Checkbox is throwing an error in a PHP form - php

Question

I've got a script that I downloaded that's a contact form with reCaptcha v3 which emails the filled out form.
The reCaptcha and mail is working, but am having a problem with the checkboxes.
When I fill out the form, my error log says
PHP Warning: Undefined variable $instype in /home1/bluehqwi/public_html/gowithfm/quote/AjaxForm.php on line 121
The code at line 121 is:
'instype[]' => $instype
This is what I have in the AjaxForm.php for checkboxes -
if(!empty($_POST['instype[]'])) {
foreach($_POST['instype[]'] as $instype){
echo "value : ".$instype.'<br/>';
}
}
In my form, my checkboxes are -
<input class="form-check-input shadow-none" type="checkbox" value="Business insurance" name="instype[]" id="instype">
<label class="form-check-label" for="instype">Business insurance</label>
<input class="form-check-input shadow-none" type="checkbox" value="Life insurance" name="instype[]" id="instype">
<label class="form-check-label" for="instype">Life insurance</label>
I need to have multiple checkboxes in the contact form and have those displayed in the email that's sent.
I'm more on the UX/UI Design side, so I'm not really fluent in Ajax and PHP, so any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
NOTE: Here's the complete AjaxForm.php file.
<?php
/**
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
# https://www.php.net/manual/fr/timezones.php
date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
require __DIR__ . '/../PHPMailer/Exception.php';
require __DIR__ . '/../PHPMailer/PHPMailer.php';
require __DIR__ . '/../PHPMailer/SMTP.php';
require __DIR__ . '/../recaptcha/autoload.php';
class Ajax_Form {
# Constants to redefined
# Check this for more configurations: https://blog.mailtrap.io/phpmailer
const HOST = 'xxxxx'; # SMTP server
const USERNAME = 'xxxxx'; # SMTP username
const PASSWORD = 'xxxxx'; # SMTP password
const SECRET_KEY = 'xxxxx'; # GOOGLE secret key
const SMTP_SECURE = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS;
const SMTP_AUTH = true;
const PORT = 587;
const SUBJECT = 'xxxxx';
const HANDLER_MSG = [
'success' => '✔️ Your message has been sent !',
'token-error' => '❌ Error recaptcha token.',
'enter_firstname' => '❌ Please enter your first name.',
'enter_lastname' => '❌ Please enter your last name.',
'enter_email' => '❌ Please enter a valid email.',
'enter_phone' => '❌ Please enter a valid phone number.',
'enter_message' => '❌ Please enter your message.',
'enter_instype' => '❌ Please enter instype.',
'bad_ip' => '❌ 56k ?',
'ajax_only' => '❌ Asynchronous anonymous.',
'email_body' => '
<h1>{{subject}}</h1>
<p><b>First name:</b> {{firstname}}</p>
<p><b>Last name:</b> {{lastname}}</p>
<p><b>Email:</b> {{email}}</p>
<p><b>Phone:</b> {{phone}}</p>
<p><b>Address 1:</b> {{address1}}</p>
<p><b>Address 2:</b> {{address2}}</p>
<p><b>City:</b> {{city}}</p>
<p><b>State:</b> {{state}}</p>
<p><b>Zip:</b> {{zip}}</p>
<p><b>Interested in:</b> {{instype}}</p>
'
];
/* <p><b>Date</b>: {{date}}</p>
<p><b>Name</b>: {{name}}</p>
<p><b>E-Mail</b>: {{email}}</p>
<p><b>Message</b>: {{message}}</p>
<p><b>IP</b>: {{ip}}</p>
'
];*/
/**
* Ajax_Form constructor
*/
public function __construct()
{
# Check if request is Ajax request
if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']) && $_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH'] !== 'XMLHttpRequest') {
$this->statusHandler('ajax_only');
}
# Check if fields has been entered and valid
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
$firstname = $this->secure($_POST['firstname']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_name');
$lastname = $this->secure($_POST['firstname']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_name');
$email = filter_var($this->secure($_POST['email']), FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_email');
$phone = $this->secure($_POST['phone']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_phone');
$address1 = $this->secure($_POST['address1']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_address1');
$address2 = $this->secure($_POST['address2']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_address2');
$city = $this->secure($_POST['city']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_city');
$state = $this->secure($_POST['state']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_state');
$zip = $this->secure($_POST['zip']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_zip');
# if (!empty($_POST['instype']))
# $instype = $this->secure($_POST['instype']);
# else
# $this->statusHandler('enter_instype');
if(!empty($_POST['instype'])) {
foreach($_POST['instype'] as $instype){
echo "value : ".$instype.'<br/>';
}
}
# $message = $this->secure($_POST['message']) ?? $this->statusHandler('enter_message');
$token = $this->secure($_POST['recaptcha-token']) ?? $this->statusHandler('token-error');
$ip = filter_var($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], FILTER_VALIDATE_IP) ?? $this->statusHandler('bad_ip');
$date = new DateTime();
}
# Prepare email body
$email_body = self::HANDLER_MSG['email_body'];
