h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've inherited a website that uses front page server extensions to submit forms and it keeps on throwing up the following message..

Cannot run the FrontPage Server Extensions' Smart HTML interpreter on this non-HTML page:

I know there is a problem with asp pages, but this is an .htm page.
the results are the same if you call it a .html page...

(windows 2000 server)

any ideas?

CF

Well, my solution would be to scrap the whole MS/ASP idea and set yourself up with a nice little *-nix box running Apache, PHP and MySQL. Sorted. You can do it all in a day, and for absolutely zilch*.

But, if you want an actual MS 'solution', then I'm the wrong person to ask. I'd wait for someone more knowledgeable on the MS Webserver front to come along.

*Well, supposing you have the server /hardware/ to hand.

"Well, my solution would be to scrap the whole MS/ASP idea and set yourself up with a nice little *-nix box running Apache, PHP and MySQL. Sorted. You can do it all in a day, and for absolutely zilch*. "

Helpful, eh?. "Wherever it is you want to go, I wouldn't start from here..."

The bit about losing the microsoft stuff sounds very tempting, unfortuantely i'm not sure i could swing the new server.

Its only the form submission bit thats really screwing up, so i think i can ingnore the front page server extensions and use a more traditional mailscript.

thanks for the useful input

If it's just a matter of a new server you could always run Apache on Windows (or PHP under IIS *shudder*). I ran Windows 2000 Server for quite a while just so I could have a copy of IIS to test my scripts on. If you eventually decided you wanted to ditch Windows, the hard work would already be done.

I'd suggest that instead of chucking everything out and starting again before you even know what the problem is, that you try to find out what it might be and exhaust other possibilities. Try the MSDN Knowledge base. Here's an article I found by simply typing in the text of your error message.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q292/6/29.ASP&NoWebContent=1

thanks, but i've found that one, its not an asp page causing the problem.
the closest suggestion i've found is that there may be an error in the code.
It does contain some CSaction tags, apparently created by an editor called GoLive, but the page used to work with them, although it was on another server at the time.

It was the general approach I was drawing your attention to. Some people around here would have you buy a new car because your current one had a fault. As opposed to finding and fixing the fault. Of course, if you get a *lot* of faults then that might be the best course of action, but from the sound of it, you have a fair way to go before then.

Well, I don't know if you're talking about me but I was never suggesting replacing or rewriting the entire website. I've never used Frontpage. If I knew more about Frontpage I would have given Frontpage-specific advice.

No, I'm *not* talking about you. I'm talking about all those geeks out there whose opinions don't seem to be formed out of any solid commercial experience, and who seem to think that the most important criterion for any system is that it *doesn't* use Microsoft technology despite the fact that, for all its undoubted flaws, it's all-pervasive in the business world. See the first response to the original message in this thread for an example. My options, in my work, are heavily circumscribed by the environment. As they are in other activities.