checkboxes

[paldo]

I have a simple small form with radio buttons. The visitor selects, his selection is send to my mail. This work fine with radio button where only one selection is possible. I can't develop the form with checkboxes, where more selections are possible. Can someone help me ?

<form action="lesson.php" method="post">
<p>I want to participate to: </p>
<p>
  <input type="radio" name="lesson" value="lesson1">lesson 1</p>
<p>
  <input type="radio" name="lesson" value="lesson2">lesson 2</p>
<p>
  <input type="radio" name="lesson" value="lesson3">lesson 3</p>
<p>name</p>
    <input type="text" name="name">
</p>


  <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="submit">
</form>

And here the php script:

<?php
$lesson  = $HTTP_POST_VARS['lesson'];
$name = $HTTP_POST_VARS['name'];

$sendto = "[e-mail]";
$message .="
name= $name
lesson= $lesson";

mail($sendto,'lesson',$message) ;
?>

[bradgrafelman]

Can you show us what you tried?

Also, note that the $HTTP*VARS have been deprecated for some time now (they're disabled by default, and possibly even removed from future versions of PHP - can't remember offhand). You should instead be using the arrays listed here: [man]reserved.variables[/man].

[halojoy]

You can have yes and no for each lession

 Lession 1   Yes  No
Lession 2 Yes No
Lession 3 Yes No 

In my code here, I have set each lession as checked 'no', for default.
Because it is good to get some value returned. Even if they do not check anything.

<form method="post">
<div>
	<span class="question">Lession 1</span>
	<span class="answers">
	<input type="radio" name="less1" value="yes"><label>Yes</label>
	<input type="radio" name="less1" value="no" checked="checked"><label>No</label></span>
</div>
<div>
	<span class="question">Lession 2</span>
	<span class="answers">
	<input type="radio" name="less2" value="yes"><label>Yes</label>
	<input type="radio" name="less2" value="no" checked="checked"><label>No</label></span>
</div>
<div>
	<span class="question">Lession 3</span>
	<span class="answers">
	<input type="radio" name="less3" value="yes"><label>Yes</label>
	<input type="radio" name="less3" value="no" checked="checked"><label>No</label></span>
</div>

<input type="submit">
</form>
<?php

//see the values
echo '<pre>'; var_export($_POST); echo '<br />';

// get what lessions were checked
if(isset($_POST['less1'])){
	$lessons = '';
	if($_POST['less1'] == 'yes')
		$lessons .= 'lession1, ';
	if($_POST['less2'] == 'yes')
		$lessons .= 'lession2, ';
	if($_POST['less3'] == 'yes')
		$lessons .= 'lession3, ';
	$lessons = rtrim($lessons, ', ');
	if(empty($lessons))
		$lessons = 'No lessons';
	echo $lessons;
}
?>

[bradgrafelman]

Also note that groups of similar data like that could be more easily parsed in an array:

<form method="post"> 
<div> 
    <span class="question">Lession 1</span> 
    <span class="answers"> 
    <input type="radio" name="less[1]" value="yes"><label>Yes</label> 
    <input type="radio" name="less[1]" value="no" checked="checked"><label>No</label></span> 
</div> 
<div> 
    <span class="question">Lession 2</span> 
    <span class="answers"> 
    <input type="radio" name="less[2]" value="yes"><label>Yes</label> 
    <input type="radio" name="less[2]" value="no" checked="checked"><label>No</label></span> 
</div> 
<div> 
    <span class="question">Lession 3</span> 
    <span class="answers"> 
    <input type="radio" name="less[3]" value="yes"><label>Yes</label> 
    <input type="radio" name="less[3]" value="no" checked="checked"><label>No</label></span> 
</div> 

<input type="submit"> 
</form> 
<?php 

//see the values 
echo '<pre>'; var_export($_POST); echo '<br />'; 

// get what lessions were checked 
if(isset($_POST['less']) && is_array($_POST['less'])){
    $lessons = '';

foreach($_POST['less'] as $num => $value)
    if($value == 'yes')
      $lessons .= "lesson$num, ";

$lessons = rtrim($lessons, ', ');
if(empty($lessons)) 
    $lessons = 'No lessons'; 
echo $lessons; 
} 

[paldo]

Is there a reason why you kept radio buttons?
For a better presentation I was thinking about checkboxes where an unchecked box is by default 'no'. How would the script look like?

