Verification Email Trouble

I have recently updated an on-line petition at www.fuelprotest.com

The confirmation email contained a verification link like
http://www.fuelprotest.com?cvote.php...c397392909edf2
(example link - this one won't work)

However some users had problems with the link working. The email was just
plain text using mail().

I have now changed it to MIME 1.0 and text/html. Would you please try
registering a vote on the site from any unusual browsers and/or mail
systems. I have tried it with Squirrel Mail and Outlook Express and all
seem ok, mind you all seemed ok before!

Does anyone know why some users would have a problem or what the best way is
to do this?

Nel


--
DISCLAIMER: There is an extremely small but nonzero chance that,
through a process known as "Tunneling", this e-mail may spontaneously
disappear from its present location and reappear at any random place in the
Universe, including your neighbour's domicile. The sender will not be
responsible for any damages or inconvenience that may result.

re: Verification Email Trouble

> Does anyone know why some users would have a problem or what the best way
is[color=blue]
> to do this?[/color]

What I would recommend is having the user forward the email they have
problems with as an attachment. Most email clients support this option. That
way, you can see exactly what they received at their end. It could be as
simple of a problem such as their email client hard wrapping the text to a
number of characters that is less than the URL is long. This would result in
a truncated URL and your link not working properly.

HTH,
Matt Wade
http://codewalkers.com/

re: Verification Email Trouble

I noticed that Message-ID: <AKDib.10162$kA.2373515@wards.force9.net>
from Nel contained the following:
[color=blue]
>The confirmation email contained a verification link like
>http://www.fuelprotest.com?cvote.php...c397392909edf2
>(example link - this one won't work)[/color]

Have you tried making it a full link ie http:// etc? And isn't that uid
a bit over the top? If that's a random selection of letters and numbers
there are probably more combinations there than there are atoms in the
universe.[color=blue]
>
>However some users had problems with the link working. The email was just
>plain text using mail().
>
>I have now changed it to MIME 1.0 and text/html.[/color]
Huh? Why?

Also the email field is too small. Supposing I mistyped my email
address? It would be nice to see it all. And I was slightly annoyed
that there was only one way to vote.

But I haven't received any mail yet anyway, unless my filters are
stopping it for some reason.



--
Geoff Berrow
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

re: Verification Email Trouble

"Geoff Berrow" <bl@ckdog.co.uk.the.cat> wrote in message
news:m56movsv2spp7bdum0kepjq4ci4fo5p3dr@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> I noticed that Message-ID: <AKDib.10162$kA.2373515@wards.force9.net>
> from Nel contained the following:
>[color=green]
> >The confirmation email contained a verification link like
> >http://www.fuelprotest.com?cvote.php...c397392909edf2
> >(example link - this one won't work)[/color]
>
> Have you tried making it a full link ie http:// etc? And isn't that uid
> a bit over the top? If that's a random selection of letters and numbers
> there are probably more combinations there than there are atoms in the
> universe.[/color]
I must admit I haven't tried using the full http://. The long uid is just
a hash of some key data. Always security concious.
[color=blue][color=green]
> >However some users had problems with the link working. The email was[/color][/color]
just[color=blue][color=green]
> >plain text using mail().
> >
> >I have now changed it to MIME 1.0 and text/html.[/color]
> Huh? Why?[/color]
I read in a newsgroup that hotmail didn't get along too well with some links
in plain text. Whereas I can add a <a href> tag in html saying CLICK HERE.

[color=blue]
> Also the email field is too small. Supposing I mistyped my email
> address? It would be nice to see it all. And I was slightly annoyed
> that there was only one way to vote.[/color]
Good point about the size of the field and really it should say "sign here"
really as it's not a vote as such, but that is historical.
[color=blue]
> But I haven't received any mail yet anyway, unless my filters are
> stopping it for some reason.[/color]
Have you had the email yet?

Nel
[color=blue]
>
>
>
> --
> Geoff Berrow
> It's only Usenet, no one dies.
> My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
> Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/[/color]

re: Verification Email Trouble

"Matt Wade" <matt@codewalkers.com> wrote in message
news:UYDib.694$w_5.137@bignews4.bellsouth.net...[color=blue][color=green]
> > Does anyone know why some users would have a problem or what the best[/color][/color]
way[color=blue]
> is[color=green]
> > to do this?[/color]
>
> What I would recommend is having the user forward the email they have
> problems with as an attachment. Most email clients support this option.[/color]
That[color=blue]
> way, you can see exactly what they received at their end. It could be as
> simple of a problem such as their email client hard wrapping the text to a
> number of characters that is less than the URL is long. This would result[/color]
in[color=blue]
> a truncated URL and your link not working properly.
>
> HTH,
> Matt Wade
> http://codewalkers.com/
>[/color]
Hi Matt,

I did that. In each case the email looked ok. The link worked in the email
that they forwarded to me when I viewed it in OE.

Nel

re: Verification Email Trouble

I noticed that Message-ID: <l9Wib.10440$kA.2482916@wards.force9.net>
from Nel contained the following:

[color=blue][color=green]
>> Have you tried making it a full link ie http:// etc? And isn't that uid
>> a bit over the top? If that's a random selection of letters and numbers
>> there are probably more combinations there than there are atoms in the
>> universe.[/color]
>I must admit I haven't tried using the full http://. The long uid is just
>a hash of some key data. Always security concious.[/color]

Just thinking about line wraps.[color=blue]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >However some users had problems with the link working. The email was[/color][/color]
>just[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >plain text using mail().
>> >
>> >I have now changed it to MIME 1.0 and text/html.[/color]
>> Huh? Why?[/color]
>I read in a newsgroup that hotmail didn't get along too well with some links
>in plain text. Whereas I can add a <a href> tag in html saying CLICK HERE.[/color]
Ah yes, I've seen that in some mails. Well you'll need the full url in
that anyway. I'm just against sending mails in full html.[color=blue]
>[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
>> But I haven't received any mail yet anyway, unless my filters are
>> stopping it for some reason.[/color]
>Have you had the email yet?[/color]

No, nothing.
--
Geoff Berrow
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

re: Verification Email Trouble

The problem seems to have been solved by adding http:// to the begining of
the URL and also by having the link in two formats, HTML and plain text.
That way at least one of them works all the time.

Thanks to Matt and Geoff for all the help.

Nel
"Nel" <nelly@ne14.co.NOSPAMuk> wrote in message
news:AKDib.10162$kA.2373515@wards.force9.net...[color=blue]
> I have recently updated an on-line petition at www.fuelprotest.com
>
> The confirmation email contained a verification link like
> http://www.fuelprotest.com?cvote.php...c397392909edf2
> (example link - this one won't work)
>
> However some users had problems with the link working. The email was just
> plain text using mail().
>
> I have now changed it to MIME 1.0 and text/html. Would you please try
> registering a vote on the site from any unusual browsers and/or mail
> systems. I have tried it with Squirrel Mail and Outlook Express and all
> seem ok, mind you all seemed ok before!
>
> Does anyone know why some users would have a problem or what the best way[/color]
is[color=blue]
> to do this?
>
> Nel
>
>
> --
> DISCLAIMER: There is an extremely small but nonzero chance that,
> through a process known as "Tunneling", this e-mail may spontaneously
> disappear from its present location and reappear at any random place in[/color]
the[color=blue]
> Universe, including your neighbour's domicile. The sender will not be
> responsible for any damages or inconvenience that may result.
>
>[/color]