I have wasted a lot of money on CoffeeCup software only to find out NOW that it does not work on windows servers so customers are stuck paying CoffeCup forever to host its forms. This is what tech support FINALLY said about why my form builder form (currently hosted on CC) would not upload pdf attachments. This has been a known fault of the software:

There is your problem, Form Builder was designed for PHP linux not Windows based servers. You might want to see if they can switch your server scripts to .php rather than asp.

Orlando Perez
CoffeeCup Software Inc.
An Internet 500 Company
http://www.coffeecup.com

This is not my problem, it is this company's problem for not disclosing to purchasers that their products have limited usability.

I don't think they hid anything.
http://www.coffeecup.com/web-form-builder/

If you go to http://www.coffeecup.com/web-form-builder/ there is a link that says "Also See: Server Requirements". This is were we state what you need to make the software work".


You can get it to work on a Windows srver, but you will need to make sure to meet all of the requirements.

I looked up your support ticket, and this is what your hosting company had to say. I have to say, this kinda nuts. Given the questions they are asking, I wouldn't even waist any time with them. It will clearly not work out for their hosting platform.

• I suppose the script is trying to upload the file to httpdocs folder which is the default web root for which permissions cannot be modified.
  
• Please create a sub-folder within httpdocs and using the lock icon in plesk's file manager you can give write permissions to the IIS user.
  
• Please note that this is a windows hosting environment and 777 permissions cannot be assigned.
  
• Please ask Coffeeecup techsupport for the location of the script so that we can change the destination where the files are to be uploaded.

Scott when i first started trying to write a website, I would not have understood any of those technical requirement details, so i would have read it, trialled it, it would have failed, then i would not have bought it.

In my case i actually "Asked a friend" who said don't buy windows hosting, its for pro's not amateurs like me

Hey, Scott, your post doesn't show it was edited to add the disparaging comments about my web host - which happens to be a competitor of yours.

I DID look at all the requirements you have posted, including the "fine print" about web servers.

You market to dummies - like me - who are total novices. What you do NOT say in plain language is "you need to choose hosting on a LINUX server". You and your own tech support could not figure out for 2+ days that I was on a Windows server. Nowhere does any of your PR for S-Drive or any of your software say it requires a LINUX server. Your sales pitch says to be sure the hosting server runs a certain version of php - which I did and it does. That would have been the logical place to also see a statement that hosting needs to be on a LINUX server. When you tout GoDaddy, hostgator and Viv's hosting you do not state that they are LINUX servers. In fact you solicit the identities of other servers if they "happen" to work with your software. You know that Windows servers won't work, so why don't you just state that? I've seen you tell other users with problems that GoDaddy works for you so you don't know why it doesn't work for them. Why not just come straight out and tell them to check to see if they have Windows hosting or Linux? You know darned well that is likely the problem. It is totally unhelpful to tell them GoDaddy works for you. Of course it works for you!

And Viv - I did TRIAL form builder before I purchased it. It worked just fine on S-Drive, a LINUX server. I had no hosting service so could not test it elsewhere. I'm glad you have friends who can tell you not to choose Windows hosting. I don't have friends who know what a "host" is outside of a restaurant. I thought Windows was an interface that would be easier for me to use. Your friends apparently did not tell you that coffeecup would NOT WORK on a Windows server, so I guess you just lucked out on that.

The host I chose is WHOIS and their Tech Support is EXCELLENT. The snippet you posted and disparaged, Scott, was from tech support that was willing to try to work around your form's limitations.

I have changed my hosting service with WHOIS to Linux. Very simple to do. I have yet to see if your form works when exported.

If your fuzzy-wuzzy PR team lives up to it feel-good advertising it will say straight out that Linux hosting is required right there where it says to check on the php version the hosting service uses. That won't bother any knowledgeable people now, will it? Are you afraid it will lose you S-Drive customers? Not nearly what happens in the backroom "support" for all those people who have problems that Jo Ann can't fix publicly. Gee, maybe it would even help if more people could successfully use your forms.

I spoke to my techy friend yesterday, re windows / Linux servers, after this discussion, he went to his windows server, made a couple of small changes, loaded up one of my forms and it worked like magic.

He charges £60.00 per hour or part there off if you need his services in future.

He started going into some long drawn out boring (as all experts can be) explanation as to why windows WAS better than Linux and now isn't, i shut him up, and then we got back into the job in hand, (Scott will like this) I had to talk him through some really simple website design features that he just could not see the simple (idiot version) solution for.

CC are advertising a simple (and very recent) website hosting for how shall we say it, amateurs who want 1 simple website for their own purposes without paying a website developer, or having to learn technical stuff.

Personally i host with J...H...com Linux loads of space and bandwidth at £2.95 pm or $3.75 Us , they host worldwide, and great technical support, so if things dont work out try them, Oh and if you ask nicely i can tell you how to get it even cheaper if you pay 4 years in advance

The software will work just fine on Windows servers as long as you meet the minimum requirements. I have a Windows server with Yahoo and Godddy and both work just fine. As long as you have PHP 5.3 installed and manually customize your SMTP settings, it will work just fine. Using Linux is just easier because it does everything by default. With Windows, you have to do a few manual things.

Just popping in to say that I too have a Windows server through GoDaddy and my forms work beautifully. If your host is as good as you say they are, they shouldn't have a problem loading PHP on your server.

Crumbles,

Seeing that you have only four posts in these forums, I just had to look up what you wrote in the other posts. Your tone has gone from A) cordial but needy - to - B) flame-throwing, fine print quoting, finger pointing just plain rude. How does one get from A to B in four posts unless they blindly buy the software without reading the requirements?