Code critique and then a question!

[msimonds]

I wrote this simple script and wanted to get some feedback on my coding structure. I hope this is not too mcuh to ask, but I have been dabbling in php for a few years and now I am doing it full time. Critique things like structure, sentax, too many uses of variables

THEN

I wanted to know if there was a better way/faster way to handle mulitple $POST variables instead of checking each item one by one. The reason I thought that this was not possible becuase each $POST could or does have different data coming in from it

Both positive and negative would be a plus

Thanks in advance

Mike

Code from the top of the script:

<?php
// Address error handing.
ini_set ('display_errors', 1);

error_reporting (E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

//setup the variables used in $_POST
$ename          =       trim($_POST['eventname']);
$evenue         =       trim($_POST['eventvenue']);
$emonth         =       trim($_POST['eventmonth']);
$eday           =       trim($_POST['eventdate']);
$eyear          =       trim($_POST['eventyear']);
$num_tickets    =       trim($_POST['num_tickets']);
$section        =       trim($_POST['section']);
$rows           =       trim($_POST['rows']);
$seat_nums      =       trim($_POST['seat_nums']);
$ask_price      =       trim($_POST['ask_price']);
$posession      =       trim($_POST['posession']);
$monthinhand    =       trim($_POST['monthinhand']);
$dateinhand     =       trim($_POST['dateinhand']);
$yearinhand     =       trim($_POST['yearinhand']);
$ecomments      =       trim($_POST['additional']);
$prefix         =       trim($_POST['prefix']);
$fullname       =       trim($_POST['fullname']);
$company        =       trim($_POST['company']);
$address1       =       trim($_POST['address1']);
$address2       =       trim($_POST['address2']);
$city           =       trim($_POST['city']);
$state          =       trim($_POST['state']);
$zip            =       trim($_POST['zip']);
$dphone         =       trim($_POST['dayphone']);
$hphone         =       trim($_POST['homephone']);
$email          =       trim($_POST['email']);
$p_contact      =       trim($_POST['p_contact']);

[msimonds]

Second part of the script , sorry too many characters

// Check if the form has been submitted.
if (isset($_POST['submit']))
{
    $problem = FALSE; // No problems so far.

//check to see if fields are populated in the top of the form
//if (!is_numeric($crowd_range1) || !is_numeric($crowd_range2) || !is_numeric($crowd_range3)) {

   //************************** start top form checks **********************************

if (empty ($ename))  //check for first name
    {
	$problem = TRUE;
	echo '<p>You forgot to enter the event name, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

if (empty ($evenue))   
    {
	$problem = TRUE;
	echo '<p>You forgot to enter the Event Venue, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

if (empty($emonth))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the month of the event, please hit the back button and select the correct month from the drop down menu</p>';
    }

if (empty($eday))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the day of the event, please hit the back button and select the correct day from the drop down menu</p>';
    }

if (empty($eyear))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the year of the event, please hit the back button and select the correct year from the drop down menu</p>';
    }

if (empty($num_tickets))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the number of tickets you have for this event, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

if (empty($section))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the section(s) for this event, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

if (empty($rows))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the row(s) for this event, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

if (empty($seat_nums))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter the seat number(s) of tickets you have for this event, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

if (empty($ask_price))
    {
    $problem = TRUE;
    echo '<p>You forgot to enter your asking price, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
    }

   //************************** end top form checks **********************************

   if (empty($fullname))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>You forgot to enter your name, please hit your back button and enter your name</p>';
        }

   if (empty($company))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>You forgot to enter your company, please hit your back button and correct the entry</p>';
        }
   if (empty($address1))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>You forgot to enter your address, please hit the back button and correct the mistake</p>';
        }

   if (empty($city))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>You forgot to enter city that you live in, please hit the back button and correct the error</p>';
        }

   if (empty($state))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>No state entered, please correct this</p>';
        }

   if (empty($zip))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>No zipcode entered, please correct this</p>';
        }

   if (empty($dphone))     //check for phone contact number
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>You forgot to enter your telephone number, please hit the back button and enter your phone number</p>';
        }

   if (empty($email))//check for email address
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>You forgot to enter your email address, Please hit the back button and fill in the missing information</p>';
        }
        elseif (!valid_email($email))//Check validity of email
        {
        $problem = TRUE;
        echo '<p>Your email address is not correctly formatted, please push the back button and correct the error</p>';
        }

 //check to see if the required information is being filled out in the second part of the form




if (!$problem)
    { // If there weren't any problems send the email!

