Complex HTML form and using PHP to validate all fields...

[InsideVoid]

Hi anyone willing to help,

I'm new to this forum and a novice at PHP programming I'm still currently going to school for programming so I do understand PHP in theory but have a better idea if I can see the code in front of me. I'm running into a huge mental block or something. I'm trying to make an online employment application form and trying to validation all 71 textbox inputs, 3 textareas, and 11 radio sets. My goal is to try to validate to make sure users fill in all the fields and leave no empty fields, putting in the correct data in the correct fields, not trying to do malicious attacks, and return errors by having the problem field(s) highlighted in red. After a person enters the information and is validated properly then the form will be send to a data base. I've spent the last two weeks looking through the internet and books (don't have a person to ask for help). The problem I've run into is a lot of the stuff is either just plain bad programming, not what i was looking for, missing parts of code but had other good parts, or just too simple in design, etc. Please don't refer me to php.net or any tutorial sites been there done that unless you found something that is very close to what I'm looking for. I have found good bits in my searching but every time I try to connect the dots I get completely lost! I'm not looking for someone to design it all I just would like a solid start and I can definitely take it from there... I've include the HTML/PHP form code as a .txt file to make it easily viewable I've already list all the form element variables that will be used. I posted the code so that anyone looking can have a visual idea of what I am working on it always help me:-) I know that there is a lot of validation going on and I'm asking for a lot but this really big project for one person to do but I would greatly, greatly, greatly, greatly appreciate any help if possible! Didn't include the CSS can post it if need be.

Thanks!

HTML/PHP code:
[ATTACH]4581[/ATTACH]

PS. Please no flames!!!!

employmentApp.txt

[InsideVoid]

I came to the idea of using preg_match function to do some validation here is what I came up with so far but now I'm not sure where to but in to make sure whether it only allows numbers, letters, etc in the correct fields. I'm always looking for someone to correct any mistakes or have easier way to code what I have so far.

$FamilyName = check_input($POST['FamilyName'], "Please enter a last name.");
$GivenName = check_input($POST['GivenName'], "Please enter a first name.");
$MiddleInitial = check_input($_POST['MiddleInitial'], "Please enter a middle initial.");

//HTML error
$SpamErrorMessage = "No Website URLs Premitted";
if(preg_match("/http/i", "$FamilyName")) {echo "$SpamErrorMessage"; exit();}
if(preg_match("/http/i", "$GivenName")) {echo "$SpamErrorMessage"; exit();}
if(preg_match("/http/i", "$MiddleInitial")) {echo "$SpamErrorMessage"; exit();}

//Email Validation
$EmailAddress = htmlspecialchars($_POST['EmailAddress']);
if(!preg_match("/([\w-]+@[\w-]+.[\w-]+)/",$EmailAddress))
{
die("We're Sorry, Your e-mail address does not appear to be valid ");
}

//Function Check to Eliminate Unwanted Characters, strips Quotes, and Adds HTMLSpecialCharacters

function check_input($data, $problem)
{
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
if($problem && strlen($data) == 0)
{
die($problem);
}

//Spammer Check

$EmailAddress = urldecode($EmailAddress);
if(eregi("\r",$EmailAddress) || eregi("\n",$EmailAddress))
{
die("Spammer Detected");
}

}
?>

[johanafm]

I see several problems.

1. You are trying to create one single function to handle all and any input data. How would such a function know what kind of data it is? How would such a function know HOW to handle the data (this depends on for what purpose it will be used).

2. Why are you stripping slashes from $data? You certainly shouldn't be using automatic magic quotes or whatever the PHP 4 stuff was called. And if you allow slashes as input, then you certainly shouldn't be stripping them out. If you don't allow slashes as input data, then you should certainly inform your users of invalid input data rather than silently modifying it so that they believe they entered one thing while you store something else.

3. Why are you using htmlspecialchars on the input data? The email address might be a valid email address before you change it. Afterwards it might not be a valid email address, or if it is, it might belong to someone else. htmlspecialchars is ONLY for when you want to output stuff as part of an HTML document.

