Formbuilder not sending confirmation emails in CMSms 1.11.1

[bryanhiggs]

We're using CMS Made Simple 1.11.1 "Baltra" (haven't had time yet to upgrade to 1.11.2)
FormBuilder 0.7.3
CMSMailer 5.2.1

I've been working on some form modifications, on Windows 7 64-bit, using Google Chrome browser version 22.0.1229.79 m (latest version). The forms use a Recipients pseudo-field (*Email Results to set Address(es)) that works -- that is, the emails get sent to the specified recipients. However, they also use an Email field (*Email "From Address" Field, and send copy) that was set up to allow the user to choose whether or not to receive a confirmation email message. This latter used to work before we upgraded to CMSms 1.11.1, but no longer appears to do so. I have tried several different email addresses, and looked in junk/SPAM folders and can see no emails being received. As a result, I disabled the option to avoid confusing the users.

Since the Recipients field works, I surmise that it's not a general email sending issue.

Is this a known regression? If so, has it been fixed, and in which version?

Is there any way to find out via the admin interface what the problem might be? Some kind of email logging, perhaps?

Your help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[bryanhiggs]

Anyone?

I'm hoping for some ideas on why this might be happening, and how to fix it.

[Dr.CSS]

Did you check to see if the "email it to me" field has been changed..?

[bryanhiggs]

Did you check to see if the "email it to me" field has been changed..?

I'm not sure I follow what you're referring to. Here (attached) is the page showing the properties of that email field:

[bryanhiggs]

Just to be clear: I made modifications to that form, in the other fields and in the layout (CSS) of the form, but not, originally, in the Email field. I then tested it using more than one of my own email addresses. The "Recipients" email worked, but the "Send me a confirmation" didn't cause an email to be sent, regardless of which of my emails I specified. I tried modifying the Email field with no luck, so I disabled the checkbox for it.

For this forum feedback, I re-enabled the Email field checkbox, and yes, I did check it when I submitted the form. No email confirmation was delivered. I looked in my Spam folder, to no avail.

Here, attached, is a list of the fields in the form (I had to make it small in order to capture all the fields; I hope you can read it):

[bryanhiggs]

I've finally figured out what was going on:

1) Our host, DreamHost.com, recently changed its email policy to reduce the amount of SPAM, etc. Bottom line: if the From: field of an email sent from a DreamHost site doesn't contain an email address with a domain that is hosted by DreamHost, then the email is rejected. Unfortunately, we didn't see the rejections because they are stored in a subdirectory we were unaware of.

2) In several of our forms, we were using an Email field of FormBuilder type '*Email "From Address" Field, and send copy', which does NOT give you the option of changing the From: field. Instead, it uses the email address entered into that field. That will virtually never work with the rules imposed in 1) above. I consider this to be a deficiency at the very least, if not an outright bug; Other fields, in their user interface make the point that some hosting services apply similar filtering rules, so this type should do so, too.
I had to replace this Email field with one of FormBuilder type '*Email to User-Supplied Email Address', which does provide the ability to specify the From: address; unfortunately, it does not provide the option of not sending a [confirmation] email, but we could live with that.

3) The output of the form was sent to its desired recipients by the use of a 'Recipients' field, of FormBuilder type '*Email Results to set Address(es)'. I had to make changes in some cases to ensure that the From: field contained the necessary email address to conform to the hosting site's requirements.

I'm including these details for two reasons:

1) To encourage the developers of FormBuilder to enhance the '*Email "From Address" Field, and send copy' type to allow the specification of an explicit From: address, and not force the use what the user entered in that field.

2) To make readers of this forum aware of the reason why this was seemingly failing, so they may learn where to look -- figuring out where the problem was and how to figure out how to fix it was the biggest obstacle to fixing this behavior.

[Dr.CSS]

So it is figured out, [solved]..?

[bryanhiggs]

Yes, except for the request to fix that Formbuilder field type.

[paulbaker]

Glad you managed to sort it. I think Dr.CSS was hoping you would change the first post subject line to include [solved] at the front.

My suggestion on the request to fix is that you add a feature request for form builder here, which is where the developer would look:
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/feature_request/list/69