make field in mailform required

steelwidow

this is probably a dumb question, but if I have the following for my input field...

and I want to make it so it's mandatory that people have to fill it in, how do I do that?

I've read where I need to put name="required"... , but I need the name to be name"ucontact_name" - so where would I put that it's "required"?

Thanks in advance...

maxpup979

the simple but not terribly effective way is to use javascript to disallow the form submission if the field is blank. The more certain way is to include validation on your processing page, and throw an error and redraw the form if the required field is blank.

Houdini

If you don't mind my asking what is the rows=1 attribute, I don't think that is really valid for an input, perhaps for a table or a textarea?

lupus2k5

Place you submit the form to:
<?
if(!isset($ucontact_name)) {
echo "The <i>Name</i> field is required.";
echo "<br><a href='javascript:history.go(-1);'>[ back ]</a>";
}
?>

I think that's right, but I'm not sure...

steelwidow

thanks for all the responses!

lupus2k5: I tried that by adding it into the mailform right after the mailform addy and it comes up as a link instead of hidden...

houdini: I think the rows=1 attribute is there as part of the forms processing...??? It's a very simple php form but someone else made it...

here's the entire mailform part:

<?php include("header.php");?>
<FORM ACTION="feedback.php" METHOD="POST" onSubmit= "return submitIt(this)">
<input type="hidden" name="REMOTE_ADDR" value="<? echo $REMOTE_ADDR;?>">
<table border=0 width="400">
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">Contact Name:</font></b></td><td><input name="ucontact_name" type="text" rows=1 value="<?php echo $ucontact_name;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">Business Name:</font></b></td><td><input name="ubusiness_name" type="text" rows=1 value="<?php echo $ubusiness_name;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">Tax ID Number:</font></b></td><td><input name="utax_id" type="text" rows=1 value="<?php echo $utax_id;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">Email:</font></b></td><td><input type=text name="uemail" rows=1 value="<?php echo $uemail;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">Telephone:</font><b></td><td><input type=text name="uphone" rows=1 value="<?php echo $uphone;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">Address:</font></b></td><td><input name="uaddress" type="text" rows=1 value="<?php echo $uaddress;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><font face="Arial">City, State, Zip:</font></b></td><td><input name="ucity_state_zip" type="text" rows=1 value="<?php echo $ucity_state_zip;?>" size="37"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<font face="Arial" size="4">Enter Any Additional Comments Below:</font>
<table border=0>
<tr>
<td><textarea name="umsg" rows=7 cols=50 value="<?php echo $umsg;?>" size="800"></textarea></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><input type="submit" value="Submit" name="Send"></p>
</form>
<?php include("footer.php");?>

here's the processing page:

<?php
/
Copyright 2002 Blue Wave Data, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
http://www.bluewavedata.com
PLEASE LEAVE THIS COPYRIGHT IN PLACE
/

// ********** MODIFY THE NEXT THREE LINES ***********************
$title = "Primitive Salt Box"; // <--- PUT THE TITLE OF YOUR HOME PAGE BETWEEN THE "" MARKS
$home = "http://www.yourwebsite.com"; // <--- PUT YOUR URL BETWEEN THE "" MARKS
$mailto = "name@youremail.com"; // <--- PUT YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS BETWEEN THE "" MARKS
$subject = "Business Information Submission";
// *************** MODIFY NO MORE *****************************

// Thanks for the feedback etc.
PRINT "<html><head><title>Thank you</title></head><body bgcolor=9BB18D><div align=\"left\"><table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"><tr><td width=\"100%\" height=\"50\"></td></tr><tr><td width=\"100%\" valign=\"top\" align=\"left\"><p align=\"center\"><img src=../images/splitter.gif><br><br><b><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"3\">Your business information has been sent.<BR><BR><b>YOUR COUPON CODE IS: 4CDISC</b></font></p><p align=\"center\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"4\"><br>Make a note of your code so you can enter it upon checking out.<Br><Br> <a href=http://www.primitivesaltbox.com/store/>Click Here To Go To Our Online Store Now</a><br><br><img src=../images/splitter.gif></font></p></td></tr><tr><td width=\"100%\" height=\"20\"></td></tr></table></div></body></html>";

// Scrape off the slashes before processing
$umsg = stripslashes($umsg);

// Here is where we grab and process the form and variables from mailform.php
// and e-mail the results to the value of "$mailto"

$mailfrom = "From: $uemail";
$subject= "Business Information Submission";
$body = " BEGIN FEEDBACK \n\nSent from IP: $REMOTE_ADDR\nContact_Name: $ucontact_name\nBusiness_Name: $ubusiness_name\nTax_ID: $utax_id\nEMail: $uemail\nTelephone: $uphone\nAddress: $uaddress\nCity_State_Zip: $ucity_state_zip\nMessage: $umsg\n\n END FEEDBACK ";

mail ($mailto, $subject, $body, $mailfrom);

?>

maxpup979: That's what I was thinking too but everything I add doesn't seem to work. Can you be more specific with what you mean based on what I have above with the actual mailform and it's processing page?

PS - the email and url on my end are correct. I've edited it here for obvious reasons.