4. While I find it unlikely that either a first or last name contains the letters "http", it might actually be possible for some foreign language written in latin characters. If you allow nly one middle initial, check for string length of middle initial instead of checking if it's some specific 4 letter string. If you do allow longer than 1 letters for middle initial, it's entirely possible that those would be HTTP. If you wish to check for a protcol, then check for http:// and https:// since that would match the protocol but fail to match anything else. On the other hand, and this goes for all such checks, instead of checking if one specific disallowed thing is present, check that there is nothing outside the specifically allowed stuff. In this case, that might be something like [^a-zA-Z'´-]. If this matches, there is at least one character outside of a-z, A-Z and chars ´ ' -. And once you perform this check, you no longer need to check for http:// since the : and / would allready match and make it invalid input.

5. Use existing code to check if the email address is valid. Among other things, an email address may contain new lines, although such newlines should always be \r\n and no other combination of those is allowed and those characters aren't allowed by themselves. Use [man]filter_var[/man].

[Weedpacket]

Combining (4) and (5) of johanafm's comments, [man]filter_var[/man] can also be used to check for URLs.

[InsideVoid]

@ OK I'll follow #4 which are very valid points. What I posted was really just one part of the whole program. I was just trying address for possible security holes since the data will be sent to database once I get this part of the project done. Well I know I won't be using just one function to validate every input. I'm just trying to make a solid validating program to cover many possible situations. I know I can't design something perfect because perfection is impossible but I want it damn close lol. I know I will have to create many functions doing different types of validation on the employment form that checked for: 1. Any empty fields 2. To check for the correct input (ex: letters only in the name fields, numbers only for zip code and phone, etc.) 3. Have a function display errors to the end user to fix their possible mistakes. 4. create a function that passes each input data through the correct validation functions. 5. And other functions i can't think of atm (or I could be wrong). I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out on how to begin coding it syntax and structure wise because I know there is more than one way to code for the same thing "There is more than one way to skin a cat".

Thank you,

I do greatly appreciate the help and comments johanafm and Weedpacket

[johanafm]

When you have no previous experience of doing this, I'd recommend writing the code one piece at the time to validate each separate input field. When you notice that you have two fields that require identical or similar treatment, you proceed to wrap it into a function taking parameters to deal with the differences.

For example, name and last name will both require the same pattern, but you might have differences in allowed string length, say 15 for name and 30 for family name. Thus, a function for these might take as parameters: input data, string length. A function validating input should never output anything, just check the data. You might go different ways with return values, but true or false should suffice, since you allready have a variable with the input data. Another way to go is -1 for empty, 0 (or false) for failed, true (or positive number) for ok. But since a required field can be neither empty nor fail validation, you don't really need to do the distinction (especially if you echo out the previous value to the user).

Moreover, always leave post data intact in the post array, so that you can echo it back to the user so they can modify a simple misstake rather than fill out the entire form again.

I'd also create $errors = array(), and for each failed validation add an element with a text describing the error, such as

if (validate_name($_POST['name']))
{
	$name = $_POST['name'];
}
else
{
	$errors[] = "Name must consist of only letters A-Z, ' and -, and be no longer than 15 characters"
}
if (validate_name($_POST['name']))
{
	$last_name = $_POST['last_name'];
}
else
{
	$errors[] = "Last name must consist of only letters A-Z, ' and -, and be no longer than 30 characters"
}

# Then, once everything is checked, see if you have any errors

# At least one element in $errors, which means at least one error. Redisplay the form, preceeded by the errors
if (count($errors))
{
	foreach ($errors as $e)
	{
		# This is where you _may_ need htmlentities, since this goes as output to html page
		printf('<div class="error">%s</div>',
			htmlentities($e, ENT_QUOTES, 'utf-8')
		);
	}
	# display form here
	# possibly done with page (exit, or control the rest of the flow with conditionals (if/else)
}
# everything ok, save data and display thank you page
else
{
	# This is where you'd escape data to make it safe for use with SQL queries.
	# One way is to use mysqli (the newer mysql extension) or PDO, which both handle prepared statements
	# which means you don't need to escape data
	# Otherwise, strings needs to be passed through mysqli_real_escape_string to be properly escaped for this purpose
	$query = sprintf("INSERT INTO tbl (name, last_name) VALUES (%s, %s)",
		mysqli_real_escape_string($link, $name),
		mysqli_real_escape_string($link, $last_name)
	);
}

And when you build your data processing this way, you will add up one needed thing at the time, until everything is in place. Thus, you don't have to worry about dealing with everything at once, and you will likely arrive at something which has decent functionality and ease of usage. Should it become to spread out, complex or whatever (such as having code repetition - the same code in more than one place, or having too long functions), it's time to "refactor" the code, which simply means go over it and rework it into something easier to read, understand and manage.