Thank you

[paldo]

Thank you. I have changed the form to the following:

<form action="lesson1.php" method="post">
<div>
<span class="question">Lession 1</span>
<span class="answers">
<input type="radio" name="less1" value="yes"><label></label>
</div>
<div>
<span class="question">Lession 2</span>
<span class="answers">
<input type="radio" name="less2" value="yes"><label></label>

</div>
<div>
<span class="question">Lession 3</span>
<span class="answers">
<input type="radio" name="less3" value="yes"><label></label>
<p>your name:
<input type="text" name="name" />
</p>
</div>

<input type="submit">
</form>

<?php

$lessons = $POST['less1'];
$lessons = $POST['less2'];
$lessons = $POST['less3'];
$name = $POST['name'];

// get what lessions were checked
if(isset($POST['less1'])){
$lessons = '';
if($POST['less1'] == 'yes')
$lessons .= 'lesson1, ';
if($POST['less2'] == 'yes')
$lessons .= 'lesson2, ';
if($POST['less3'] == 'yes')
$lessons .= 'lesson3, ';
$lessons = rtrim($lessons, ', ');
if(empty($lessons))
$lessons = 'No lessons';
echo $lessons;
}

$sendto = "[e-mail]";
$message .="

name= $name
lesson= $lessons";

mail($sendto,'lesson',$message) ;

?>

The problem is that if a check a radio button I can't uncheck it. How to solve this problem? Any hints?

[bradgrafelman]

paldo wrote:

How to solve this problem?

Use checkboxes instead.

paldo wrote:

Is there a reason why you kept radio buttons?

With checkboxes, if a user doesn't select the box, then no value is submitted. If you needed an explicit yes/no answer for each lesson that was shown, you'd want to use radio buttons. If you simply want to know which ones were selected, then checkboxes would be fine.

[paldo]

Thanks for your help.

I have prepared a small php script with checkboxes that seems to work but I would like to ask your opinion. I'm sure there are few thinks to improve.

<body>

<FORM NAME ="form1" METHOD ="POST" ACTION ="checkboxtest.php">

<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='less1' value ="lesson1" >lesson1
<P>
<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='less2' value="lesson2" >lesson2
<P>
<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='less3' value="lesson3" >lesson3
<P>
<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='less4' value="lesson4" >lesson4
<P>
<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='less5' value="php" >Lesson5
 <p>your name:
      <input type="text" name="name" />
  </p>
<P>


<INPUT TYPE = "Submit" Name = "Submit1" VALUE = "Choose your lessons">
</FORM>

</body>

<?PHP
$less1 = 'unchecked';
$less2 = 'unchecked';
$less3 = 'unchecked';
$less4 = 'unchecked';
$less5 = 'unchecked';

$less1  = $_POST['less1'];
$less2  = $_POST['less2'];
$less3  = $_POST['less3'];
$less4  = $_POST['less4'];
$less5  = $_POST['less5'];
$name   = $_POST['name'];

if (isset($_POST['Submit1'])) {

if (isset($_POST['less1'])) {
$less1 = $_POST['lesson1'];

if ($less1  = 'lesson1') {
$less1 = 'lesson1, ';
print $less1;
}
}

if (isset($_POST['less2'])) {
$less2 = $_POST['lesson2'];

if ($less2  = 'lesson2') {
$less2 = 'lesson2, ';
print $less2;
}
}

if (isset($_POST['less3'])) {
$less3 = $_POST['less3'];

if ($less3  = 'lesson3') {
$less3 = 'lesson3, ';
print $less3;
}
}

if (isset($_POST['less4'])) {
$less4 = $_POST['less4'];

if ($less4  = 'lesson4') {
$less4 = 'lesson4, ';
print $less4;
}
}

if (isset($_POST['less5'])) {
$less5 = $_POST['less5'];

if ($less5  = 'lesson5') {
$less5 = 'lesson5, ';
print $less5;

}
}
}

$sendto = "[e-mail]";
$message .="

name= $name
lessons= $less1 $less2 $less3 $less4 $less5";

mail($sendto,'lessons',$message) ;
?>

Can I leave the script like that? Thank you

[bradgrafelman]

paldo wrote:

Can I leave the script like that?

Erm... not really. Here are some comments:

1. For starters, I'd recommend you use valid HTML. Use a validator to check your syntax (you have a lot of errors :p).

2. What is the purpose of the value of the checkboxes? You have the checkboxes named "less[1-5]", yet the values for the first four lessons are "lesson[1-4]" and then simply "php" for lesson 5. Furthermore, in your PHP code, you assume lesson 5's value to be "lesson5", not "php".

3. $less1 = 'unchecked'; 
   $less2 = 'unchecked'; 
   $less3 = 'unchecked'; 
   $less4 = 'unchecked'; 
   $less5 = 'unchecked'; 

   What's the purpose of this code? Right now, you overwrite those variables' values in the very next section of code.

4. $less1  = $_POST['less1']; 
   $less2  = $_POST['less2']; 
   $less3  = $_POST['less3']; 
   $less4  = $_POST['less4']; 
   $less5  = $_POST['less5']; 
   $name   = $_POST['name']; 

   Referencing external data without first checking that it exists causes an E_NOTICE error message. Instead, you should first check that these variables exists using [man]isset/man or [man]empty/man before referencing them.

