[RESOLVED] Validate Form Fields

[focus310]

Hello:

I'm trying to valide fields in a form which has many pages and each page is its own script. When I test my form by leaving the field blank, I should receive an error message stating Please enter your name. When I click Submit, I do not receive that message after leaving the field blank. I'm not sure if it's because I'm posting to another script. I can't understand why that should matter.

I included the code for the first and second page of the form. For easier reading, I am only showing one form field. In the second page of the form, I didn't include any of the form fields since page 2 shouldn't appear until all the fields on page 1 are filled in.

I hope someone can help me out. Thank you in advance.

This is the first page of the form.

<?php 

include('header_app.html');
if (isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
  $errors = array();

  //validate form data  

   if (empty($_POST['complete'])) {
    $errors[] = 'Please enter your name.';
   } else {
    $_SESSION['complete'] = escape_data($_POST['complete']);
   }

}

?>

<form action="app_admission_pg2.php" method="post">
<table class="apptable">
<tr><td class="a"><b>Application Completed by:</b></td><td class="b"><input type="text" name="complete" size="25" value="<?php if (isset($_SESSION['complete'])) echo $_SESSION['complete']; ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<input type="submit" name="btnSubmit" id="btnSubmit" value="Page 2 >>" class="btn" >
<input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="TRUE" />
</form>

===============================
This is the second page of the form.

<?php
include('header_app.html');
$_SESSION['complete']=$_POST['complete'];
<form action="app_admission_pg3.php"  method="post" >
<This section will have the next batch of questions.>
</form>

[donkru]

for this to work

include('header_app.html');
if (isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
  $errors = array();

  //validate form data  

   if (empty($_POST['complete'])) {
    $errors[] = 'Please enter your name.';
   } else {
    $_SESSION['complete'] = escape_data($_POST['complete']);
   }

} 

you need to put that in the second page. you are making the server do that before you even display the form and after you submit the form you are no parsing the script.. you need to put that script in the second page and then maybe redirect the user back to e first page. something like this.

<?php 

include('header_app.html');
?>
<form action="app_admission_pg2.php" method="post">
<table class="apptable">
<tr><td class="a"><b>Application Completed by:</b></td><td class="b"><input type="text" name="complete" size="25" value="<?php if (isset($_SESSION['complete'])) echo $_SESSION['complete']; ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<input type="submit" name="btnSubmit" id="btnSubmit" value="Page 2 >>" class="btn" >
<input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="TRUE" />
</form>

second page -----
<?php
include('header_app.html');
if (isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
  $errors = array();

  //validate form data  

   if (empty($_POST['complete'])) {
    $errors[] = 'Please enter your name.';
header( 'Location: http://www.yoursite.com/new_page.html' ) ;
   } else {
    $_SESSION['complete'] = escape_data($_POST['complete']);
   }

} 

$_SESSION['complete']=$_POST['complete'];
<form action="app_admission_pg3.php"  method="post" >
<This section will have the next batch of questions.>
</form>

hope that helps

[focus310]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I tried your suggestion and it still doesn't work.

I'm wondering whether to use JavaScript instead. I didn't think validating data in PHP was this tough.

[donkru]

ok, it worked for me like this on my server.
first page...

<form action="app_admission_pg2.php" method="post">
<table class="apptable">
<tr><td class="a"><b>Application Completed by:</b></td><td class="b"><input type="text" name="complete" size="25" value="<?php if (isset($_SESSION['complete'])) echo $_SESSION['complete']; ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<input type="submit" name="btnSubmit" id="btnSubmit" value="Page 2 >>" class="btn" >
<input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="TRUE" />
</form>

second page.
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
$errors = array();

//validate form data

if (empty($_POST['complete'])) {
header( 'refresh: 5; url=http://www.yoursite.com/new_page.html') ;
echo  'Please enter your name.';
} else {
$_SESSION['complete'] = $_POST['complete'];
}

}

$_SESSION['complete']=$_POST['complete']; 
echo $_POST['complete'];
echo '<p>'.$_SESSION['complete'];?>
<form action="app_admission_pg3.php" method="post" >
<This section will have the next batch of questions.>
</form>

[big_nerd]

donkru,

please use [ php] and [ /php] bbcode tags (without spaces) when posting code.

focus310,

On your first page you are checking for POST data. If that post data exists, then you set the session. In the same file you are posting to the second page, which sets the session as the name.

