Hi there,
I'm working on a site that is on a Windows host and am not getting notifications or entries in the database for my forms. I've search in the forums but did not find anything directly helpful. Can Gravity Forms work on a Windows host or do we need to move it?
Thanks,
Jonah
@jonahcoyote Is this happening after upgrading to 1.5+ from an earlier version of Gravity Forms?
@clamonte Your issue is different. Your issue is specific to notifications. This is a web server email configuration issue, your web server sends the emails. You are going to need to setup and configure the WP Mail SMTP plugin to send notifications via SMTP since your Windows server doesn't appear to be sending email via sendmail properly. You can download it here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/
<rant>Note to users. Don't host WordPress sites or PHP in general on Windows servers. They easily account for the majority of quirks and issues when dealing with WordPress plugins and themes and they account for most of the sites that have problems sending email notifications. Also, avoid GoDaddy like the plague. </rant>
Hi Carl,
I believe it did start happening after upgrading because I'm pretty sure we tested the forms earlier on and they were working. Is there any workaround for this?
I totally and completely agree with you on the Windows server bit. I'm going to suggest to my client to move off it.
Thanks,
Jonah
@jonahcoyote The issue is going to be with the database user for that WordPress site then. When this happens it is because the database user configured for the WordPress site does not have the ALTER permission. So when you upgraded Gravity Forms, it was unable to make changes to it's database tables because the database user configured in wp-config.php does not have the ALTER permission.
What you need to do is make sure the database user configured in wp-config.php has the ALTER permission. That database user needs full access to the database, not just CREATE access but ALTER also.
After you do that you then need to use PHPMyAdmin (or something similar) to delete the rg_form_version option in the wp_options table and deactivate/activate Gravity Forms once again.
The problem is Gravity Forms is unable to make the necessary table updates/changes to accommodate new features and that causes a problem. If you turn WordPress DEBUG mode on you will probably see an error related to this issue and the insert statement fails due to the user not having the ALTER permission.
clamonte
Member
@Carl
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, I'm working for a client who already had the site hosted on a Godaddy Windows server and moving it to a Linux server wasn't an option. I installed the WP Mail SMTP plugin and the test messages are making it thru fine. But I'm still not receiving notifications by email from the form.
@clamonte What SMTP settings are you using? Depending on the SMTP server settings it may require the Send From address on the Notifications be set to an email associated with that SMTP account. It may not allow any email to be sent, different SMTP servers have different rules. The web server sends the emails, so any issues sending email are due to web server configuration. Unfortunately GoDaddy is the most difficult to work with because their support pretty much refuses to assist in the matter. You would most likely have to go to log files to determine what happens to the email request. Is the SMTP account one of GoDaddy's?
clamonte
Member
Yes, the SMTP acc't is with GoDaddy. I've got the SMTP Host set to "smtpout.secureserver.net" and the SMTP Port set to port 25. For "Encryption" "No encryption" is selected and for Authentication, "Yes: Use SMTP authentication" is selected. I don't understand how the test emails can work while the form notifications don't work.
@clamonte The difference is going to be the From address configured in the notifications. Try using a Send From address that is associated with that GoDaddy hosted site. If you are unable to get it working, send us a WordPress admin login for this site via our Contact Us form and we'll take a look. But i'll warn you, GoDaddy is the single biggest source of email notifications issues that we encounter and they have never been of any help in trying to determine the source which is frustrating because sending email is entirely dependent on the web server which is what they manage.
Hi Carl,
Supposedly the admin user now has full access to the database and I followed the steps to delete the wp_options entry and deactivate/reactivate Gforms, but it's still not working. No entries or notifications.
Is there a way to debug this or find out for sure if we'll be able to get it working on a Windows host?
Thanks,
Jonah
Yes we can debug it directly. In order to do so we will need a WordPress admin login, FTP login and ideally access to PHPMyAdmin or something similar (hosting control panel access) to inspect the database. You can send us this information via our Contact US form and reference this forum post and we can take a look and debug the issue.
Hi Carl, thanks, just sent all the info.
- Jonah
clamonte
Member
Thanks Carl! That worked. All I had to do was change the "From Email" to the GoDaddy email address. I really don't like GoDaddy. This is just another reason not to use them (aside from being placed on hold EVERY single time for the past several years.)
@clamonte Good to hear. GoDaddy is notorious for email related issues. We plan on creating an Add-On for the rock solid Postmark (http://www.postmarkapp.com) email service later this year that will allow users to use a reliable 3rd party service to send their emails so no matter what web host they use they will have a reliable way to send emails via their WordPress site.
Hi Carl,
I got WP Mail SMTP running (the test email went through) but I'm still not getting notifications via email. I did also set the plugin to have WP use SMTP instead of PHP mail(). Is there anything special that needs to be configured in order for this to work with Gravity Forms?
Thanks,
Jonah
It's going to depend on the capabilities of your SMTP setup. It may require the Send From address be the same email address that is hosted on that SMTP server. Have you utilized the Test Email feature to send a test email successfully?
Actually it looks like its working now.
Thanks for all your help Carl!
Jonah