5. if ($less1  = 'lesson1') { 

   You're using the wrong operator in your if() statements. The single equal sign is an assignment operator, thus all of your if() statements are changing the value of the variables rather than comparing them. For the latter, you must use a comparison operator, such as the double equal sign ("=="). See this manual page for more information: [man]operators[/man].

6. $less1 = $_POST['lesson1']; 

   There's no such form entity called "lesson1" in your HTML form.

7. Speaking of the above code, you should indent your code so that it's easier to read. For example, this:

   if (isset($_POST['less1'])) { 
   $less1 = $_POST['lesson1']; 
   
   if ($less1  = 'lesson1') { 
   $less1 = 'lesson1, '; 
   print $less1; 
   } 
   }

   should instead be written like this:

   if (isset($_POST['less1'])) { 
     $less1 = $_POST['lesson1']; 
   
     if ($less1  = 'lesson1') { 
       $less1 = 'lesson1, '; 
       print $less1; 
     } 
   }

8. Looking at the content of the message you send, it looks like the values of the checkboxes are meaningless, and you simply want to know which checkboxes were checked. Again, you could simplify your code using arrays.

   If you used arrays, where the array index is the lesson number (e.g. the checkboxes name would be lesson[3] for lesson #3), then you could reduce all of your if() statements into this:

   if(isset($_POST['lesson']) && is_array($_POST['lesson']))
       $lessons = implode(', ', $_POST['lesson']);
   else
       $lessons = "No lessons selected";

9. PHP's mail() function is rather pitiful compared to 3rd party classes such as PHPMailer, Pear's mail packages, etc. etc. As it stands right now, I wouldn't be surprised if your messages got automatically discarded as spam. If you want to send messages using PHP's mail() function, look into extra e-mail headers you can add (e.g. Reply-To, MIME-Version, Content-Type, etc.) to make the message seem less like spam.

[paldo]

Thank you Brad. I will use array. Now, how do I parse the value from the form to the php script?
As I understand the first key is 0, then 1....
Then I have to give to each key a value: key 0= lesson1, key 1=lesson 2
Am I right? But how? Previously we had:

$lesson1 = $POST['lesson1'];
$lesson2 = $POST['lesson2'];
$lesson3 = $_POST['lesson3'];

<?PHP

if(isset($_POST['lesson']) && is_array($_POST['lesson'])) 
    $lessons = implode(', ', $_POST['lesson']); 
else 
    $lessons = "No lessons selected"; 

$to = "[e-mail]";
$subject = "lessons";
$name = $_POST['name'];
$choice = "lesson: $lessons  ";

$body = "From: $name\n $choice";

mail($to, $subject, $body);

echo "thank you ";

?>

<body>

<FORM NAME ="form1" METHOD ="POST" ACTION ="checkboxforum1.php">

<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='lesson[]' value="lesson1" >lesson1<P>
<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='lesson[]' value="lesson2" >lesson2<P>
<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='lesson[]' value="lesson3" >lesson3<P>

 your name: <input type="text" name="name" />

<INPUT TYPE = "Submit" Name = "Submit" VALUE = "Choose your lessons">
</FORM>


</body>

I will fix the mail function later.

[bradgrafelman]

paldo wrote:

Then I have to give to each key a value: key 0= lesson1, key 1=lesson 2

You've already done that in the form:

<Input type = 'Checkbox' Name ='lesson[]' value="lesson1" >

Thus, if you checked the 1st and 3rd checkboxes in your example code above, $_POST['lesson'] would be an array of two values - "lesson1" and "lesson3".

[paldo]

Dear Brad

I did not follow your advise, I choose to use a foreach function.
Neverless I would like to know what you think and if something in the script has to be changed or add.

<body>
<form method="POST" action="mailer.php">
Name:
<input type="text" name="name" size="19"><br>
<br>
E-Mail:
<input type="text" name="email" size="19"><br>
<br>

<input type="checkbox" name="lesson[]" value="lesson1"> lesson1<br>
<input type="checkbox" name="lesson[]" value="lesson2"> lesson2<br>
<input type="checkbox" name="lesson[]" value="lesson3"> lesson3<br>
<br>
Message:<br>
<textarea rows="9" name="message" cols="30"></textarea><br>
<br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit">
</form>


</body>

<?php


if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {

$to = "[e-mail]";
$subject = "Lessons order";
$name_field = $_POST['name'];
$email_field = $_POST['email'];
$message = $_POST['message'];

foreach($_POST['lesson'] as $value) {
$lesson_msg .= "chosen lesson: $value\n";
}
$headers = 'From: '.$name_field.' <'.$email_field.'>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Bcc: [e-mail]' . "\r\n";

$body = "From: $name_field\n E-Mail: $email_field\n Message:\n $message\n $lesson_msg";

echo "Data has been submitted to $to!";
mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);

} else {
echo "something went wrong. Please call 0xx/1234567!";
}
?>

Thank you