[RESOLVED] PHP form validation

cybastud

I need some help with the following php. Everything seems to be fine but the form is not displaying any error messages when I leave the spaces blank and submit. I need to check for missing information

<?php
error_reporting(0); // turn error messages off
$errors_array = array();

if(isset($_REQUEST["form_already_seen"])){
	check_data();
	if(count($errors_array != 0)){
		show_errors();
		show_form();
		}
		else{
			handle_data();
			}
	}
	else {
		show_form();
		}

function show_form()
{
	$title - isset($_REQUEST["title"]) ? $_REQUEST["title"] : "";
	$first_name - isset($_REQUEST["name"]) ? $_REQUEST["name"] : "";
	$last_name - isset($_REQUEST["surname"]) ? $_REQUEST["surname"] : "";
	$st_address - isset($_REQUEST["address"]) ? $_REQUEST["address"] : "";
	$agee - isset($_REQUEST["age"]) ? $_REQUEST["age"] : "";

echo "<form Method='POST' ACTION='validation.php'>";
echo "<h3 align='center'>Register</h3>";
echo "<table width='250' border='2' align='center'>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Title :</td><td><input name='title' type='text' value'", $title, "' maxlength='4' /></td>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Name :</td><td><input name='name' type='text' value'", $name, "' maxlength='20' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Surname :</td><td><input name='surname' type='text' value'", $surname, "' maxlenght='20' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Address :</td><td><input name='address' type='text' value'", $address, "' maxlength ='50' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Age :</td><td><input name='age' type='text'  value'", $age, "' maxlength ='2' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>";
echo "<p align='center'>";
echo "<input type='submit' name='validate' value='Validate' />";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='form_already_seen' value='already_seen' />";
echo "</p>";
echo "</form>";
}

function check_data()
{
	global $error_array;
	if($_REQUEST["title"] == ""){
		$error_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Title</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["name"] == ""){
		$error_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Name</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["surname"] == ""){
		$error_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Surname</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["address"] == ""){
		$error_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Address</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["age"] == ""){
		$error_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Age</font>";		
	}	

}

function show_errors()
{
	global $errors_array;

foreach ($errors_array as $err){
	echo $err, "<br>";		
	}
}

function handle_data()
{
	echo "Thanks, all details inserted correctly!";	
}

?>

planetphp

you have mismatched your variable names.

You have $errors_array and $error_array

cybastud

Thanks, let me test that

bradgrafelman

You've also used the wrong operator repeatedly here:

    $title - isset($_REQUEST["title"]) ? $_REQUEST["title"] : ""; 
    $first_name - isset($_REQUEST["name"]) ? $_REQUEST["name"] : ""; 
    $last_name - isset($_REQUEST["surname"]) ? $_REQUEST["surname"] : ""; 
    $st_address - isset($_REQUEST["address"]) ? $_REQUEST["address"] : ""; 
    $agee - isset($_REQUEST["age"]) ? $_REQUEST["age"] : "";

I'm assuming you meant to use an assignment operator rather than the subtraction operator in each of those statements.

Also note that you should use something like [man]htmlentities/man (with the ENT_QUOTES option, since you're using single quotes in your HTML) on the user-supplied data before you echo it into your HTML; otherwise, certain characters in the input could cause invalid HTML markup problems.

cybastud

ok, I've made the necessary changes and its working except that when I enter in for example the "Title" and leave everything else blank, i get the appropriate error, however it does not keep the title I entered in the title field, it removes it. I need to keep the data the user already typed in and just ask for the missing data, preventing the user from re-entering everything...?

cybastud

Also the handle_data() function is not working, after submitting all the required info it does not thank the user

bradgrafelman

Can you show us a fresh copy of what your code looks like now?

cybastud

here you go

<?php
error_reporting(0); // turn error messages off
$errors_array = array();

if(isset($_REQUEST["form_already_seen"])){
	check_data();
	if(count($errors_array != 0)){
		show_errors();
		show_form();
		}
		else{
			handle_data();
			}
	}
	else {
		show_form();
		}

function show_form()
{
	$title = isset($_REQUEST["title"]) ? $_REQUEST["title"] : "";
	$first_name = isset($_REQUEST["name"]) ? $_REQUEST["name"] : "";
	$last_name = isset($_REQUEST["surname"]) ? $_REQUEST["surname"] : "";
	$st_address = isset($_REQUEST["address"]) ? $_REQUEST["address"] : "";
	$agee = isset($_REQUEST["age"]) ? $_REQUEST["age"] : "";

echo "<form Method='POST' ACTION='validation.php'>";
echo "<h3 align='center'>Register</h3>";
echo "<table width='250' border='2' align='center'>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Title :</td><td><input name='title' type='text' value'", $title, "' maxlength='4' /></td>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Name :</td><td><input name='name' type='text' value'", $name, "' maxlength='20' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Surname :</td><td><input name='surname' type='text' value'", $surname, "' maxlenght='20' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Address :</td><td><input name='address' type='text' value'", $address, "' maxlength ='50' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Age :</td><td><input name='age' type='text'  value'", $age, "' maxlength ='2' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>";
echo "<p align='center'>";
echo "<input type='submit' name='validate' value='Validate' />";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='form_already_seen' value='already_seen' />";
echo "</p>";
echo "</form>";
}

function check_data()
{
	global $errors_array;
	if($_REQUEST["title"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red' align='center'>Please enter your Title</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["name"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Name</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["surname"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Surname</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["address"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Address</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["age"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Age</font>";		
	}	

