Adding error checking to forms

pad_it

Hey Everyone,

I am just about finishing up on a contact page with all the fields working (Name, address, phone number and message) and a submit button.

What I need is the code for submitting an error when the fields are not typed in.

I have pasted the code below. But does not seem to work
Have I made this code to complicated or is there an easier way?

<!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>Combined Feedback Form</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php
	$username = $_POST['username'];
	$useraddr = $_POST['useraddr'];
	$phoneno = $_POST['phoneno'];
	$comments = $_POST['comments'];
	$sent = $_POST['sent']

   $form ="<form action=\"$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']\"method=\"post\">";
$form.="Name:<input type=\"text\" name=\"username\"";
$form.="size=\"30\"value=\"$username\" > <br> <br>
$form.="Email:<input type=\"text\" name=\"useraddr\"";
$form.="size=\"30\"value=\"$useraddr\" > <br> <br>	$form.="Phone Number:<input type=\"numbers\" name=\"phoneno\"";
$form.="size=\"30\"value=\"$phoneno\" > <br> <br>
$form.="value=\"Send Form\"></form>";

if($sent)
{ $valid=true;

	if( !$username)
	{ $errmsg.="Enter your name:<br>"; $valid=false; }

	if( !$useraddr)
	{ $errmsg.="Enter email address:<br>"; $valid=false; }

	if( !$phoneno)
	{ $errmsg.="Enter your phone number:<br>"; $valid=false; }
}

if( $valid !=true ){echo( $errmsg . $form ); }
else
{	$to = "info@globeunited.org";
    $re = "Feedback form" $username";
	$msg = $comments;
	$headers = "From: $useraddr \r\n";
	if( mail( $to, $re, $msg, $headers ))
	{ echo("Thanks for your comments, $username");}
}
?>
</body></html>

if( $useraddr )
{ $errmsg .="Enter email address:<br>"; $valid = false }
else
{
	$useaddr = trim( $useaddr );

	$_name = "/^[-!$%&\'*+\\.\/0-9=?A-Z^_{|}]+";
	$_host = "([-0-9A-Z])+\.)+";
	$_tlds = "([-0-9A-Z] {2,4}$/i";

	if( !preg_match($_name."@".$_host.$_tlds,$useraddr) )
	{
	 $errmsg .= "Email address has incorrect format!<br>";
	 $valid = false; }
}

I would appreciate any help!
Thanks

Piranha

There is something wrong with the quotes, look at the color coding to see where it is. You have to fix this first, then you can go on to solve the problem you need help with.

You first set $username, then you check if it is true (something else than 0 or false) with !$username. It will always return true in your example. The best thing would probably be to check the post variables directly, something like this:

if (empty($_POST['username']) || empty($_POST['nextfield']) {
    echo "You need to set everything.";
} else {
    $username = $_POST['username'];
    // Other variables as well
    // Do whatever you want to do with the variables
}

pad_it

Thanks for the reply.

I have checked the coding again and it seems that there is an error which is

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /homepages/7/d189163962/htdocs/GUTest/combined.php on line 16

from this line in the code

$form ="<form action=\"$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']\"method=\"post\">";

I have looked at the code that you have gave me and placed it in with a few amendments, but it stil dosent work.

Not to sure if I placed it in right.

<body>
<?php
	$username = $_POST['username'];
	$useraddr = $_POST['useraddr'];
	$phoneno = $_POST['phoneno'];
	$comments = $_POST['comments'];
	$sent = $_POST['sent']

$form ="<form action=<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?> method=\"POST\">"; 
$form.="Name:<input type=\"text\" name=\"username\"";
$form.=" size=\"30\" value=\"$username\" > <br> <br>";
$form.="Email:<input type=\"text\" name=\"useraddr\"";
$form.=" size=\"30\" value=\"$useraddr\" > <br> <br>";	
$form.="Phone Number:<input type=\" numbers\" name=\"phoneno\"";
$form.=" size=\"30\"value=\"$phoneno\" > <br> <br>";
$form.="value=\"Send Form\"></form>";

if($sent)
{ $valid=true;

	if( !$username)
	{ $errmsg.="Enter your name:<br>"; $valid=false; }

	if( !$useraddr)
	{ $errmsg.="Enter email address:<br>"; $valid=false; }

	if( !$phoneno)
	{ $errmsg.="Enter your phone number:<br>"; $valid=false; }
}

if (empty($_POST['username']) || empty($_POST['useraddr']) || empty($_POST['phoneno']){ 
    echo "You need to set everything."; 
} else { 
    $username = $_POST['username'];
	$useraddr = $_POST['useraddr'];
	$phoneno = $_POST['phoneno'];
	$comments = $_POST['comments'];
	$sent = $_POST['sent'] 

{	$to = "info@globeunited.org";
    $re = "Feedback form" $username";
	$msg = $comments;
	$headers = "From: $useraddr \r\n";
	if( mail( $to, $re, $msg, $headers ))
	{ echo("Thanks for your comments, $username");}
}
?>
</body></html>

Piranha

    $form ="<form action=<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?> method=\"POST\">";

The row above is what you posted and have problem with. First thing is that you already are using php, so it will mess it up to set a new php block. Just remove the start and stop of the php block. Second thing is how arrays parses in strings. When using associative arrays in strings you should not use ' signs around the name. Many persons (including myself) don't let arrays parse automatically, we find it easier to concatenate the strings like below:

$string['something'] = "Hello";
echo "The string says " . $string['something'];

By the way, you haven't cleared up the quotes in the bottom om the code. To see these kind of things easier it is good to use a color coded editor.