$email_body = $this->template($email_body, [
'subject' => self::SUBJECT,
'date' => $date->format('j/m/Y H:i:s'),
'firstname' => $firstname,
'lastname' => $lastname,
'email' => $email,
'phone' => $phone,
'address1' => $address1,
'address2' => $address2,
'city' => $city,
'state' => $state,
'zip' => $zip,
'instype' => $instype
]);
# Verifying the user's response
$recaptcha = new \ReCaptcha\ReCaptcha(self::SECRET_KEY);
$resp = $recaptcha
->setExpectedHostname($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'])
->verify($token, $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
if ($resp->isSuccess()) {
# Instanciation of PHPMailer
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
$mail->setLanguage('en', __DIR__ . '/vendor/PHPMailer/language/');
try {
# Server settings
$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_OFF; # Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); # Set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = self::HOST; # Specify main and backup SMTP servers
$mail->SMTPAuth = self::SMTP_AUTH; # Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = self::USERNAME; # SMTP username
$mail->Password = self::PASSWORD; # SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = self::SMTP_SECURE; # Enable TLS encryption, `ssl` also accepted
$mail->Port = self::PORT; # TCP port
# Recipients
$mail->setFrom(self::USERNAME, $firstname, $lastname);
$mail->addAddress($email, $firstname, $lastname);
$mail->AddCC(self::USERNAME, 'Dev_copy');
$mail->addReplyTo(self::USERNAME, 'Information');
# Content
$mail->isHTML(true);
$mail->CharSet = 'UTF-8';
$mail->Subject = self::SUBJECT;
$mail->Body = $email_body;
$mail->AltBody = strip_tags($email_body);
# Send email
$mail->send();
$this->statusHandler('success');
} catch (Exception $e) {
die(json_encode($mail->ErrorInfo));
}
} else {
die(json_encode($resp->getErrorCodes()));
}
}
/**
* Template string values
*
* #param string $string
* #param array $vars
* #return string
*/
public function template(string $string, array $vars): string
{
foreach ($vars as $name => $val) {
$string = str_replace("{{{$name}}}", $val, $string);
}
return $string;
}
/**
* Secure inputs fields
*
* #param string $post
* #return string
*/
public function secure(string $post): string
{
$post = htmlspecialchars($post, ENT_QUOTES);
$post = stripslashes($post);
$post = trim($post);
return $post;
}
/**
* Error or success message
*
* #param string $message
* #return json
*/
public function statusHandler(string $message): json
{
die(json_encode(self::HANDLER_MSG[$message]));
}
}
# Instance
new Ajax_Form();
Here's the AjaxForm.js code
const publicKey = "XXXXX"; // GOOGLE public key
// Get token from API
function check_grecaptcha() {
grecaptcha.ready(function () {
grecaptcha.execute(publicKey, {
action: "ajaxForm"
}).then(function (token) {
$("[name='recaptcha-token']").val(token);
});
});
}
// Show response in .alert
function alertShowing(response) {
$("#response-alert").html(JSON.parse(response));
$("#response-alert").removeClass("d-none");
$("#response-alert").addClass("d-block");
}
$(function () {
check_grecaptcha();
$("#contactform").validate({
// Form fields rules
rules: {
firstname: {
required: true,
minlength: 3
},
lastname: {
required: true,
minlength: 3
},
email: {
required: true,
email: true
},
message: {
required: false,
minlength: 5
}
},
// Error messages
messages: {
firstname: {
required: "Please enter your first name.",
minlength: "Must be at least 3 characters long."
},
lastname: {
required: "Please enter your last name.",
minlength: "Must be at least 3 characters long."
},
email: "Please enter a valid email.",
message: {
required: "Please enter your message.",
minlength: "Must be at least 5 characters long."
}
},
errorClass: "invalid-feedback",
// Dynamic validation classes
highlight: function (element) {
$(element).addClass("is-invalid").removeClass("is-valid");
},
unhighlight: function (element) {
$(element).addClass("is-valid").removeClass("is-invalid");
},
// Action on submit
submitHandler: function (form) {
$(".spinner-border").removeClass("d-none");
$("#sendtext").addClass("d-none");
$.post(form.action, $(form).serialize())
.done(function (response) {
alertShowing((response));
$(".spinner-border").addClass("d-none");
$("#sendtext").removeClass("d-none");
$("#submit-btn").prop("disabled", true);
check_grecaptcha();
setTimeout(function () {
$("#submit-btn").prop("disabled", false);
$("form").trigger("reset");
$("form").each(function () {
$(this).find(".form-control").removeClass("is-valid")
})
}, 3000);
})
.fail(function (response) {
alertShowing((response));
$(".spinner-border").addClass("d-none");
$("#sendtext").removeClass("d-none");
});
}
});
});

Answer 1

Like already stated in the comments. You never initialized your variable $instype, but you try to access it several times. At least inititialize the variable before any access with an empty value like
$instype = ''
or by uncommenting
$instype = $this->secure($_POST['instype']);
But be aware, this won't solve your problem since you have this line in a comment and also will never be run if the the if-condition does not match.