validating form

Diesel73

Could someone point me in the right direction of where I can view or even get a sample code for a a mail form which would check to see whether someone forgot to enter a couple of fields and if so told them to go back and enter the information.

I recently tried posting the script that I was using and no one seemed to offer any help with that so I'm trying this approach.

Thanks

jburfield

The easiest way to do this is something like this:

/ after submit /
$var = $POST["var"];
$var2 = $POST["var2"];
....etc...

In your code add checks:

if($var == "")
{
/ ERROR /
}

...etc...

OR, you could do them all at the same time, with something like:

if( ($var == "") || ($var2 == "") )
{
/ ERROR /
}

If you are submitting your form to the same page it is on, you can do the checks, then check for an error. If there is an ERROR, let the page load and populate the form fields, pointing out to them what field was left empty.

Helping any?

-- Jason

MrAlaska

Here is a very simple yet ugly form that demonstrates a self posting script that will echo back an error message to resubmit if something is missing or a confirmation if all went well. Who knows? Change a couple fields and it might even be functional!

<?php
$recipient='me@mydomain.wow';

if (isset($_POST['subject'])){
	$subject=$_POST['subject'];
} else $subject="";
if (isset($_POST['message'])) {
	$message=$_POST['message'];
} else $message="";
if(isset($_POST['email'])){
	$email=$_POST['email'];
} else $email="";
if (isset($_POST['submit'])){
	$submit=$_POST['submit'];
} else $submit="";
if ($submit != "") {
	$errmsg="";
	if ($message=="") $errmsg.="No message sent!<br>";
	if ($email=="") $errmsg.="Email Required<br>";
	if ($errmsg==""){
		@mail($recipient, $subject, $message, "From: $email")
			or $errmsg.="Uh oh, mail problems";
	}
}
if ($submit=="" || $errmsg!=""){
	if (isset($errmsg)) echo $errmsg;
	?>
	<form method='post' action="">
	<input type='hidden'
		name='subject' value='FROM MY FORM!'>
	Email: <input name='email' value='<?php echo $email?>'><br>
	Message: <textarea name='message'><?php
			echo $message?></textarea><br>
	<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Send Form'>
	<?php
} else {
	?>
	<H2>THANK YOU FOR PUSHING THE BUTTON</H2>
	<?php
}
?>

Diesel73

Thanks to both of you for the help.

A question Mr. Alaska, right now I have the HTML posting to a php script on the server. The code you provided does that get inserted into the html directly? If so is it required to go above the body tag like javascript?

Thanks again for the help!

MrAlaska

The code I posted CONTAINS the HTML, except for the head and body tags, which you can either add yourself above and below the first and last PHP tag, or you can use it inside a template.

<?php
//all my stuff
?>

</body></html>

The code I posted was just to demonstrate an approach, it is not something I would actually show a client. The example I haven't actually tried, but it should be functional.

Diesel73

Perfect that is exactly what I needed to know. I was unaware of inserting php into HTML, I only knew of posting to it via html. I'm aware of the basic nature of your code and thanks, it just gives me a foundation to go on.

MrAlaska

Cool beenz! Try it out as written first and make sure it works, and be sure to come back if it doesn't!

Just for grins, this is the same code with some comments and the HTML added:

<html><head><title>Feedback Form</title></head><body>
<?php
// CHANGE THIS TO YOUR OWN EMAIL ADDRESS
$recipient='me@mydomain.wow';

// initialize all the variables
if (isset($_POST['subject'])){
	$subject=$_POST['subject'];
} else $subject="";
if (isset($_POST['message'])) {
	$message=$_POST['message'];
} else $message="";
if(isset($_POST['email'])){
	$email=$_POST['email'];
} else $email="";
if (isset($_POST['submit'])){
	$submit=$_POST['submit'];
} else $submit="";

// check if the form was posted
if ($submit != "") {
	$errmsg="";
	// validate the fields
	if ($message=="") $errmsg.="No message sent!<br>";
	if ($email=="") $errmsg.="Email Required<br>";

// empty $errmsg means validation passed
if ($errmsg==""){
	// send it off in a letter to yourself
	@mail($recipient, $subject, $message, "From: $email")
		or $errmsg.="Uh oh, mail problems";
	// remove the '@' to diagnose mail problems
}
}

// check to see if the form needs to be displayed
if ($submit=="" || $errmsg!=""){
	// show them the error of their ways
	if (isset($errmsg)) echo $errmsg;
	//write the form
	?>
	<form method='post' action="">
	<input type='hidden'
		name='subject' value='FROM MY FORM!'>
	Email: <input name='email' value='<?php echo $email?>'><br>
	Message: <textarea name='message'><?php
			echo $message?></textarea><br>
	<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Send Form'>
	<?php
// form submitted but no error message means.....
} else {
	// Wow, they made it!
	?>
	<H2>THANK YOU FOR PUSHING THE BUTTON</H2>
	<?php
}
?>
</body></html>