You might actually end up with one function handling all escaping, but taking an extra parameter which tells it wether it's a "name", "date" etc to handle. Or generalize more and tell it it's "alpha", "numeric", "alphanumeric", "integer" etc. Do note the distinction between numeric (string) and integer (stored as an int rather than string).

And finally note that escaping is special to each circumstance. For HTML output, it's htmlspecialchars or htmlentities, for urls it's urlencode and for strings to be stored in a database it's mysql_real_escape_string (for mysql dbms).

[WyCnet]

InsideVoid;11008327 wrote:

Hi anyone willing to help,
... The problem I've run into is a lot of the stuff is either just plain bad programming, not what i was looking for, missing parts of code but had other good parts, or just too simple in design, etc.
...

I am addressing your design strategy. User friendliness is important. Filling out large forms than scroll on and on is daunting to Users. Take them through steps with each step ticked off when it is correctly done. You do have different categories like Personal Information, Legal status, Position wanted, Skill set, Employment history. In this way the applicant builds confidence moving from one step to the next and are more likely to list all their skills. You can even allow them to return and complete fields if they do not have all the required information at hand, especially their full employment history.

These are ideas behind a modern design strategy that has nothing to do with coding.

[InsideVoid]

@ and @ thanks for the tips and help which got me going!

OK I've come across a few issues and new ideas when working on my project. I don't have room in the employment form to fit div's for the error messages. I did come up with using a span or div above the form which tells you how many errors there are and then highlight the input fields with red. I added this div class="message<?php echo $message; ?></div inside the body element of the HTML page to display the number of errors to the user. Will I have to create a value attribute for each html input element to get a red highlight? I've been looking online for ideas close to what I would like to do but all I found so far are people who are in the same boat as me. But now I'm not sure how to program that in I know Ill have to set up a CSS rule to get the color part which I already did. Also for some reason some of my code appears in the html page when I test it on a browser and not sure why. Any ideas why? I'm posting the code I came up with to see what I'm doing wrong. A lot of my code is commented out because I'm trying to work one idea at a time.

Code from the HTML form page (Main):
<?php

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

include('validateForm.php');

//Create post data to variables from each HTML form element
$FamilyName = trim($POST["FamilyName"]); <----- Not sure if trim good? I figured it was to get rid of white spaces....
$GivenName = trim($POST["GivenName"]);
$MiddleInitial = $POST["MiddleInitial"];
$curAddress = $POST["curAddress"];
$Municipality = $POST["Municipality"];
$Region = $POST["Region"];
$PostalCode = $POST["PostalCode"];
$phoneNumber = $POST["phoneNumber"];
$EmailAddress = $POST["EmailAddress"];
$legalYes = $POST["legalYes"];//radio button
$legalNo = $POST["legalNo"];//radio button
$applyPosition = $POST["applyPosition"];
$startDate = $POST["startDate"];
$fullTime = $POST["fullTime"];//radio button
$partTime = $POST["partTime"];//radio button
$idealHours = $POST["idealHours"];
$salaryRange = $POST["salaryRange"];
$overtimeYes = $POST["overtimeYes"];//radio button
$overtimeNo = $POST["overtimeNo"];//radio button
$skillsList = $POST["skillsList"];//textarea
$skillsComputer = $POST["skillsComputer"];//textarea
$hsName = $POST["hsName"];
$hsLocation = $POST["hsLocation"];
$hsPhoneNum = $POST["hsPhoneNum"];
$hsGradYes = $POST["hsGradYes"];//radio button
$hsGradNo = $POST["hsGradNo"];//radio button
$hsDegree = $POST["hsDegree"];
$collegeName = $POST["collegeName"];
$collegeLocation = $POST["collegeLocation"];
$collegePhoneNum = $POST["collegePhoneNum"];
$collegeGradYes = $POST["collegeGradYes"];//radio button
$collegeGradNo = $POST["collegeGradNo"];//radio button
$collegeDegree = $POST["collegeDegree"];
$techName = $POST["techName"];
$techLocation = $POST["techLocation"];
$techPhoneNum = $POST["techPhoneNum"];
$techGradYes = $POST["techGradYes"];//radio button
$techGradNo = $POST["techGradNo"];//radio button
$techDegree = $POST["techDegree"];
//There are four fieldsets for employment history
$OrganizationName = $POST["OrganizationName"];
$companyLocation = $POST["companyLocation"];
$Telephone = $POST["Telephone"];
$FormattedName = $POST["FormattedName"];
$leavingReason = $POST["leavingReason"];
$Title = $POST["Title"];
$EndDate = $POST["EndDate"];
$Compensation = $POST["Compensation"];
$SalaryOptions = $POST["SalaryOptions"];
$tempEmployYes = $POST["tempEmployYes"];//radio button
$tempEmplyDate = $POST["tempEmplyDate"];
$tempEmplyNo = $POST["tempEmplyNo"];//radio button
$unemployReason = $POST["unemployReason"];
$applicantName = $POST["applicantName"];
$applicantSignName = $POST["applicantSignName"];
$signDate = $POST["signDate"];
$errors = trim($POST["errors"]);

