[RESOLVED] Blank E-mail and Radio Buttons

[ajar]

I've tried to modify a form I've used successfully, but I'm receiving a blank e-mail message using my modification. What I need this to do is e-mail the results of a customer survey.

All the fields need to be required except the q12 field. The first 11 fields (q1 - q11) are radio buttons with the same 4 choices. The q12 field is a text area. The final field is a textbox for the e-mail address.

I'm not sure what I've done wrong. I've been starting at this code and I just don't see what I've missed. I've read every thread I could find in this forum that dealt with Radio Buttons and didn't find an answer. Could someone help me? I'm posting my script code, but I will post my html code if that is necessary also. Please let me know. I didn't want to post too much code and make everyone mad. I know how frustrating dealing with newbies can be.

I have another question that is mildly related to this as well. I didn't write the form and it used REQUEST instead of POST in all the places where my code now has post. What is the difference between those two things?

One more thing. The version of PHP the server uses is 4.3.3.

<?php
ini_set("SMTP","mail.domain.com"); 
ini_set("sendmail_from","[e-mail]");

  $q1 = $_POST['q1'] ;
  $q2 = $_POST['q2'] ;
  $q3 = $_POST['q3'] ;
  $q4 = $_POST['q4'] ;
  $q5 = $_POST['q5'] ;
  $q6 = $_POST['q6'] ;
  $q7 = $_POST['q7'] ;
  $q8 = $_POST['q8'] ;
  $q9 = $_POST['q9'] ;
  $q10 = $_POST['q10'] ;
  $q11 = $_POST['q11'] ;
  $q12 = $_POST['q12'] ;
  $email = $_POST['email'] ;

  if (!isset($_POST['email'])) {
    header( "Location: http://www.domain.com/survey.html" );
  }
  elseif (empty($q1) ||
	 empty($q2) || 
	 empty($q3) || 
	 empty($q4) || 
	 empty($q5) || 
	 empty($q6) || 
	 empty($q7) || 
	 empty($q8) || 
	 empty($q9) || 
	 empty($q10) || 
	 empty($q11) || 
	 empty($email)) 
{
    header( "Location: http://www.domain.com/oops.html" );
  }
  else {
    mail( "[e-mail]", 
	  "Customer Survey",  

	  "\rQuestion 1: $q1\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 2: $q2\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 3: $q3\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 4: $q4\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 5: $q5\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 6: $q6\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 7: $q7\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 8: $q8\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 9: $q9\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 10: $q10\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 11: $q11\n" . 
	  "\rQuestion 12: $q12\n" ,
      	  "From: " . $email . "\r\n" );
    header( "Location: http://www.domain.com/thanks.html" );
  }
?>

Here's a piece of the form. I didn't want to put all of it because it's so much code. It's the first two questions and the opening form tag only.

<form name="survey" method="post" action="survey.php">
              <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="2">
                <tr valign="top"> 
                  <td width="4%" align="right" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1.</font></td>
                  <td width="52%" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How 
                    would you rate the navigation of the site?<strong><font color="#FF0000">*</font></strong></font></td>
                  <td width="44%"><p> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q1" value="poor">Poor</label>&nbsp; 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q1" value="fair">Fair</label>&nbsp; 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q1" value="good">Good</label>&nbsp; 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q1" value="excellent">Excellent</label>
                      </font></p></td>
                </tr>
                <tr> 
                  <td align="right" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">2.</font></td>
                  <td valign="top" nowrap><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How 
                    would you rate the organization and layout of the site?<strong><font color="#FF0000">*</font></strong></font></td>
                  <td width="44%" valign="top"><p> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q2" value="poor">Poor</label>&nbsp; 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q2" value="fair">Fair</label>&nbsp;
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q2" value="good">Good</label>&nbsp; 
                      <label><input type="radio" name="q2" value="excellent">Excellent</label>
                      </font></p></td>

[Rodney_H_]

ajar wrote:

I have another question that is mildly related to this as well. I didn't write the form and it used REQUEST instead of POST in all the places where my code now has post. What is the difference between those two things?

I think that may be the problem. I would change the method on the form to POST (if it's not already and try again).

/ edit: sorry not my place to say /

[ajar]

Thanks for the response Rodney. The method is post, though. Please see my code above. What you see above is what I'm using that sends me the blank message. I'm going to edit my original post and add the HTML for the form. I guess just the script code isn't really enough to know what's happening.

