Colorado Web Solutions

Yahoo! Pro-Forma Update and Colorado Web Solutions

Posted on January 25th, 2008 by Colorado Web Solutions - Yahoo Store Developers and Designers

Yahoo has recently made an update to their form submission security by changing the built-in Pro-Forma submission scripts.

We wanted to let all of our clients know that this change should not effect any of you. At Colorado Web Solutions, we opt to use PHP for all of our form submissions vs. the Yahoo CGI scripts so this should not effect you at all.  If for any reason you have experienced any issues with any forms on your site, please let your project manager know immediately and we’ll take a look.

For Reference, here is a copy of the email that went out to some merchants regarding this issue:

Dear Yahoo! Merchant Solutions customer,

In an effort to improve security, we will be upgrading the pro-forma

script (form submission) functionality. Your site has been identified

as one using this functionality—-merchants typically use this for

newsletter signups, “contact us” forms, or price-quote requests.

The pro-forma script security changes will ensure form submissions

are properly associated with a store ID and that all email recipients

of form submissions are approved. Once the changes are in place, your

site will be automatically protected. However, you must take immediate

action to use the new approved format for the pro-forma functionality.

Otherwise, you may not receive submissions using the old format.

———————————————

WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE?

———————————————

* New URL for form submissions.

The following change will be required within your form tags sent to

this script:

<form method=”post” action=”http://<accountname>.stores.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/pro-forma”>

where “accountname” is your store ID. You will need to confirm this

revised tag is used for each form sent to this script on your site.

After updating the URL for form submissions, you will need to publish

your site.

* Approved email recipients.

Previously, any names listed within the form as values for owner

received the email:

<input type=hidden name=”owner” value=”me@myname.com”>

With this update, merchants must now enter the list of approved form

submission recipients in the “Email To” field of the Form Submissions

section in the Order Emails page (or the Fax & Email page for Merchant

Solutions Standard and Professional merchants). Email addresses should

be entered one per line. If you have a form that uses an email address

not specified in the “Email To” field, that form submission will not

be delivered.

* Thank-you URL and Continue-URL under your store domain.

Previously, merchants could specify any URL to take shoppers to for

the confirmation page (thankyou-URL) or after leaving the confirmation

page (continue-URL):

<input type=hidden name=”continue-url” value=”http://anydomain.com”>

Now merchants will need to specify a page within their store domain to

send shoppers to.

<input type=hidden name=”continue-url” value=”http://merchantdomain.com”>

———————————————

HOW DO I KNOW MY FORMS ARE SET UP CORRECTLY?

———————————————

If you have active forms on your site but are not receiving form

submissions, then you likely have not made all of the required changes.

* Confirm your form is submitting to the new URL:

<form method=”post” action=”http://<accountname>.stores.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/pro-forma”>

and that you are using the correct account name.

* Ensure that any email address listed in your forms also appears in the

“Email To” field on the Order Emails page (Fax & Email for Standard and

Professional accounts). You should receive emails of the form

submissions to the owner addresses specified in your form, provided you

are submitting the form to the new URL and have specified all email

addresses.

* Ensure your shoppers are being directed to a confirmation page under

your domain after submitting the form and after continuing from the

confirmation page.

For full details about the newly revised pro-forma functionality, please

refer to our help documentation.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/edit/regular/regular-12.html

We regret any inconvenience these changes may cause you, but we are

pleased to bring you a more secure Yahoo! Store environment.

Best regards,

The Yahoo! Small Business team

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