Form Variables Don't Pass for Some Clients

Question

Recently, I’ve noticed some problems on one of my pages
where form field variables aren’t passing to my action page.
As far as I can tell, this is a new problem.
This is the error I’m getting:
Error resolving parameter FORM.EMAIL
The specified form field cannot be found. This problem is
very likely due to the fact that you have misspelled the form field
name.
The error is thrown when a cfquery is unable to find the form
variable.
The query looks, basically, like this:
<cfquery name="Iogin" datasource="dsn">
SELECT Count(*) AS Match
FROM Users
WHERE users.email = '#FORM.email#'
AND users.password = '#FORM.password#';
</cfquery>
I know I could squash these errors with a cfparam or with
other error checking, but what I’m really concerned about is
why the form variables aren’t there. I have tested the form
on a number of my internal clients and have not been able to
replicate the error as it is being triggered from outside clients.
I am able to submit a blank form or a complete form without any
errors being thrown. I have established that the form submissions
are coming from my site and are not being submitted by an outside
domain.
QUESTIONS:
1. Does anyone know what might be happening to cause the form
variable to disappear? Shouldn’t all the forms variables be
submitted when a user hits the submit button, regardless of whether
there is data in the form field?
2. Could a firewall on the clients’ end be withholding
the form variables without notifying the user?
3. Have there been any recent changes to browsers that could
be holding back form variables?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

@Azadi
quote:
from your posts it looks like this happens to different forms
in your application (you mentioned the email field and also a
select box, which is presumably in some other form)
I was able to resolve the problem with the second form (the
one with the select box, not the one posted above). A JavaScript
resided on that action page which triggers a service. The service
(similar to GoogleAds) receives the page’s url from the
JavaScript and then the service comes back and loads the page to
evaluate the page’s content. The result: Action pages being
loaded with no form content. My error reporting, very similar to
what insuractive suggested, helped solve this problem.
HOWEVER, we still periodically have trouble with the other
form. I know from speaking with at least two users that the problem
is a direct result of users following the planned application
flow—form to action page. So this discussion is still
relevant.
@insuractive
quote:
you should make sure you test to see what happens when the
client has javascript and/or cookies disabled on their browser.
This is a good thought. I’m embarrassed to say that I
haven’t tried accessing this form with cookies and JavaScript
turned off. I will try this and report back.
Thanks to all of you who are offering suggestions.