strip signature

zzz

I'm writing a simple form where a user will be able to send email online. I need to make sure the form is not sent is message field is left empty.

The problem is, a user can have a signature stored and inserted at the end of the message. I need to make sure I check if there's anything in the field besides the signature. So I was trying to strip signature, every time the form is attempting to submit in order not to keep adding additional signature at the bottom and then just add it again but it appears I'm doing something wrong. I get the signature OK but I loose the message.

$sign = '

----
My Signature

Some Name';

echo '
<textarea name=message>
'.preg_replace($sign, '', $_GET['message']) . $sign.'
</textarea>';

djjjozsi

Lets create a field to the users to store the signitures...

And after the form was sent, you could check is the message(OR what) not emty..

Or put to the signitures a field in the form.

that is the cleanest method.

zzz

Yes, the signature is already in db. I do not want to put it in a different field from the message. I think it makes sense to keep these together. I just put signature here as a var for demo purposes. If I can detect and strip signature on form page I'd be able to strip it also on validation side and see if there's anything else sent except the signature.

igorlopez

Am I understanding this correctly.
The User can have a signature which is stored in DB and when he fills out the message the signature is seen on the bottom of the text field.

Problem is then if the area where the signature is can be edited by the user.
If so you must most likely revert to some client side technique where you can monitor if changes are made to the signature so you what yo should search for in the form.

Anyway, your issue with loosing the Message was I not able to reproduce since I ran into problem with preg_replace.
My test however using regular string functions worked out ok in plain php

$message = "This is supposedly a message from the form text field with 
a signature on the bottom
looking like this:";
$signature = "---------------------
My Signature";

$TestString = $message . $signature;
echo substr($TestString, 0, strpos($TestString, $signature)) . $signature;

but when using a form construct the message is lost here as well.

echo '
<textarea name=message>
'.substr($_GET['message'], 0, strpos($_GET['message'], $sign)) . $sign.'
</textarea>';

It could very well be a chicken & egg type of problem since $GET['message'] is referring to the text area which we want to populate it with data from $GET['message']....
Sorry for not being of any help.