Additionally, I don't see any session_start(); command which is required when using sessions.

IF you are trying to get the person's name, and verify that it is there before continuing, try this (I checked it here and it worked, except for the include and your escape_data function)

named page1 and page2, sorry you'll have to fix up the form fields

page1 ------>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php 
//include('header_app.html');

error_reporting(E_ALL);

session_start();

$error = $_SESSION['error']; // will be boolean value
$error_msg = $_SESSION['errormsg'];

if ($error == true) {
	if (is_array($error_msg)) { // If error is an array, display all error messages
		foreach ($error_msg as $key => $msg) {
			echo "Error $key: $msg<br>";
		}
	} else { // If its just a variable, spit itout...
		echo "Error: $error_msg";
	}
}

?>

<form method="post" action="page2.php">
<table class="apptable">
<tr><td class="a"><b>Application Completed by:</b></td><td class="b"><input type="text" name="complete" size="25" value="<?php if (isset($_SESSION['complete'])) echo $_SESSION['complete']; ?>"></td></tr>
</table>
<input type="submit" name="btnSubmit" id="btnSubmit" value="Page 2 >>" class="btn" >
<input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="TRUE" />
</form>


</body>
</html>

And now for page 2

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php
include('header_app.html');
session_start();

$errors = array();

if (empty($_POST['complete'])) {
	$errors[] = 'Name is a required field, Please enter your name.';
	$_SESSION['error'] = true;
	$_SESSION['errormsg'] = $errors;
	header("Location: page1.php");
} else { // Display the 2nd form only if they have completed everything
	$_SESSION['complete'] = escape_data($_POST['complete']);
?>
You did it!
<form action="app_admission_pg3.php"  method="post" >

</form>	
<?php
}

?>
</body>
</html>

This validates that they wrote their name, if not it makes an error message and sends 'em back to page 1.

You can really modify this to do whatever you want, (validation wise).

edit {
I am having it display the array key (from the error messages) to "count" the errors, it will start at 0. Its not needed, but just something for fun.
}
If you have any questions, please let me know.

[focus310]

Hi,

Donkru,

This is my escape_data function

function escape_data ($data) {

// Address Magic Quotes.
if (ini_get('magic_quotes_gpc')) {
	$data = stripslashes($data);
}

// Check for mysql_real_escape_string() support.
if (function_exists('mysql_real_escape_string')) {
	global $dbc; // Need the connection.
	$data = mysql_real_escape_string (trim($data), $dbc);
} else {
	$data = mysql_escape_string (trim($data));
}

// Return the escaped value.	
return $data;

} // End of function.

=====
big_nerd,

I have the session_start() defined in my header_app.html. Then, the header_app.html is the first thing called at the beginning of each script.

I modified both my page1 and page2 scripts with your suggestions. When I run the script, I receive the following:

Notice: Undefined index: error in C:\Inetpub\fullfocus\AngelHouse\page1.php on line 8

Notice: Undefined index: errormsg in C:\Inetpub\fullfocus\AngelHouse\page1.php on line 9

I did change my variables in the code to reflect my variable names.

This is how the top of my page1 script looks now (the session is started in the header include file):

<?php 


include('header_app.html');
error_reporting(E_ALL);  


$error = $_SESSION['error']; // will be boolean value 
$error_msg = $_SESSION['errormsg']; 

if ($error == true) { 
    if (is_array($error_msg)) { // If error is an array, display all error messages 
        foreach ($error_msg as $key => $msg) { 
            echo "Error $key: $msg<br>"; 
        } 
    } else { // If its just a variable, spit itout... 
        echo "Error: $error_msg"; 
    } 
} 

?>

Now, the page 2 script revised:

<?php 
include('header_app.html'); 

$errors = array(); 

if (empty($_POST['complete'])) { 
    $errors[] = 'Name is a required field, Please enter your name.'; 
    $_SESSION['error'] = true; 
    $_SESSION['errormsg'] = $errors; 
    header("Location: page1.php"); 
} else { // Display the 2nd form only if they have completed everything 
    $_SESSION['complete'] = escape_data($_POST['complete']); 
?>

The escape_data function is posted at the top of the post.
Thank you for all the help.

[big_nerd]

Oh, simply remove the line:

error_reporting(E_ALL)

Sorry for the confusion.