//start validating our form
$v = new validateForm();
$v->validateName($FamilyName, "FamilyName");

//Counts up all the errors <-------- Also may have to be changed
if (!$v-hasErrors()) {
//Sets the number of errors
$message = $v->errorNumMessage();
//Store the errors list in a variable
$errors = $v->displayErrors();
//get the individual error messages
$FamilyName = $v->getError("FamilyName");
}else{
return true;
}
}
exit;
?>

my PHP code (CODING PAGE):

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php
class validateForm {

//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// parameters
//-------------------------------------------------------------------

/**
Array to hold the errors

@access public
@var errors array

/
public $errors = array();

//------------------------------------------------------------------
// validation methods
//------------------------------------------------------------------

/**
Validates name fields

@access public
@

*/
public function validateName($FamilyName) {
if(strlen($FamilyName) <= 0 || strlen($FamilyName) >= 15 ) {
$this->setError($FamilyName, "Please enter a last name and it must be no longer than 15 characters"); <---- I believe this will have to be changed to something else if I want to use highlighted fields instead of text
}
else if(preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z\-\., \']+$/")) {
$this->setError($FamilyName, "Last name must consist only of letters A-Z, ' and - "); <---- I believe this will have to be changed to something else if I want to use highlighted fields instead of text
}
}

/*function validateAddress($curAddress){
if(preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z0-9 _-.,:']+$/") <= 0){
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
//error message to tell user either its wrong or wasn't entered
}
}

/function validateUSAZip($PostalCode){
if(preg_match("/^{([0-9]{5})(-[0-9]{4})?$/i")} === 0){
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
//error message to tell user either its wrong or wasn't entered
}
}
/function validateEmail($EmailAddress){
if(preg_match("/^{\S+@[w\d.-]{2,}.[\w]{2,6}$/iU")} === ""){
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
//error message to tell user either its wrong or wasn't entered
}
}

/function validatePhoneNum($phoneNumber){
if(trim($phoneNumber) === " "){
$errmsg = "Please enter a phone number.";
}
else if(!preg_match("/^{[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}$/s")){}
$errmsg = 'Please enter a valid phone number.';
return true;
}
}/

/$query = sprintf("INSERT INTO tbl (FamilyName, GivenName) Values (%s, %s)",
mysqli_real_escape_string($link, $FamilyName),
mysqli_real_escape_string($link, $GivenName)
);*/

//---------------------------------------------------------
// Error handling methods
//---------------------------------------------------------

/**
sets an error message for a form element
@access private
@ string $element - name of the form element
@ string $message - error message to be displayed
return void
/
private function setError($element, $errors){
$this->errors[$element] = $errors;
}//end logError

/**
returns the error of a single form element

@access public
@ string $elementName - name of the form element
@return string
/
public function getError($elementName){
if($this->errors[$elementName]){
return $this->errors[$elementName];
}
else
{
return false;
}
}//end getError

/**
displays the errors as an html un-ordered list <------ Not sure if this function needs to go or be changed if I want to display the errors as red highlighted boxes then actual text.

@access public
@return string: A html list of the forms errors
*/
public function displayErrors(){
$errorsList = "<ul class=\"errors\">\n";
foreach($this->errors as $value) {
$errorsList .= "<li>". $value . "</li>\n";
}
$errorsList .= "<\ul>\n";
return $errorsList;
}//end displayErrors

/**
returns whether the form has errors

@access public
@return boolean
*/
public function hasErrors() {
if(count($this->errors) >= 0) {
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}//end hasErrors

/**
returns a string stating how many errors there were

@access public
@return void
*/
public function errorNumMessage() {
if(count($this->errors) > 1) {
$message = "There are " . count($this->errors) . " errors in the form!\n";
}
else
{
return true;
}
}//end errorNumMessage

}//end validateForm class
exit;
?>
</body>
</html>

When I've tried to test out my form it directly sent me to my index where the files are all stored? I've seen the error in the past but can't remember how to fix it I figured if I could get another pair of eyes on it you guys might be able to see something I didn't see. I greatly appreciate the help with helping a noob like me.

