Making required fields

imnsi

now after having a form submit to a database and also email, how would I check the fields to make sure there is valid information. Does anyone have a sample form I could use as a template?

WinterDragon

Well... you could do this...

#Test to see if its FALSE... (means they didn't fill it out)
if(!$formThing) {
echo "You did not fill it out!!";
$errors++;
} elseif($formThing) {
echo "You filled it out";
}
#Just run a bunch of tests, if they fail... then put $errors++;  in there... so it adds up the errors... then you can put...

if($errors >= 1) {
echo "There are too many errors with your submition, Go back and try again...";
} else {
echo "You filled everything out correctly it seems... ";
}

of course this is untested, and I am not sure if it works at all... but hey, at least It'll give you a start... (it should work just fine... although you have to change variable names around... and mess with a few things)

suntra

Well... $POST or $REQUEST should have been used instead of the variable directly... let's write another script...

$errors = array();
function Check_Field($field) {
    global $errors;
    if(!isset($_REQUEST[$field])) {
        $errors[] = "Internal error... a field seen not to have been sent.";
    } else if(trim($_REQUEST[$field]) == "") {
        $errors[] = "The fields \"$field\" has not been filled.";
    }
}

// Examples... <<
Check_Field("name");
Check_Field("address");
Check_Field("city");
// >> End of examples

if(count($errors) > 0) {
    echo "One or some errors have occured :<BR />\n";
    for($i = 0; $i < count($errors); $i++) {
        echo $errors[$i] . "<BR />\n";
    }
} else {
// Verification is done and no error has occured.
}

That's it !

WinterDragon

hehe Nice one Suntra, sorry about not being elegant with my code, or making it a great script hehe... I like the way you did that though, I usually put it into an array as well, cept I am at work, and a bit in a rush at times... Your script is so pretty 🙂

WinterDragon

by the way... what exactly is $_REQUEST? Probably fetches the given name of a POST/GET name variable? er.... or something?

cgraz

http://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.php#reserved.variables.request

Cgraz

phplearner

suntra:

If the form has maybe 15 fields, is there a way to list all of these perhaps on one or two lines?
Does this produce a separate 'Error' page, or is the message displayed on the form page?
If #2 is No, when the user presses the 'Back' button, will all the correctly entered field info remain in place?
Is there a way to print the name of the actual field which was omitted? (On some webpages, I've seen a Red * print next to the field which is kinda cool :p

(EDIT🙂 Ooops...I see the $field gets addressed.

Thank you.

WinterDragon

Thanks cgraz, I been looking for that. hehe.

suntra

$fields = array("field1", "field2", "field3", "field4", ..., "fieldn"); // put each field name in this array.
for($i = 0; $i < count($fields); $i++) {
    Check_Field($fields[$i]);
}
if(count($errors) > 0) {
...

#2
No. It doesn't produce a separate error page. But the code works that way :
Check fields...
Errors -> Yes : display errors
No errors : display "ok" content

#3
It depends if you sent headers that tell to the browser not to cache the page and if you set a very small expiration time... (just think of sessions)

#4
Well... you could rewrite the the entire form and in Check_Field() add a line to add the error field(s) in an array... if there are errors, when you rewrite the form, if the field you are going to write is in the array, you make it red... do you understand ?! Not sure I explained well...

I hope this helped you..

phplearner

I tried incorporating this into another test script but can not figure out why the Line 39 error keeps happening.

Help! Thanks.

<?
?>
<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY></BODY>
<?php
if($_POST['submit']) {

$errors = array();
function Check_Field($field) {
global $errors;
if(!isset($REQUEST[$field])) {
$errors[] = "Internal error... a field seen not to have been sent.";
} else if(trim($REQUEST[$field]) == "") {
$errors[] = "The fields \"$field\" has not been filled.";
}
}

}

// Examples... <<
Check_Field("firstname");
Check_Field("lastname");

// >> End of examples

if(count($errors) > 0) {
echo "One or some errors have occured :<BR />\n";
for($i = 0; $i < count($errors); $i++) {
echo $errors[$i] . "<BR />\n";
}
} else {
// Verification is done and no error has occured.

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "me","");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db)
or die ("Unable to connect to server at this time.");

$sql = "INSERT INTO names (firstname, lastname) VALUES ($POST['firstname'], $POST['lastname'])";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "Thank you! Information entered.\n";
}
else
{
?>
<form method = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] method="post">
First name:<input type="text" name="firstname"><br>
Last name:<input type="text" name="lastname"><br>
<input type="Submit"name="submit" value=" Enter information"></form>
<?
}
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

<?
?>

phplearner

Hello suntra:

RE:

$fields = array("field1", "field2", "field3", "field4", ..., "fieldn"); // put each field name in this array.
for($i = 0; $i < count($fields); $i++) {
Check_Field($fields[$i]);
}
if(count($errors) > 0) {
...

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RE:

#2
No. It doesn't produce a separate error page. But the code works that way :
Check fields...
Errors -> Yes : display errors
No errors : display "ok" content

Hmmm...OK...thanks.

RE:

#3
It depends if you sent headers that tell to the browser not to cache the page and if you set a very small expiration time... (just think of sessions)

I'm not up-to-speed about 'sessions' so will just have to live with it.

RE:

#4
Well... you could rewrite the the entire form and in Check_Field() add a line to add the error field(s) in an array... if there are errors, when you rewrite the form, if the field you are going to write is in the array, you make it red... do you understand ?! Not sure I explained well...

Thanks, but I think a bit over my head at the moment.

RE:

I hope this helped you.

Yes, thank you, and also that I need to learn MUCH more

😃