#&a2gender=#form.a2gender#&a2heightFt=#form.a2heightFt#&a2heightIn=#form.a2heightIn#&a2weight=#form.a2weight#&a2smoker=#form.a2smoker#&q12months=#form.q12months#&visibility=#form.isvis#&errorMessage=#errorMessage#" addToken="yes">
</cfif>
</cfif>
<cfcatch type="any">
<cfmail to=""
from=#Application.emailSystem#
server=#Application.emailServer#
username=#Application.emailUserName#
password=#Application.emailPwd#
spoolenable="yes"
subject="Form.fname undefined error analysis">
<cfmailpart type="html">
<cfif Isdefined('cfcatch.message')>Message:#cfcatch.message#</cfif>
<cfif Isdefined('cfcatch.Detail')>Detail:#cfcatch.Detail#</cfif>
<cfif Isdefined('cfcatch.Type')>Type:#cfcatch.Type#</cfif>
<cfif Isdefined('cfcatch.ErrNumber')>#cfcatch.ErrNumber#</cfif>
<cfdump var="#session#"><br />
<cfdump var="#FORM#"><br />
<cfdump var="#CGI#"><br />
<cfdump var="#URL#"><br />
</cfmailpart>
</cfmail>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

[Guest]

When you submit, can you just do a plain <cfdump var="#Form#"> and see what it spits out - before you do any processing?

[prosnake]

The problem with that is that the problem is intermittent. It only happens maybe 2% of the time, so If I dump variables they will more than likely show up fine. The try/catch above catches it if form.fname is missing, and sends a dump of #form#. The entire form structure is always empty.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts...

[joeDangelo]

What happens at the end of appProc.cfm? If it doesnt do a <cflocation> to somewhere else and someone refreshes their browser....

[Guest]

Look through your CF log files for the undefined message your seeing, you may possibly see something related to why it's happening at that specific time/user/machine. It's a long shot but I've had a lot of luck going through log files in the past.

<cftry>
<cfif form.fname EQ "">
<cfset errorMessage = "Sorry! Please enter your first and last name.">
<cfset hasError = "fname">
<cflocation url="app.cfm?....

You can probably remove some the code in your action page by checking if the form fields are entered before submitting. Just look at <cfform> and <cfinput message="" required="">. Maybe you could remove the intermittent error that way.