Overview of the HTML Form if needed or for comment reference:
[ATTACH]4593[/ATTACH]

employmentApp.txt

[Weedpacket]

When posting code, please use the coding markup tags desribed in the FAQs to mark it up for human readability.

$FamilyName = trim($_POST["FamilyName"]); <----- Not sure if trim good? I figured it was to get rid of white spaces....
$GivenName = trim($_POST["GivenName"]);
$MiddleInitial = $_POST["MiddleInitial"];
//.... snip fifty lines ...
$applicantName = $_POST["applicantName"];
$applicantSignName = $_POST["applicantSignName"];
$signDate = $_POST["signDate"];

It would be much more concise to just refer to the $_POST variables directly; then you'd be able to drop a few dozen lines that all say pretty much the same thing.

$techGradYes = $_POST["techGradYes"];//radio button
$techGradNo = $_POST["techGradNo"];//radio button

If there is only a single yes/no choice here, then a checkbox is the more appropriate UI element.

[InsideVoid]

@ My bad on about the posting code up

[Bunkermaster]

That's quite weird logic. Are you sure this does what you think?

if(count($this->errors) >= 0) {
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}

[InsideVoid]

@ I'm not sure to be honest because I can't get any of my code to work properly. I may have to switch some stuff around but the idea behind is if the number of errors is 0 then return true if the errors are more than 0 return false. But I'm not sure what to do after that....

[Bunkermaster]

Your code doesn't do what you just explained. Wrong comparison operator or wrong value compared.
What you meant to code is:

if(count($this->errors) > 0) {
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
} 

OR

if(count($this->errors) >= 1) {
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
} 

This might have contributed to your problem.

http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.comparison.php

[Bunkermaster]

also, this code is not PHP

if (!$v-hasErrors()) {

[InsideVoid]

@ Alright I deleted that whole little set of code

[Bunkermaster]

Did you wash your hands after? 😉

You don't need to delete the code. Just fix it. I'm a bit busy with my own coding at the moment but I'll try reading through yours (please edit and add the syntax codes so please can read it without pulling their eyes out of their socket) after work.

[InsideVoid]

@ OK I re-added the code I deleted and I fixed the bad logic issues.
@Everyone I'm going to post my code correctly this time so people don't want to kill themselves or me when looking at the code lol

This code is in the validateForm.php:

 
<?php
class validateForm {

//-------------------------------------------------------------------
// parameters
//-------------------------------------------------------------------

/**
*Array to hold the errors
*
*@access public
*@var errors array
*@var required array 
*/
public $errors = array();

//------------------------------------------------------------------
// validation methods
//------------------------------------------------------------------

/**
* Validates name fields
*
*@access public
*@param  

*/
public function validateName($FamilyName) {
	if(strlen($FamilyName) <= 0 || strlen($FamilyName) >= 15 ) {
		$this->setError($FamilyName, "Please enter a last name and it must be no longer than 15 characters");
	}
	else if(preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z\\-\\., \']+$/")) {
		$this->setError($FamilyName, "Last name must consist only of letters A-Z, ' and - ");
   }
   else 
   {
	   return true;
   }
}


/*function validateAddress($curAddress){
	if(preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z0-9 _-.,:']+$/") <= 0){
		return true;
	}
	else
	{
		return false;
		//error message to tell user either its wrong or wasn't entered
	}
}

/*function validateUSAZip($PostalCode){
	if(preg_match("/^([0-9]{5})(-[0-9]{4})?$/i") === 0){
		return true;
	}
	else 
	{
		return false;
		//error message to tell user either its wrong or wasn't entered
	}
}
/*function validateEmail($EmailAddress){
	if(preg_match("/^\S+@[w\d.-]{2,}\.[\w]{2,6}$/iU") === ""){
		return true;
	}
	else
	{
		return false;
		//error message to tell user either its wrong or wasn't entered
	}
}

