Mandatory fields in Html/Php

drimades

I have an html form with two fields (Name, Surname) linked to a php script that performs a search into a MySql Db. I want to make these fields mandatory so the user must fill these fields to go ahead.

How can I control this?

chucklarge

Since PHP works server side, the only way to know if the user has or hasn't entered info into those 2 fields is to check after the form has been submited. You can perform a check like

if(empty($_POST['name'])) 
{//if true, invoke error handler
header("Location: error.php?e=1");
exit;
}
if(empty($_POST['Surname'])) 
{//if true, invoke error handler
header("Location: error.php?e=2");
exit;
}

To check whether the user has filled out the form correctly before submission, you need to use javascript. Javascript is run client side and can be turned off by the user, so don't soley rely on a js validation.

I use both, serverside validation that throws an error on an error page, and javascript to give the specific errors on the page before the form is submitted.

with javascript turned on and a good validation script, the javascript should catch all the errors and the serverside validation always sees good data. if javascript is turned off, then the serverside validation is the only defense.

here are some good javascript form validation pages
Simple Tricks for More Usable Forms

Javascript form validation – doing it right

TheDefender

You can do it client-side using JavaScript or server-side with PHP, or a combination of both. If you search these forums for "form validation", you should be able to find something. Since this is a PHP forum, I will give you the basic idea. Keep in mind this is very general, and just an example.

<?php
(if(isset($_POST['Name']) && $_POST['Name'] != "") || if(isset($_POST['Surname']) && $_POST['Surname'] != "")){
    //Do something with the variables
}else{
    //Echo some error to indicate one of the variables is not set or empty.
}
?>

drimades

Thanks!

Javascript validation is ok for my purposes!