}

function show_errors()
{
	global $errors_array;

foreach ($errors_array as $err){
	echo $err, "<br>";		
	}
}

function handle_data()
{
	echo "Thanks, all details inserted correctly!";	
}

?>

Also this is more of an HTML issue but Im having trouble centering the table for the user input, the Heading Register and the Validate button are centered but my table still seems to go to the left even though I have this echo "<table width='250' border='2' align='center'>";

Derokorian

    echo "<td>Title :</td><td><input name='title' type='text' value'", $title, "' maxlength='4' /></td>";

I do believe you need an equal sign in there in order to assign a value to an attribute.

bradgrafelman

Derokorian;11000463 wrote:
I do believe you need an equal sign in there in order to assign a value to an attribute.

Agreed - same goes for all other fields as well. After you fix that, you might want to check the rest of the HTML to see if it's valid.

EDIT:

cybastud wrote:
Im having trouble centering the table for the user input

That's probably a good thing - maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't be using tables for layout purposes and instead only use them to display tabular data. (In other words: the 1990's called and they're demanding that you give them back their terrible misuse of HTML markup!)

cybastud

Derokorian;11000463 wrote:
    echo "<td>Title :</td><td><input name='title' type='text' value'", $title, "' maxlength='4' /></td>"; 
I do believe you need an equal sign in there in order to assign a value to an attribute.

Thanks, its working!

However if I insert all the information correctly my handle_data() function does not thank the user for inserting the data...any ideas?

<?php
error_reporting(0); // turn error messages off
$errors_array = array();

if(isset($_REQUEST["form_already_seen"])){
	check_data();
	if(count($errors_array != 0)){
		show_errors();
		show_form();
		}
		else{
			handle_data();
			}
	}
	else {
		show_form();
		}

function show_form()
{
	$title = isset($_REQUEST["title"]) ? $_REQUEST["title"] : "";
	$first_name = isset($_REQUEST["name"]) ? $_REQUEST["name"] : "";
	$last_name = isset($_REQUEST["surname"]) ? $_REQUEST["surname"] : "";
	$st_address = isset($_REQUEST["address"]) ? $_REQUEST["address"] : "";
	$agee = isset($_REQUEST["age"]) ? $_REQUEST["age"] : "";

echo "<form Method='POST' ACTION='validation.php'>";
echo "<h3 align='center'>Register</h3>";
echo "<table width='250' border='2' align='center'>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Title :</td><td><input name='title' type='text' value='", $title, "' maxlength='4' /></td>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Name :</td><td><input name='name' type='text' value='", $first_name, "' maxlength='20' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Surname :</td><td><input name='surname' type='text' value='", $last_name, "' maxlenght='20' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Address :</td><td><input name='address' type='text' value='", $st_address, "' maxlength ='50' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>Age :</td><td><input name='age' type='text'  value='", $agee, "' maxlength ='2' /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "</table>";
echo "<p align='center'>";
echo "<input type='submit' name='validate' value='Validate' />";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='form_already_seen' value='already_seen' />";
echo "</p>";
echo "</form>";
}

function check_data()
{
	global $errors_array;
	if($_REQUEST["title"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red' align='center'>Please enter your Title</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["name"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Name</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["surname"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Surname</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["address"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Address</font>";		
	}
	if($_REQUEST["age"] == ""){
		$errors_array[] = "<font color='red'>Please enter your Age</font>";		
	}	

}

function show_errors()
{
	global $errors_array;

foreach ($errors_array as $err){
	echo $err, "<br>";		
	}
}

function handle_data()
{
	echo "Thanks, all details inserted correctly!";	
}

?>

bradgrafelman

First, get rid of this:

error_reporting(0); // turn error messages off

Why would you ever want to turn off error reporting? If there were any potential problems with my code, I would certainly want PHP to inform me of them. As such, I prefer (and recommend) having error_reporting always be set to E_ALL.

Second, what is it doing if you aren't seeing the echo statement?

Derokorian

    if(count($errors_array != 0)){

This line says IF the count of ( the result of the boolean comparison between $errors_array and 0 ) results in a boolean of true then execute the contained block. I imagine you meant to do a comparison between the count of $errors_array and 0 IE:

    if(count($errors_array) != 0){

cybastud

Yes, thanks