/*function validatePhoneNum($phoneNumber){
	if(trim($phoneNumber) === " "){
		$errmsg = "Please enter a phone number.";
	}
	else if(!preg_match("/^[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}$/s")){
		$errmsg = 'Please enter a valid phone number.';
		return true;
	}
}*/

/*$query = sprintf("INSERT INTO tbl (FamilyName, GivenName) Values (%s, %s)",
	mysqli_real_escape_string($link, $FamilyName),
	mysqli_real_escape_string($link, $GivenName)
);*/

//---------------------------------------------------------
// Error handling methods
//---------------------------------------------------------

/**
* sets an error message for a form element
* @access private
* @param string $element - name of the form element
* @param string $message - error message to be displayed
* return void
*/	
private function setError($element, $errors){
	$this->errors[$element] = $errors;
}//end logError

/**
* returns the error of a single form element
* 
* @access public
* @param string $elementName - name of the form element
* @return string
*/
public function getError($elementName){
	if($this->errors[$elementName]){
		return $this->errors[$elementName];
	}
	else
	{
		return false;
	}
}//end getError

/**
* displays the errors as an html un-ordered list
*
*@access public
*@return string: A html list of the forms errors
*/
public function displayErrors(){                                   

	$errorsList = "<ul class=\"errors\">\n";
	foreach($this->errors as $value) {
		$errorsList .= "<li>". $value . "</li>\n";
	}
	$errorsList .= "<\ul>\n";
	return $errorsList;
}//end displayErrors

/**
*returns whether the form has errors
*
*@access public
*@return boolean
*/
public function hasErrors() {
	if(count($this->errors) > 0) {
		return true;
	}
	else
	{
		return false;
	}
}//end hasErrors

/**
* returns a string stating how many errors there were
*
*@access public
*@return void
*/
public function errorNumMessage() {
	if(count($this->errors) >= 1) {
		$message = "There are " . count($this->errors) . " errors in the form!\n";
	}
	else
	{
		return true;
	}
  }//end errorNumMessage

}//end validateForm class
exit;
?>

This PHP code on the form side:

<?php

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

include('validateForm.php');

//Create post data to variables from each HTML form element
$FamilyName = trim($_POST["FamilyName"]);
$GivenName = trim($_POST["GivenName"]);
$MiddleInitial = $_POST["MiddleInitial"];
$curAddress = $_POST["curAddress"];
$Municipality = $_POST["Municipality"];
$Region = $_POST["Region"];
$PostalCode = $_POST["PostalCode"];
$phoneNumber = $_POST["phoneNumber"];
$EmailAddress = $_POST["EmailAddress"];
$legalYes = $_POST["legalYes"];//radio button
$legalNo = $_POST["legalNo"];//radio button
//Took off the rest of the POST variables for the time being to keep everyone sane! 

//start validating our form
$v = new validateForm();
$v->validateName($FamilyName, "FamilyName");

//Counts up all the errors 
if (!$v-hasErrors()) {               <----- Not sure how to change it to do what I would like it to do
//Sets the number of errors 
$message = $v->errorNumMessage();
//Store the errors list in a variable
$errors = $v->displayErrors();
//get the individual error messages
$FamilyName = $v->getError("FamilyName");
}else{
return true;
}
}
?>

OK this evening I have my one of my programming classes so I'm going to be asking my teacher for help now hopefully he will be helpful! I'm also going to ask him to see if its possible to display errors using a mouse hover on a input field that has an error using php instead of creating a div due to the design structure of my form. I know from researching on the web it can be done in javascript/jquery but no solid answer so far but Ill worry about that after getting the validation to start working lol.

[InsideVoid]

@ I forgot to wash my hands....😃

[InsideVoid]

@ Did I forgot to add the ">"? Or is it just the wrong syntax?

if (!$v-hasErrors()) { 

[Bunkermaster]

OK, what I'd do is define an array with mandatory fields definition and type/method to check their validity.

$mandatory_fields['phoneNumber'] = 'checkPhoneNumber';
$mandatory_fields['curAddress'] = 'checkCurAddress';

then just foreach the $mandatory_fields array instead of going through the long and tedious setting of a gorillion (10⁶⁰ ROAAR!) variables.

Optional task would be to define an error message array to have a nice reference and call only the message IDs.

Next, I'd create an error handling class to separate the two artefacts (form validation and error handling) because I am worth it.

Followed by a fix of the code bellow

if (!$v-hasErrors()) { 

becomes

if (!$v->hasErrors()) { 

Then go to bed with some allergy meds. But that part is just me.