"if unSet() ...else" not working

Anon

Hey everyone,

Im trying to setup a comment system on my site where the users add comments into a form, and they appear on the page underneath an article.

Anyhow, i want to make sure someone cant just hit the "submit" button on the form and submit a blank comment, so im using the little statment below to test if the user entered a subject and a comment before it gets posted:

<?php

if ((isSet($subject)) && (isSet($comment))) {

$sql = "INSERT INTO Comments SET article = '$vid', subject = '$subject', comment = '$comment', name = '$name'";
$query = mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error());

} else {
end;
}
?>

Problem is, it dosent work. I can still hit the submit button and subbmit a blank comment. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

brandonschnell

if ((isSet($subject)) && (isSet($comment)) && ($comment != "")) {}

consider using javascript to check the validity of data and use php as a backup (in case javascript is disabled).

jlpierce

I would ( and do ) use a if elseif test to see if the forms submit button has been pressed. If it has then I will validate the data in another test. If the data is not valid then I would unset the submit variable and let the form be displayed again.

ie:

if ( isset( $submit ) )
{
validate data code here!
IF THE DATA IS NOT VALID OR THE FORM FIELDS

ARE EMPTY THEN UNSET $SUBMIT.
}

elseif ( !isset( $submit ) )

drop out of php here and start the html output for the form. In the form tag's action= section dive into php like this ACTION=<? $PHP_SELF; ?> continue the html output here.

Now the key to this working is the line above that is all caps, if the data is not valid unset submit and when the php gets to the elseif portion it will test true and the form will be displayed again.

I don't think that it is necessary to insert javascript, it might be faster though.

Hope this helped.

John

jlpierce

I forgot, if java script is not enabled on the client machine then you will not be able to use it validate your input.

However, PHP and your server are working so you can always count on php to validate the data.

Just a thought.

Anon

thanks guys, youve been a great help. i got it working.

jlpierce

Well, you are welcome, a lot of people have helped me so whenever I can I try to give something back.

John