[RESOLVED] PHP email form.

[norami]

I'm really new to PHP. I would like to try to figure this out on my own, but I need this PHP email form up and running as soon as I can get it. I've been reading information here: http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_mail.asp

Only problem is, it's not working, at all. Here's my PHP script:

<?php
function spamcheck($field)
  {
  //filter_var() sanitizes the e-mail
  //address using FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL
  $field=filter_var($field, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

  //filter_var() validates the e-mail
  //address using FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
  if(filter_var($field, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))
    {
    return TRUE;
    }
  else
    {
    return FALSE;
    }
  }

if (isset($_REQUEST['email']))
  {//if "email" is filled out, proceed

  //check if the email address is invalid
  $mailcheck = spamcheck($_REQUEST['email']);
  if ($mailcheck==FALSE)
    {
    echo "Invalid input";
    }
  else
    {//send email
    $email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
    $subject = $_REQUEST['subject'] ;
    $message = $_REQUEST['message'] ;
    mail("[e-mail]", "Subject: $subject",
    $message, "From: $email" );
    echo "Thank you for using our mail form";
    }
  }
else
  {
echo "<form method='post' action='mailform.php'>
<table>
<tr><td align="right"><b>Email:</b></td> <td><input name='email' type='text' /></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right"><b>Subject:</b></td> <td><input name='subject' type='text' /></td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><b>Message:</b></td> <td><textarea name='message' rows='15' cols='40'></textarea></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td><input type='submit' /></td></tr>
</table>
</form>";
  }
?>

That is what is embedded in my contact page. First question, what is the 'mailform.php' supposed to look like?

Whenever you hit submit, it does nothing. Doesn't even send me to a 404 page saying 'mailform.php' doesn't exist.

I've been looking around in forums, and reading tutorials, but everything I read, I get more confused. I have no clue how to do this. If anyone knows of a good tutorial, or cheat sheet site, or something, that would be awesome. I'm so flustered, and have been trying to figure this out for a few hours now.

Another problem I'm having when the form displays on my site. I have a feeling that php isn't configured correctly. Here's a snapshot. The formatting looks like I want it to, but the last few characters of the php are showing up ("; } ?>). I'm not sure why that is.

[rincewind456]

First question, what is the 'mailform.php' supposed to look like?

I think you'll find that this script is mailform.php, it posts to itself to process the form field, Lines 41-48 display the form and lines 24-38 process it and send the mail.

Another problem I'm having when the form displays on my site. I have a feeling that php isn't configured correctly. Here's a snapshot. The formatting looks like I want it to, but the last few characters of the php are showing up ("; } ?>). I'm not sure why that is.

That's because you have unescaped double quotes within the echo that displays the form , the align attributes should either be escaped, or changed to single quotes.

Apart from that, providing that your server has a mailserver installed then this should work.

[halojoy]

Your mailscript look pretty good. It maybe works.

Possibly you should check for empty fields: email, subject, message
If some field is [man]empty[/man] tell go back and fill in all fields.
I do not know if that spamcheck consider empty field FALSE.

Here is basically how you can do this.

$error = ''; //empty string
$subject = trim($_POST['subject']);// trim away any leading/trailing spaces
if(empty($subject)){
    $error = "Please fill in one Subject";
}

if(!$error){ //if error is empty
    //send mail
}else{
    //echo form
    //echo $error
}

When displaying HTML using php echo
we often use single quotes around string
and doublequotes inside the string.
Because it works very good. For the most

echo '<form method="post" action="mailform.php">';

Your form

echo '<form method="post" action="mailform.php">
<table>
<tr><td align="right"><b>Email:</b></td> <td><input name="email" type="text" /></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right"><b>Subject:</b></td> <td><input name="subject" type="text" /></td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><b>Message:</b></td> <td><textarea name="message" rows="15" cols="40"></textarea></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td><input type="submit" /></td></tr>
</table>
</form>';

[norami]

rincewind, thanks so much. It all makes a whole lot more sense. I should've realised the quotation mistake since I come over from Perl, but I was so focused on other things to realise it was that small of a mishap.

Everything is working now, though. I appreciate it again!