[Rodney_H_]

Well, maybe you could try this:

<?php
ini_set("SMTP","mail.domain.com"); 
ini_set("sendmail_from","[e-mail]");

$oops = 'http://www.domain.com/oops.html';
$survey = 'http://www.domain.com/survey.html';
$thanks = 'http://www.domain.com/thanks.html';

if (!isset($_POST['email']) || empty($_POST['email'])) {
	header("Location: $survey");
	exit;
}
else {
	$email = trim(strtolower($_POST['email']));
}

$array = array('q1','q2','q3','q4','q5','q6','q7','q8','q9','q10','q11','q12');

foreach ($array as $value){
	if (isset($_POST[$value])) {
		$$value = $_POST[$value];
	}
    else {	
		if($value != 'q12'){
			header("Location: $oops");
			exit;
		}
	}
}

// use variables for mail function:
$to = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'Customer Survey';
$header = 'From: ' . $email . "\r\n";
$body = 'Customer Survey 
Question 1: '.$q1.'
Question 2: ' .$q2.' 
Question 3: ' .$q3.' 
Question 4: ' .$q4.' 
Question 5: ' .$q5.' 
Question 6: ' .$q6.' 
Question 7: ' .$q7.' 
Question 8: ' .$q8.' 
Question 9: ' .$q9.' 
Question 10: ' .$q10.' 
Question 11: ' .$q11.'
Question 12: ' .$q12. "\n\n";
// mail function
mail($to,$subject,$body,$header);
header("Location: $thanks");
exit;
?>
 

[ajar]

Rodney,

That worked like a charm! The only thing I changed was to send them to the oops page if they didn't put an e-mail address.

I like the above code better than the original code I had. It makes more sense. I can look at it and figure out what's happening. My original script (while much shorter), was very bulky.

Thanks so much for your help. I really appreciate it! 🙂

Edit Do you know why someone would use the request method instead of post method? It seems to be an older use of the get method. I would think it's better to use the post method for an e-mail message.

Cheers,
Al

[ajar]

I made another edit to add the actual question instead of just saying Question 1, etc. in the message body and now there's no line breaks.

I've tried playing around with the code to add breaks, but I either blow up the script or I come out with "\n" at the end of each line before the text breaks. Is it possible to add a line break in a plain text message?

Edit

I discovered that just adding a carriage return after each line puts the necessary break. I had tried this before using the "\n" and it blew up for some reason, but it's working just fine now.

Is that an acceptable way to do it or is there a better method of creating a break between lines?

Rodney, I would like to thank you again for your help. I don't know why PHP is so hard for me to learn, but it seems to be.

[Rodney_H_]

ajar wrote:

Do you know why someone would use the request method instead of post method?

According to the manual, quoted below for your convenience, it appears to have quite a bit of flexibility, but I personally like to distinguish in my scripts between get, post, and cookie values. To each his/her own!

php.net wrote:

Request variables: $_REQUEST

An associative array consisting of the contents of $GET, $POST, and $_COOKIE.

This is a 'superglobal', or automatic global, variable. This simply means that it is available in all scopes throughout a script. You don't need to do a global $_REQUEST; to access it within functions or methods.

If the register_globals directive is set, then these variables will also be made available in the global scope of the script; i.e., separate from the $_REQUEST array.

[Rodney_H_]

ajar wrote:

I discovered that just adding a carriage return after each line puts the necessary break. I had tried this before using the "\n" and it blew up for some reason, but it's working just fine now.

Is that an acceptable way to do it or is there a better method of creating a break between lines?

Rodney, I would like to thank you again for your help. I don't know why PHP is so hard for me to learn, but it seems to be.

Cool, yeah, for text messages, as you learned, you can just move the content to the next line in your code. Great. As far as learning PHP, seems to me you are doing just fine. You knew what to look for when trouble shooting, you tinkered with the message til you got it. That's all any of us can do: Trial by fire of sorts. We learn as we go.

Keep up the good work!!

[halojoy]

Originally Posted by ajar:
'Do you know why someone would use
the request method instead of post method? '

Reply by RodneyH.:
'According to the manual, quoted below for your convenience,
it appears to have quite a bit of flexibility,
but I personally like to
distinguish in my scripts between $:GET, $POST, and $COOKIE values.'

==============================================

It is true the $_REQUEST reads whatver method.
It is also TRUE that, most PHP websites today, uses
registering_globals = OFF
That is turned off globals variables.
And this is what setting should be, for safety reasons.

I have only used '$variable = $_REQUEST' vary rarely.
Most of us use these G,P,C,S or E specifically.
( get, post, cookie, server, env )

I think the few cases when use $REQUEST,
could be when you do not know WHICH method the sending script uses.
Not certain If it is a $POST or $_GET, or if it can be either one of them.

So follow RodneyH. script advice and use $POST in this case.
Or $GET in another case.
If those 2 should for some reason not work, then we can begin look around for other ways, like using this $_REQUEST.

/halojoy
His new PHP Script Forum at
http://213.100.118.115/bb

with LINUX

🙂

[ajar]

Thanks again Rodney. It's good to know I'm making progress and that I'm doing the right thing. I spend a lot of time trying to figure it out myself before asking, but sometimes it seems to go over my head.

Thanks halojoy. That makes perfect sense. I will try using a specific method first before using request. I agree about the security.

I am going to mark this resolved now.