help with form validation

janice171

Hi,

just been putting together a form and need some help with getting the error messages to work.
the email validation works ok, but i would like to make other fields a required input (i.e. name and address)...i don't know if i'm missing something obvious(i'm new to PHP) but i just can't get it to work...here's the code...

thanks for any help

<?

function check_mail(&$check, $fld, &$error_field, $invalidchars="", $blanks="")
{

global $msg;
$expr = "^{[_.0-9a-z-]+@([0-9a-z][0-9a-z-]+.)+[a-z][a-z]+\$";}
//echo "expr=" . $expr . "<br>";
if ((!$fld) || ($fld=="") || (!eregi($expr,$fld)))
{
if ($invalidchars > "")
{
$error_field = $invalidchars . "<br>\n";
} else {
$error_field = "invalid characters<br>\n";
}
if ($check==true) $check =false;
}
if (strrpos($fld,' ') > 0)
{
if ($blanks > "")
{
$error_field = $blanks . "<br>\n";
} else {
$error_field = "blanks in e-mail<br>\n";
}
if ($check==true) $check =false;
}
}

if (empty($HTTP_POST_VARS["name"])) $HTTP_POST_VARS["name"]="";
if (empty($err_name)) $err_name=" ";
if (empty($HTTP_POST_VARS["email"])) $HTTP_POST_VARS["email"]="";
if (empty($err_email)) $err_email=" ";
if (empty($HTTP_POST_VARS["address"])) $HTTP_POST_VARS["address"]="";
if (empty($err_address)) $err_address=" ";

$checked = true;
if (isset($HTTP_POST_VARS["submit"]))
{
check_len($checked, $HTTP_POST_VARS["name"],30,$err_name,"Field too long! Maximum:30","Field required! Minimum:1");
check_len($checked, $HTTP_POST_VARS["email"],80,$err_email,"Field too long! Maximum:80","Field required! Minimum:1");
check_mail($checked, $HTTP_POST_VARS["email"], $err_email,"The form contains invalid characters or is incomplete.", "The e-mail contains blanks.");
check_len($checked, $HTTP_POST_VARS["address"],200,$err_address,"Field too long! Maximum:200","Field required! Minimum:5");
}
if ( empty($HTTP_POST_VARS["submit"]) or (!$checked) )
{
?>
<form action="<? echo $GLOBALS["PHP_SELF"] ?>" method="post">
<fieldset class="fieldset">
<legend>
<h3>PRODUCT ENQUIRY FORM</h3>
</legend>
<? echo $err_name ?>
<? echo $err_email ?> <? echo $err_comment ?>
<br />
<label for="name">Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="name" class="textfield" id="name" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["name"] ?>" />
<br />
<label for="address">Address:</label>
<input type="text" name="address" class="textfield" id="address" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["address"] ?>" />
<br />
<label for="email">Email:</label>
<input type="text" name="email" class="textfield" id="email" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["email"] ?>" />
<br />
<label for="phone">Telephone:</label>
<input type="text" name="phone" class="textfield" id="phone" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["phone"] ?>" />
<br />
<br />
<label for="caliper">Caliper:</label>
<input type="text" name="caliper" class="textfield" id="caliper" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["caliper"] ?>" />
<br />

