Undefined index error in email form

plowter

Can anyone help a newbie understand how a 'send email form' works? Want to have the form send the data to itself and validate the data before displaying a confirmation page. Seems easy enough.

Am using <FORM method='POST' action='$PHP_SELF'> to send the form back to itself.

The system gives an 'undefined index' error when the code tries to access the POST array eg. $test=$POST['submit']; Have tried $POST['submit'], $HTTP_POST_VARS['submit'], have checked whether the arrays are empty (they are) have tried global_variables on and off. Can't seem to get it working.

The real problems are I don't understand how to debug this situation and don't understand the relationship between $_POST and the settings in php.ini. Can anyone help?

Config: PHP 4.3.2, IIS 5 (on localhost), Windows 2000

Thanks,

Plowter

thorpe

post your code.

plowter

Thanks - appreciate the link on how to ask questions.

Here's the code:

<?php

// Tests for POST problem
if (isset($POST)) {
echo "POST - $POST is set.";
} else {
echo "POST - $_POST is NOT set.";
}

if (empty($POST)) {
echo "POST - $POST is empty.";
} else {
echo "POST - $_POST is NOT empty.";
}

if (isset($HTTP_POST_VARS)) {
echo "HTTP_POST - $HTTP_POST_VARS is set.";
echo "0 - $HTTP_POST_VARS[0] is set.";
echo "1 - $HTTP_POST_VARS[1] is set.";
}

if ($_POST['submit']) {
print "the form has been submitted";
}

if ($HTTP_POST_VARS['submit']) {
print "the form has been submitted";
}

echo $submit;
?>

// HTML Form section
<form action="<?=$SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>" method="post">
<table width="500" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>Your name:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="name" value="<?=$POST['name']?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Your email:</td><td><input type="text" name="email" value="<?=$POST['email']?>"><td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Your message:</td><td><textarea name="message"><?=$POST['message']?></textarea></td>
</tr>
</table>

Any suggestions?

Rodney_H_

I think it should be: "$_POST['name']" instead of "$HTTP_POST_VARS"

Also, use this "<?php echo $var; ?>" instead of this "<?=$var?>"

For instance:

<html>
<head><title>test</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php
// Tests for form submitted:
if (!isset($_POST['submit'])) {
}
// else the form was submitted:
else {
echo '$_POST[\'submit\'] is set, form was submitted<br />';
// check for empty values
if ( empty($_POST['name']) || empty($_POST['email']) || empty($_POST['message']) ) {
echo 'Some fields on the form were not filled in.';
} else {
echo '<p>All the fields on the form were correctly filled in. Cool.</p>
<p>Name: ' . $_POST['name'] . '
<br />Email: ' . $_POST['email'] . '
<br />Message: ' . $_POST['message'] . '</p>' . "\n";
// begin mail funciton here...
}
}
?>
<form action="<?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>" method="post">
<table width="500" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>Your name:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="name" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['name'])) { echo $_POST['name']; } ?>"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Your email:</td><td><input type="text" name="email" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['email'])) { echo $_POST['email']; } ?>"><td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Your message:</td><td><textarea name="message"><?php if (isset($_POST['message'])) { echo $_POST['message']; } ?></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</html>

plowter

Think I found the answer - the error reporting was too high.

The error reporting was set to ALL. This produced a warning notice about 'undefined index', meaning PHP was highlighting a potential problem with the code rather than an actual error.

Here's a piece of code to check error levels. Other newbies might find it useful, though am sure it could be improved.

......................

// redefine the user error constants - PHP 4
define("U_ERROR", E_USER_ERROR);
define("U_WARNING", E_USER_WARNING);
define("U_NOTICE", E_USER_NOTICE);
define("ERROR", E_ERROR);
define("WARNING", E_WARNING);
define("NOTICE", E_NOTICE);

// error handler function
function myErrorHandler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline)
{
switch ($errno) {
case U_ERROR:
echo "<b>E_USER_ERROR</b> [$errno] $errstr<br />\n";
echo " Fatal error in line $errline of file $errfile";
echo ", PHP " . PHP_VERSION . " (" . PHP_OS . ")<br />\n";
echo "Aborting...<br />\n";
exit(1);
break;
case U_WARNING:
echo "<b>E_USER_WARNING</b> [$errno] <I>$errstr</I><br />\n";
break;
case U_NOTICE:
echo "<b>E_USER_NOTICE</b> [$errno] <I>$errstr</I><br />\n";
break;
case ERROR:
echo "<b>ERROR</b> [$errno] $errstr<br />\n";
echo " Fatal error in line $errline of file $errfile";
echo ", PHP " . PHP_VERSION . " (" . PHP_OS . ")<br />\n";
echo "Aborting...<br />\n";
exit(1);
break;
case WARNING:
echo "<b>WARNING</b> [$errno] <I>$errstr</I><br />\n";
break;
case NOTICE:
echo "<b>NOTICE</b> [$errno] <I>$errstr</I><br />\n";
break;

default:
echo "Unkown error type: <B>[$errno]</B> <I>$errstr</I><br />\n";
break;
}
}

// set to the user defined error handler
$old_error_handler = set_error_handler("myErrorHandler");

.........

Thanks for all your help.

plowter

Rodney_H_

Yes, great. Please mark the thread resolved. It makes us happy! I was curious about your usage of "$HTTP_POST_VARS". It has been deprecated according to the the manual:

<?php
function test_global()
{
   // Most predefined variables aren't "super" and require
   // 'global' to be available to the functions local scope.
   global $HTTP_POST_VARS;

   echo $HTTP_POST_VARS['name'];

   // Superglobals are available in any scope and do
   // not require 'global'. Superglobals are available
   // as of PHP 4.1.0, and HTTP_POST_VARS is now
   // deemed deprecated.
   echo $_POST['name'];
}
?>

At any rate, just thought you'd be interested. And I am glad that you now have a handle on things.

Cheers, and HAPPY FRIDAY!! 😃