    //prepare the name for the body in the email
    $name = $prefix . ' ' . $fullname . '';
    $name = ucwords(strtolower($name));
    //setup the contact information from the form into one variable
    $date =  $monthinhand . ' ' . $dateinhand . ', '. $yearinhand;
    $emonth = ucwords(strtolower($emonth));
    //setup the rest of the information
    $event_info = "<h3>The following information has been sent from the sell tickets form on Ticketretriever.com:</h3>";
    $event_info .= "<strong><font color=\"#FF0000\">Event information</font></strong><br />";
    $event_info .= "Event Name:&nbsp;<strong>$ename</strong><br />
                    Event Venue:&nbsp;<strong>$evenue</strong><br />
                    Event Month: <strong>$emonth&nbsp; $eday, $eyear</strong><br />
                    Number of Tickets in Hand:&nbsp; <strong>$num_tickets</strong><br />
                    Section(s):&nbsp;<strong>$section</strong><br />
                    Row(s):&nbsp;<strong>$rows</strong><br />
                    Seat #'s:&nbsp;<strong>$seat_nums</strong><br />
                    Asking Price:&nbsp;<strong>$ask_price</strong><br />
                    Tickets in Posession:&nbsp;<strong>$posession</strong><br />
                    Date in Possession:&nbsp;<strong>$date</strong><br />
                    Comments:&nbsp;$ecomments<br /><br />

                    <strong><font color=\"#FF0000\">Personal Information</font></strong><br />
                    Name:&nbsp;<strong>$name</strong><br />
                    Company:&nbsp;<strong>$company</strong><br />
                    Address:&nbsp;<strong><br />$address1<br />$address2</strong><br />
                    City:&nbsp;<strong>$city</strong><br />
                    State:&nbsp;<strong>$state</strong><br />
                    Email Address: <a href=\"mailto:$email\">$email</a> <br />
                    Daytime Number: <strong>$dphone</strong><br />Home Phone: <strong>$hphone</strong><br/>
                    Preferred Contact Method: <strong>$p_contact</strong><br>";
    //print out this message for testing
    $body .= $event_info;
    //echo $body;

    // Recipients
    $mailTo = "[e-mail]"; // note the comma

    // Copies
    //$mailCc = "[e-mail]";
    //$mailBcc = "[e-mail]";

    // From
    $mailFrom = $email;
    $mailFromName = $fullname;

    // Reply address
    $mailReplyTo = "[e-mail]";

    // Message subject and contents
    $mailSubject = "Request to sell tickets to Ticketretriever.com";
    $mailMessage = $body;
    // Text message charset
    $mailCharset = "windows-1252"; // must be accurate (e.g. "Windows - 1252" is invalid)

    // Create headres for mail() function
    $headers  = "Content-type: text/html; charset=$mailCharset\r\n";
    $headers .= "From: $mailFromName <$mailFrom>\r\n";
    $headers .= "Reply-To: $mailReplyTo\r\n";
    //$headers .= "Cc: $mailCc\r\n";
    //$headers .= "Bcc: $mailBcc\r\n";

    // Send mail
    mail($mailTo, $mailSubject, $mailMessage, $headers);
    header("Location: http://www.ticketretriever.com/tickets-complete.html");
    ;
	}





}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//                 Funtions                              //
//                                                       //
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


function valid_email($email)
{
      $pattern = "^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$";

  if (eregi($pattern, $email))
  {
     return true;
  }
  else
  {
     return false;
  }
}




?>

[ClarkF1]

You can make the variable assignments easier by using the extract() function

[msimonds]

I read over that!!! Can you give me an example using my code!!

[Weedpacket]

You can also use [man]array_map[/man] to trim every element in an array at once.

Rule of thumb is: if you find yourself copying-and-pasting the same code over and over and over again then there's a better way to do it: computers are good at mindlessly repetitive tasks.

[msimonds]

Weedpacket wrote:

You can also use [man]array_map[/man] to trim every element in an array at once.

Rule of thumb is: if you find yourself copying-and-pasting the same code over and over and over again then there's a better way to do it: computers are good at mindlessly repetitive tasks.

So your saying that this example from php.net:

<?php

$_POST = array_map('addslashes', $_POST);

//or

$_GET = array_map('addslashes', $_GET);

?>

would add stripslashes to each $_POST element/variable?

BUT to use this array_map, what is an example of checking each, would it be something along the lines of:

$_POST = array_map('empty', $_POST); 

so what about the first check to see if the form is submitted:

if (isset($_POST['submit']))

would you do the check within the main if statement?

[ClarkF1]

Regarding using extract, all you need to do is

extract ($_POST);

Your variables will be named slightly different to what you originally have because some of the variable names you used aren't the same as their equivalent in the $POST array e.g. you have $ename = trim($POST['eventname']);

Using extract would give you $eventname instead.

Basically you'll end up with variables which have been assigned names according to their key in the $_POST array.

If you have an array $_POST like ('email'=>'myemail','phone'=>'myphone) etc.

when you run extract on it you will automatically create the variables so you end up with $email = 'myemail', $phone='myphone' etc. which you can use throughout the rest of the script.

[msimonds]

Thanks Clark!!! I appreciate it, that makes more sense