<label for="materials"> Materials:</label>
<select name="materials" id="materials" class="select">
<option>APET</option>
<option>GAG</option>
<option>PETG</option>
<option>PVC</option>
<option>Polypropolyne</option>
<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["materials"]?>
</select>
<br />
<label for="style">Style: (i.e. tuck ends)</label>
<input type="text" name="style" class="textfield" id="style" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["style"] ?>" />
<br />
<label for="size">Size:</label>
<input type="text" name="size" class="textfield" id="size" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["size"] ?>" />
<br />
<label for="quantity">Quantity:</label>
<input type="text" name="quantity" class="textfield" id="quantity" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["quantity"] ?>" />
<br />
<br />
<label for="decoration"> Decoration:</label>
<select name="decoration" id="decoration" class="select">
<option>Plain</option>
<option>Printed</option>
<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["decoration"]?>
</select>
<br />
<label for="printing">Printing Type:</label>
<select name="printing" id="printing" class="select">
<option>Screen</option>
<option>Litho</option>
<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["printing"]?>
</select>
<br />
<label for="colours">No. of Colours:</label>
<input type="text" name="qcolours" class="textfield" id="colours" value="<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["colours"] ?>" />
<br />
<label for="delivery">Delivery Address:</label>
<textarea cols="30" rows="4" name="delivery" id="delivery" class="textarea"><? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["delivery"]?>
</textarea>
<br />
<label for="samples">Samples Required:</label>
<select name="samples" id="samples" class="select">
<option>Yes</option>
<option>No</option>
<? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["samples"]?>
</select>
<br />
<label for="comments">Additional Comments:</label>
<textarea cols="30" rows="4" name="comments" id="comments" class="textarea"><? echo $HTTP_POST_VARS["comments"]?>
</textarea>
<br />
<label for="submit"> </label>
<br class="nobr" />
<input name="submit" type="submit" class="submit" id="submit" value="send" />
<br />
</fieldset>
</form>
<br />
<?
}
if (isset($HTTP_POST_VARS["submit"]) and ($checked) ) {
$msg = "Your Message\n";
$msg .= "Name :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["name"]."\n";
$msg .= "Address :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["address"]."\n";
$msg .= "Email :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["email"]."\n";
$msg .= "Telephone :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["phone"]."\n";
$msg .= "Caliper :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["caliper"]."\n";
$msg .= "Materials :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["materials"]."\n";
$msg .= "Style :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["style"]."\n";
$msg .= "Size :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["size"]."\n";
$msg .= "Quantity :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["quantity"]."\n";
$msg .= "Decoration :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["decoration"]."\n";
$msg .= "Printing :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["printing"]."\n";
$msg .= "Colours :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["colours"]."\n";
$msg .= "Delivery :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["delivery"]."\n";
$msg .= "Samples :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["samples"]."\n";
$msg .= "Comments :".$HTTP_POST_VARS["comments"]."\n";
mail("email address","You have mail",
$msg);
echo "Your message has been sent to: <b>company name</b></ br></ br>\n";
echo nl2br($msg) . "</ br>\r";
}
?>

bradgrafelman

Can we have a link to the form that submits to this script to see what exactly is happening?

janice171

thanks a lot for replying so quickly.
i am posting a link to the form in a simplified document with some styling in the head.

hopefully it won't be too complicated to work out what's happening.

bradgrafelman

Grr! Something screwed up and my post was lost...

(code removed)

Other than that I must be overlooking something because I don't see anything else wrong. I am a bit tired though, maybe that's why :p. At any rate, make those changes (there's a couple like that) and let me know.

EDIT: I removed my code suggestion because... it's unnecessary. Your approach at a few things, though unorthodox, seems to work. I'm a bit clueless now.

janice171

hi,

i think somethings gone wrong with your post!!

but if you've got a minute i'd love to see the alterations you made to the code.

thanks very much

bradgrafelman

I just had never used things like "and" instead of "&&" and comparing the length of a string to "" ($string > "") to see if it's not empty; I'd always used 'if ($string != "")', but it appears as though your methods work fine.

Is the problem you get that it always returns invalid characters or is incomplete? That's what happened to me; even when I was sure to fill in all the fields appropriately.

Try commenting out this line:

check_mail($checked, $HTTP_POST_VARS["email"], $err_email,"The form contains invalid characters or is incomplete.", "The e-mail contains blanks.");

and submitting the form (with valid data). Let me know what happens; it may be a problem with your check_mail() function.

janice171

hi,
thanks once again for getting back to me.

my problem is that only the email field is returning an error message when that field is filled in incorrectly or left blank.
i would like other fields such as 'name' and 'address' to also return an error message if filled in incorrectly or left blank.

any ideas??

if i comment out the line you tell me to, it just removes the email error message which i want kept in.

hope you can offer some more help.

thanks