[RESOLVED] better form validation

[sheriff432]

I am a PHP newbie. My employer wants an email newsletter signup on our website. I built the form, but it is not validating. I got the script from my server, Host Gator. The script works for posting, but if you leave off the name or email, it just takes you to a blank white page.

I've never seen a form validated with the unset($_GET['do']);

here is the script:

<?php 
switch (@$_GET['do']) 
{ 

case "send": 

  $fname = $_POST['fname']; 
  $lname = $_POST['lname']; 
  $femail = $_POST['femail']; 
  $fsendmail = $_POST['fsendmail']; 
  $secretinfo = $_POST['info']; 

if (!preg_match("/\S+/",$fname)) 
{ 
  unset($_GET['do']); 
  $message = "First Name required. Please try again."; 
  break; 
} 
if (!preg_match("/\S+/",$lname)) 
{ 
  unset($_GET['do']); 
  $message = "Last Name required. Please try again."; 
  break; 
} 
if (!preg_match("/^\S+@[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,6}$/",$femail)) 
{ 
  unset($_GET['do']); 
  $message = "Primary Email Address is incorrect. Please try again."; 
  break; 
} 


if ($secretinfo == "") 
{ 
   $myemail = "[e-mail]"; 
   $emess = "First Name: ".$fname."\n"; 
   $emess.= "Last Name: ".$lname."\n"; 
   $emess.= "Email: ".$femail."\n"; 
   $emess.= "Comments: ".$fsendmail; 
   $ehead = "From: ".$femail."\r\n"; 
   $subj = "An Email from ".$fname." ".$lname."!"; 
   $mailsend=mail("$myemail","$subj","$emess","$ehead"); 
   $message = "Email was sent."; 
} 

   unset($_GET['do']); 
   header("Location: thankyounews.html"); 
 break; 

default: break; 
} 
?> 

The form works, but if name or email is omitted, it goes to blank page instead of error notification.

Here is the html:

  <form action="email_form.php?do=send" method="POST">
	 <p>* Required fields</p>       

<?php
  if($message) echo '<p style="color: #FF0000;">'.$message.'</p>';
  ?>
  <table width="400" border="0">
  <tr>
    <td align="right">* First Name:</td>
    <td><input type="text" name="fname" size="30" value="<?php echo @$fname ?>" /></td>
    </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="right">* Last Name:</td>
    <td><input type="text" name="lname" size="30" value="<?php echo @$lname ?>" /></td>
    </tr>
 <tr>
    <td align="right">* Primary Email:</td>
    <td><input type="text" name="femail" size="30" value="<?php echo @$femail ?>" /></td>
    </tr>
 <tr>
   <td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
   <td>&nbsp;</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
   <td ><TEXTAREA name="fsendmail" ROWS="6" COLS="40"><?php if($fsendmail) echo $fsendmail;
   ?></TEXTAREA></td>
  <tr>
    <td align="right"><input type="submit" value="Send Now"  />
	</td>
 </tr>
</table>
</form>

The form works, but it does not validate. Is there a better way to make this work? I tried and echo after the switch, but don't know enough to make it work.

Thanks,

Helen

[Derokorian]

http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10381253 reposting the exact same question that you marked resolved? Not looked highly upon, especially since you already admitted that echoing $message is all you need to do!

[sheriff432]

I tried the echo and could not get it to work. I resolved the other because I only was told why it would not work but not how to fix it. I posted here to see if there was a better way to resolve this. In reading the other posts I see other coding for isset, but I don't know how to use it.

I apologize for reposting, but I was doing it because I'm too new to understand yet how to use echo correctly. I will do more research. Again, sorry for the repost.