Form to email problems

lpatzek

Another newbie, another problem. I just worked on my first PHP script for a nonprofit I am volunteering for. Does not work, and I am stuck on troubleshooting it. I get no error messages, but when you fill out the form and submit it gets stuck on the PHP file, so it seems to me that I didn't properly terminate the script. I was also thinking that the localserver should have and IP address rather than being called simply "localhost," however my hosting people tell me to leave it "localhost." Do you see any obvious errors in the script? Thanks so much.

aspekt9

Next time you really should use the PHP code built in to the forums here.

Looking through your code I caught a couple of errors:

$mailContent="--------CONTACT--------\n"
            ."First Name: ".$firstName."\n"
            ."Last Name: ".$lastName."\n"
            ."E-mail: ".$email."\n"
            ."Phone: ".$telephone."\n"
            ."City: ".$city."\n"
            ."Affiliation: ".$affiliation."\n"
            ."Website: ".$website."\n\n--------QUESTIONS--------\n"
            ."Description of main relevant interests and specific skill-sets: ".$questionSkillset."\n"
            ."Three most important qualities or elements wanting to be seen in the design/implementation of the area(s) chosen: ".$questionElements."\n"
            ."Recommendations or references offered to the project's design/development process: ".$questionDesign."\n";

You forgot the ; at the end.
You did the same thing:

$receiptMessage = "Thank you ".$firstName." for expressing interest in volunteering!\n\n\nHere is what you submitted to us:\n\n"
            ."--------CONTACT--------\n"
            ."First Name: ".$firstName."\n"
            ."Last Name: ".$lastName."\n"
            ."E-mail: ".$email."\n"
            ."Phone: ".$telephone."\n"
            ."City: ".$city."\n"
            ."Affiliation: ".$affiliation."\n"
            ."Website: ".$website."\n\n--------QUESTIONS--------\n"
            ."Description of main relevant interests and specific skill-sets: ".$questionSkillset."\n"
            ."Three most important qualities or elements wanting to be seen in the design/implementation of the area(s) chosen: ".$questionElements."\n"
            ."Recommendations or references offered to the project's design/development process: ".$questionDesign."\n";

Lines 77 and 93 are the end of the variable and weren't properly ended.

Works fine for me now 🙂

lpatzek

The script doesn't run properly still. Is this is serverside/MYSQL database issue do you think? Also did I terminate the script properly, because when I fill out the forms and submit, I am left lingering at the following URL: http://www.greencenturyinstitute.org/volunteerform1.php
I noticed that MYSQL database killed a process, but I can't get more information on what it killed. I assume that something was submitted after all because something was killed. Is this a good assumption?

By the way the form is on:
http://www.greencenturyinstitute.org/volunteerform.htm

Perhaps I am not calling the script properly in HTML?

aspekt9

Make sure your tables and database is setup correctly with all the correct fields.

//if ($result)
    //echo mysql_affected_rows()." row inserted into the database effectively.";

//  CLOSE CONNECTION --->
mysql_close($connection);

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        }
    else{

        print "Sorry, but the form cannot be sent until the fields indicated are filled out completely - <br>\n";
        print "$error<br>\n";
        print "<br>\n";
        print "<br>\n";
        print "Please use your \"Back\" button to return to the form to correct the omissions.  Thank you.<br>\n";
    }

Do something with this as well, uncomment the if statement so you don't have extra } hanging around.

And when connecting to mysql try to use this:

mysql_connect("localhost", "user", "pass")or die("Cannot Connect to mysql");
mysql_select_db("db name")or die("Cannot select DB");

See if that helps you out.

lpatzek

Now everything is emailed successfully to both my email address and the submiter's email address as it should. There is, however, the following error message that pops up with the "Thanks for submitting" page:

Error in query:Table
'Volunteer.generalContact' doesn't exist

So I am guessing that I don't have the proper permissions for my Volunteer mySQL?

lpatzek

When my script passes the error check with flying colors, how do I send the web user to a thankyou.html rather than echoing a message "Thanks."

if($error==""){
// echo "Thanks for you interest! We will get back to you when a project comes up that would benefit from your help.";
sendto thankyouurl.htm;

aspekt9

For the redirect you can do it one of two ways:

echo '<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/thankyou.htm">';

or send it as an http header:

header("Location: http://www.yourdomain.com/thankyou.htm");

For the mysql error, your getting that because the table doesn't exist. Do you use a web-based administration panel for your mysql database such as phpmyadmin?
You need to create the tables to store the information in. Execute something like:

CREATE TABLE users (
  id mediumint(9) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  firstname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  lastname varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  email varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  telephone mediumint(11) NOT NULL,
  city varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  affiliation varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  website varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  questionSkillset mediumtext NOT NULL,
  questionElements mediumtext NOT NULL,
  questionDesign mediumtext NOT NULL,
  date timestamp(14) NOT NULL, 
  PRIMARY KEY  (id),
  UNIQUE (EMAIL)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

Another thing you should think about is protecting against sql injection

lpatzek

Thanks so much for the help! I now have a beautiful database and script.

aspekt9

Your welcome, good luck with future developments.