Inline download link: 500 Internal Server Error – Doesn’t Work!

Nearly exact problem I am having – only difference is mine returns a 404 (Page Not Found) error. I’ve checked/unchecked, re-downloaded, re-created, re-typed, etc. Nothing fixes it.

I’ve had the same issue. Make sure your CF7 form names are [your-name] and [your-email]. I think the plugin expects the form names to be unchanged from the CF7 default for name and email. Changing those back fixed the issue for me.

Hi cekar,

I just navigated to the URLs you provided to test. I did receive the email with download. I hope this means you were able to resolve the issue. If so, can you please mark this as resolved and mention what you did to fix in case it will help others (such as sdgolightly) that might be facing a similar problem?

Also, thanks to gspowart for offering the tip about the CF7 form field names!

Dear mandsconsulting,

Thank you for your reply and for your plugin!

As I told in my first text, my problem is with the “inline download link”, not with the e-mail and its attachement, fortunately this is working well, I receive the “attached” PDF (not the link).

The problem is with the “inline download link” that ‘appears’ just after you have inserted your e-mail and push the send button… When this “inline download link” ‘appears’ and you click on that to download the file, it sends you to a “500 Internal Server Error” page: https://gmc-peru.com/wp-content/plugins/email-before-download/download.php?dl=581d99fe2591397285fd2bd7927b5e92

Please don’t confuse the “inline download link” that ‘appears'(and is not working) after we have insert our e-mail and push de send button… with the other link I have left down “on purpose” just to make you see that the path to get the downlodable PDF file works fine…

I would be really gratefull is you may read one more time in detail my first post, where everything is detailed…

Thank you a lot again in advance for your help!

My issue is similar – email before download function works and it delivers a link. The link though returns a 404 error.

FYI – my issue was finally resolved after quite a bit of sleuthing. Thank you to all who helped and stuck it out. In simple (and hopefully correct) terms, the issue was due to a htaccess file hanging out in an odd place with a bad script. Why it was there – we’ll never know … but it’s gone now and the functionality works.

Congrats @sdgolightly! I hope I can also find a solution for me…

@sdgolightly @mandsconsulting @dtynan Based in what sdgolightly comments, my explanations (mainly the 1st one) or other possibilities, may you suggest me some guides please?

Thanks everybody in advance!

Cekar –

It’s often helpful to look at the webserver’s error log file in order to debug 500 Internal Server errors. Often, it will have some text in the error that will clue you in to where the problem might be. Your system is hosted by 1and1, so the server error log file is going to be exposed through their cpanel menu probably. You should be able to cause the 500 error then look at your log on their site & see the 500 error show up in there.

Aside from any clues from the error log, another clue is the fact that every php program file in the plugin directory gives a 500 error when accessed externally — by that I mean when I go to it with my browser, as opposed to wordpress loading the plugin itself inside its own running wordpress process, which is how almost all plugins are accessed. Because EBD has features like link expiration, people have to directly access the plugin files from outside with a URL that has wp-content/plugins/email-before-download/download.php in it. Normally, people don’t directly access plugins that way.

We can see that all the php programs give a 500 error on your site. Try these:
https://gmc-peru.com/wp-content/plugins/email-before-download/checkcurl.php
https://gmc-peru.com/wp-content/plugins/email-before-download/export.php
https://gmc-peru.com/wp-content/plugins/email-before-download/email-before-download.php
and so on. Normally those programs do not give 500 errors.

That could be the result of not configuring your webserver to disallow running of php files from non-localhost (from over the web). People sometimes do that for security. Sometimes security plugins or services do that as well. The likely reason it results in a 500 error is because it’s outputting some sort of error message that doesn’t contain an http header, so the server gives a 500 error.

Now, aside from the 500 error, I see some other weird stuff happening when I submit the EBD form. It may not be a problem, since it does run and displays the download link, but it doesn’t look normal. Normally, when the website visitor submits the EBD form, the browser does an ajax POST back to the same webpage and the result that is returned is a couple of lines of JSON which update the page with the link to the download & a thank you message. On your site, when I submit the EBD form, it looks like it submits to the correct place, but the result that comes back is delivered from https://gmc-peru.com/wp-json/contact-form-7/v1/contact-forms/988/feedback which I have never seen before. I believe /wp-json has to do with the WordPress REST API. Somehow it seems to intercept the submitted request, or the returned result. My guess is that it’s grabbing the returned result from EBD because it’s JSON format, but I’m not really sure. Now, the URL is weird too. v1/contact-forms/988/feedback .. I’m guessing you must have a Contact Form 7 integration plugin installed under the “Integrations” section of Contact Form 7 maybe? I’ll bet that is intercepting all CF7 submissions or results. Anyway, I don’t know that it’s causing problems, but it could be an issue. It might be related to the 500 Internal Server error, but I think that’s unlikely….

Dear @dtynan,

Thank you for your long and detailed reply, I really appreciate it!

I’m not a programmer, but I’ll do my best to follow all your advices and finally find out what’s happening in order to resolve this issue…

Now in 1and1, I’m in “Managed WordPress” mode… do you think it has something to do with my issue? I’m thinking seriously to change to “Standard WordPress” mode, due I can’t access for example to the “Editor” (inside appereance) to make other changes, etc.

I’ll keep you informed,

Thank you again!

I don’t know.