Total character limit on forms?

[Ron]

I built a form to collect data using a number of one-line and scrolling text
boxes using Frontpage 2000 and set it up to have the server email me the
data from the form. I thought everything was working ok; I did a simple test
and can fill every field on the form and submit it, and I get an email with
data from each of the form fields. However, when I put more text in the text
boxes, it looks like there is an overall character limit to the amount of
data (about 1892 characters) sent. For example, if I fill in a bunch of the
text boxes with 200 characters each, part of the input from the 9th text box
is truncated, and there is no data sent from any of the subsequent text
boxes. I'm a newbie to web site design and HTML, so I've exhausted my
knowledge trying to research this on Google. Any help is appreciated,

 

[Bob Lehmann]

Are you using a GET or a POST for the form action. There is a limit on a
GET. Not sure what it is as a variety of answers seem to crop up when that
question is asked.

Bob Lehmann

 

[Ronx]

There are two methods of sending data from a form: GET and POST.
Using GET the data is appended to the URL of the form handler, and the total
length of the form handler absolute URL + form-field names + data + (2
characters for each field) is limited to 2048 characters. (some may say 256
characters - the limit that can be typed into the browser address bar).

Example: http://www.example.com/handler.asp?field1=data1&field2=data2
adds up to 60 characters.

Using POST, there is no theoretical limit to the total data, although there
may be practical limits (sending 10Mbytes of data through a 14.4Kbs dialup
may not be considered practical.)
Limits may also be applied by the processing technology:
In theory, Perl/CGI will not handle a scrolling text field containing over
approx 32000 characters (there is no limit to the number of scrolling text
boxes), though in a test I sent over 380,000 bytes and it processed
correctly.

When using the FrontPage extensions to handle the form there is a bug-like
feature where a large amount of data from a form may be truncated if the
data is being saved in an HTML file, but if saved as plain text, or as a
delimited text file (CSV etc.), there are no problems.

HTH
Ron

 

[Ron]

I saw similar comments when I tried to figure this out searching the web.
I'm not sure how to use Frontpage to tell (or select) the method to use
(POST or GET), but when I looked at the source HTML it does start the form
with

<form method="POST"

so I assumed that Frontpage used POST as the default action. Also, I am
sending the data as a comma separated text file. I should have included this
before, but the URL for the form is at

http://www.luckydogsfarm.com\input.htm


Ron

 

[Bob Lehmann]

Everything I put in showed up on the confirmation page.

Bob Lehmann

 

[Ron]

I got the email from your input, and it looks like you entered 220 w's in
each of the first 9 fields, then the 10th field has 38 w's, then the rest
are blank.

As you said, the confirmation page shows the input, so maybe I'm barking up
the wrong tree. I'm using Outlook Express to get my email - I wonder if
there's a limit to the total line length in Outlook, since the data comes as
one line separated by commas.

Thanks for helping. I think I'll try looking to see if the constraint is in
Outlook Express.

Ron

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

FYI
there were some problems w/ FP 2002 and email forms being truncated
See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;820915

--




| I got the email from your input, and it looks like you entered 220 w's in
| each of the first 9 fields, then the 10th field has 38 w's, then the rest
| are blank.
|
| As you said, the confirmation page shows the input, so maybe I'm barking up
| the wrong tree. I'm using Outlook Express to get my email - I wonder if
| there's a limit to the total line length in Outlook, since the data comes as
| one line separated by commas.
|
| Thanks for helping. I think I'll try looking to see if the constraint is in
| Outlook Express.
|
| Ron
|
|
| | > Everything I put in showed up on the confirmation page.
| >
| > Bob Lehmann
| >
| > | > > I saw similar comments when I tried to figure this out searching the
| web.
| > > I'm not sure how to use Frontpage to tell (or select) the method to use
| > > (POST or GET), but when I looked at the source HTML it does start the
| form
| > > with
| > >
| > > <form method="POST"
| > >
| > > so I assumed that Frontpage used POST as the default action. Also, I am
| > > sending the data as a comma separated text file. I should have included
| > this
| > > before, but the URL for the form is at
| > >
| > > http://www.luckydogsfarm.com\input.htm
| > >
| > >
| > > Ron
| > >
| > >
| >
| >
|
|

 

[MD Websunlimited]

That is not totally correct. What restricts GET is size of the environment space on the web server for the process. GET data is
stored in an environment variable QueryString.