Validating html forms

Anon

Well trying to trouble shoot why the "if($submit)" does not seem to be working I discovered that my normal method of validating forms (frontPage form handler) does not seem to work with php3.
How do I go about validating html forms in php3?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Jim

Anon

Ok it looked a bit off topic there, but it is really a PHP3 question. What is the best way to validate form input in PHP3?

Anon

Could you be a bit more specific about what you're trying
to do? The only answer possible to such a generic
question is something unhelpfully vague like "check the
values of the variable that get POSTed and see if they
are OK." Not much help...

Anon

Sure I will try... I am using MySQL and PHP3. Most all I need is something to check that the input on the form matches the needs of that column. I don't have any real complicated entries mostly varchar and tinyint and smallint, date... Can I check these values before submiting client-side? I intend to have a confirmation form to show the customer after submit, I imagine that could make a difference in deciding how to validate. Hope that was clear.
Thanks again,
Jim

Anon

client-side

Sure you can use Javascript for that, if you don't mind living
with not working for that (hopefull small) percent of browsers
that have Javascript turned off.

Anon

I too am having trouble with validating my php3 form. I know i am using Javascipt to validate the form which doesn't work??? But would like to know how to do this in PHP3 any suggestions or help or tutorials would help?

Here is what I have:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad Software//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 6.0::19990601::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN" "hmpro6.dtd">

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Fiche Datbase Search Form</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1">
<!-- hide from old browsers

function ShowLastup() { // write document last updated string
var update = new Date(document.lastModified)
var theMonth = update.getMonth() + 1
var theDate = update.getDate()
var theYear = update.getYear()
var theHour = update.getHours()
var theMinutes = update.getMinutes()
var minute = new String(theMinutes);
var hour = new String(theHour);

if (hour.length < 2)	// add leading zero if needed
	hour = "0" + hour;
if (minute.length < 2)	// add leading zero if needed
	minute = "0" + minute;
if (theYear >= 0 && theYear < 31)
	theYear += 100;	// After 1/1/2000 it goes to 4 digits

document.writeln("<FONT SIZE=-2>");
document.writeln("<I>Form last updated: " + theMonth + "/" + theDate +
	"/" + (theYear+1900) + " " + hour + ":" + minute + "</I>")
document.writeln("</FONT>");

}

function preNsearch(inputForm) { // prepare for name search
var gotname = false;
// It turns out that during the preCsearch, we blank out
// name fields (just in case) which constitutes a "change",
// which triggers preNsearch, which then blanks name, so we
// will have to use gotname to detect that name clues exist.
for (var i = 0; i < inputForm.elements.length; i++) {
if (inputForm.elements.name == "PartyName" ||
inputForm.elements.name == "first_name" ||
inputForm.elements.name == "middle_name") {
if (inputForm.elements.value > "")
gotname = true;
}
}

if (gotname != true)
	return(false);
for (i = 0; i < inputForm.elements.length; i++) {
	if (inputForm.elements[i].name == "CaseNo" ||
		inputForm.elements[i].name == "soc_sec_num")
			inputForm.elements[i].value = "";
}
return(true);

}

function preCsearch(inputForm) { // prepare for case search
var gotCaseNo = false;
for (var i = 0; i < inputForm.elements.length; i++) {
if (inputForm.elements.name == "CaseNo") {
if (inputForm.elements.value > "")
gotCaseNo = true;
}
}

for (var i = 0; i < inputForm.elements.length; i++) {
	if (inputForm.elements[i].name == "CaseNo") {
		if (chkDCaseno(inputForm.elements[i]) == false) {
			inputForm.elements[i].focus();
			inputForm.elements[i].select();
		}
	}
	else {
		if (inputForm.elements[i].name != "search" &&
			inputForm.elements[i].name != "cancel" &&
				gotCaseNo == true) {
			inputForm.elements[i].value = "";
		}
	}
}
inputForm.search.focus();	// put focus on search button

}

function isEmpty(inputStr) {
if (inputStr == null || inputStr == "") {
return true
}
return false
}

function chkNocase(thisFld, inputForm) // warn if case # has been entered
{
if (!isEmpty(thisFld) && !isEmpty(inputForm.CaseNo.value)) {
alert("WARNING: Name clues ignored when case number has been entered.");
}
}

function soc_sec_numSyntax(msg) { // show soc security num syntax message
alert(msg + ": SSN format is 123-45-6789");
return(false);
}

function caseSyntax(msg) { // show case number syntax message
alert(msg + "Case number format is [yy]yy-nnnn, i.e., 96-123");
return(false);
}

return(true);

}

function zeroPad(s, n) { // pad string s to length n with leading zeros
var sno = "";
for (var i = (n - s.length); i > 0; i--) { // add leading zeros to seq
sno += "0";
}
sno += s;
return(sno);
}

function isbreak(c) { // true if character is a break character
if (c == " " || c == ":" || c == "-")
return true;
return false;
}

for (var i = (5 - no.length); i > 0; i--) {	// add leading zeros to seq
	sno += "0";
}
sno += no;
yr = fixYear(yr);
tstFld.value = yr + "-" + sno;
return true;

}

function fixYear(yr) { // correct a given 2 digit year to make full 4
// Multiply by one to make it numeric:
if (yr <= 30)
yr = (yr1) + 2000;
else if (yr < 200)
yr = (yr1) + 1900;
return(yr);
}

function prompt(msg) {
window.status = msg
}

function caseNofocus() { // put focus in case number field
document.forms[0].CaseNo.focus();
return(true);
}

function getCookie(Name) {
var search = Name + "="
var RetStr = ""
var offset = 0
var end = 0
if (document.cookie.length > 0) {
offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search)
if (offset != -1) {
offset += search.length
end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset)
if (end == -1)
end = document.cookie.length
RetStr = unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
}
}
return (RetStr)
}

var uidcookie = getCookie("uid");
var uid = uidcookie.substring(0,4);
if (uidcookie.length < 5) { // minimum is 4 of ID + 1 of passwd
// window.location.pathname = "/dc/chlogin.html";
}

// end script hiding -->
</SCRIPT>

</HEAD>

  <P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="FicheDatabase.jpg" WIDTH="735"
		 HEIGHT="159" BORDER="0"></P>

  <P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="Case.jpg" WIDTH="140" HEIGHT="74"
		 BORDER="0"></p>

     <CENTER><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" size=17 maxlength=17 NAME="CaseNo" STYLE="height: 1cm"
     	onChange="preCsearch(query)"
     	onFocus="prompt('Case number is 96-123 or 1996-123 format')"></CENTER>

  <P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="Judge.jpg" WIDTH="164" HEIGHT="74"
		 BORDER="0"></P>

	<select name="Initials" width=250>
		<option selected value="">

<center>
<?php
mysql_connect(hostname, user, password);
$database="fichedb";
@mysql_select_db("$database") or die("unable to select database");

$query="Select initials from judge";

$result=mysql_query($query);

while(list($initials)=mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
	print "<option value='$initials'><center>$initials</option>\n";
	}
mysql_close();

</select>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="Party.jpg" WIDTH="154" HEIGHT="74"
BORDER="0"></P>

     <CENTER><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="PartyName" SIZE="30" MAXLENGTH="55"
		 STYLE="height: 1cm"
		 onFocus="prompt('Last or business name; capitalization counts')"
	     onChange=preNsearch(query)></CENTER>

  <P ALIGN="LEFT"></P>

		<CENTER> <INPUT TYPE="submit"></center> </p>

  <P ALIGN="LEFT"><B></B></P> </FORM></BLOCKQUOTE>


	  </BODY>