Form Validation Problem

Little_Dictator

I am trying to create an online entry form for fencing competitions, and am now working on the form validation. The validation is done on the same page, and outputs error messages to the same page, however the problem I have is with checkboxes - when a checkbox is selected, if another error occurs on the page, when the page is re-displayed the checkbox is no longer checked. Any help???

The code is:

<h3>PHP Entry Form Example</h3>

<?
// only validate form when form is submitted
if(isset($submit_button)){
$error_msg='';
if(trim($first_name_input)=='' ) {
$error_msg.="Please enter your first name.<br>";
}
if(trim($last_name_input)=='' ) {
$error_msg.="Please enter your surname.<br>";
}
if (($sabre_input=='') && ($foil_input=='') && ($epee_input=='')) {
$error_msg.="Please select at least one weapon.<br>";
}
if(trim($password_input)=='' || strlen(trim($password_input)) < 4) {
$error_msg.="Please enter a password at least 4 characters long<br>";
}
if(trim($email_input)=='') {
$error_msg.="Please enter an email<br>";
} else {
// check if email is a valid address in this format username@domain.com
if(!ereg("0-9a-z@0-9a-z\.[a-z]", $email_input)) $error_msg.="Please enter a valid email address<br>";
}

// display error message if any, if not, proceed to other processing
if($error_msg==''){
	// other process here
} else {
	echo "<font color=red>$error_msg</font>";
}

}
?>

<form method="POST" action="testvalidation.php">
<table border="1" cellpadding="7" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber1">
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">First Name</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="text" name="first_name_input" size="20" value="<? echo $first_name_input; ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Last Name</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="text" name="last_name_input" size="20" value="<? echo $last_name_input; ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Weapons Entered</td>
<td width="84%"><input name="sabre_input" type="checkbox" value="sabre">
Sabre
<input name="foil_input" type="checkbox" value="foil">
Foil
<input name="epee_input" type="checkbox" value="epee">
Epee</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Password</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="password" name="password_input" size="20" value="<? echo $password_input; ?>">
(must be at least 4 characters)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Email</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="text" name="email_input" size="20" value="<? echo $email_input; ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right"> </td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="submit" value=" Register " name="submit_button"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

</body>
</html>

Kudose

<td width="16%" align="right">Weapons Entered</td>
<td width="84%">
<input name="sabre_input" type="checkbox" value="sabre"<?php if($sabre_input) echo ' checked'; ?>>
Sabre
<input name="foil_input" type="checkbox" value="foil"<?php if($foil_input) echo ' checked'; ?>>
Foil
<input name="epee_input" type="checkbox" value="epee"<?php if($epee_input) echo ' checked'; ?>>
Epee
</td>

devinemke

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit']))
{
	$errors = array();
	foreach ($_POST as $key => $value)
	{
		if (!is_array($value)) {$value = trim($value);}
		if (!$value) {$errors[] = 'required field missing: ' . $key;}
		if ($key == 'password' && $value && strlen($value) < 4) {$errors[] = 'password must be at least 4 characters long';}
		if ($key == 'email' && $value && !ereg('[0-9a-z]([-_.]?[0-9a-z])*@[0-9a-z]([-.]?[0-9a-z])*\\.[a-z]', $value)) {$errors[] = 'invalid email';}
	}	
	if (!isset($_POST['weapons'])) {$errors[] = 'please select at least one weapon';}

if ($errors)
{
	echo '<font color="red">';
	foreach ($errors as $value) {echo $value . '<br>';}
	echo '</font>';
}
else
{
	echo 'form OK';
}
}
?>

<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>">
<table border="1" cellpadding="7" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%" id="AutoNumber1">
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">First Name</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="text" name="first_name" size="20" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['first_name'])) {echo $_POST['first_name'];} ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Last Name</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="text" name="last_name" size="20" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['last_name'])) {echo $_POST['last_name'];} ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Weapons Entered</td>
<td width="84%">
<input name="weapons[sabre]" type="checkbox" value="Y" <?php if (isset($_POST['weapons']['sabre'])) {echo 'checked';} ?>>Sabre
<input name="weapons[foil]" type="checkbox" value="Y" <?php if (isset($_POST['weapons']['foil'])) {echo 'checked';} ?>>Foil
<input name="weapons[epee]" type="checkbox" value="Y" <?php if (isset($_POST['weapons']['epee'])) {echo 'checked';} ?>>Epee
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Password</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="password" name="password" size="20" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['password'])) {echo $_POST['password'];} ?>">
(must be at least 4 characters)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right">Email</td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="text" name="email" size="20" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['email'])) {echo $_POST['email'];} ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="16%" align="right"> </td>
<td width="84%">
<input type="submit" value=" Register " name="submit"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

Kudose

That's a beautiful alternative.

I'm not kidding, I even printed it off to have an example of how I should be doing my forms and such.

Get help offering help... :rolleyes:

Little_Dictator

Thanks for the help both of you, now just one more question:

Obviously once the validation is completed I would be calling another php page which carries out the database entries and lets the user know their entry was successful. How would I refer to the variables set on this page on that other page?

Sorry if all this sounds like I'm a simpleton, but trying to teach myself PHP and keep finding conflicting ways of doing things on the web which is just adding to my confusion!

devinemke

you can either call the other page by [man]include[/man]ing it where my code echos "form OK"...or simply put the database entry code there.