How do I display message on the same page? - php

Question

I have a quick question about my form. After submitting the form you will be directed to a page followed by the text that I put in. The problem is that I want this text to be displayed on the same page as where the form is on (named contact.html) I use two files, one is the Mail_handler.php and the other contact.html. I've tried multiple things to fix it, but for some reason, I have no success. I hope that you guys can help me out! Below you can find the HTML and PHP.
<form method="POST" action="mail_handler.php">
<div class="col-sm-7 slideanim">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-6 form-group">
<input class="form-control" id="name" name="name" placeholder="Naam" type="text" required>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-6 form-group">
<input class="form-control" id="phone" name="phone" placeholder="Telefoonnummer" type="text" required>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-group">
<input class="form-control" id="email" name="email" placeholder="Email" type="email" required>
</div>
</div>
<textarea class="form-control" id="msg" name="msg" placeholder="Bericht" rows="5"></textarea><br>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12 form-group">
<button class="btn btn-default pull-right" id="submit" name="submit" type="submit">Verstuur</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$name=$_POST['name'];
$email=$_POST['email'];
$phone=$_POST['phone'];
$msg=$_POST['msg'];
$to='infosyncdevelopment#gmail.com'; // Receiver Email ID, Replace with your email ID
$subject='Form Submission';
$message="Name :".$name."\n"."Phone :".$phone."\n"."Wrote the following :"."\n\n".$msg;
$headers="From: ".$email;
if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)){
echo "<h1>Bedankt voor uw bericht!"." ".$name.", Wij nemen zo snel mogelijk contact met u op.</h1>";
}
else{
echo "Something went wrong!";
}
}
?>

Answer 1

the best way is to use ajax, but if you may not do that, you can do this little trick:
change contact.html into php script (maybe contact.php)
<?php
if(isset($_GET['msg'])) echo $_GET['msg'];
?>
<form method="POST" action="mail_handler.php">
<div class="col-sm-7 slideanim">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-6 form-group">
<input class="form-control" id="name" name="name" placeholder="Naam" type="text" required>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-6 form-group">
<input class="form-control" id="phone" name="phone" placeholder="Telefoonnummer" type="text" required>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-group">
<input class="form-control" id="email" name="email" placeholder="Email" type="email" required>
</div>
</div>
<textarea class="form-control" id="msg" name="msg" placeholder="Bericht" rows="5"></textarea><br>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12 form-group">
<button class="btn btn-default pull-right" id="submit" name="submit" type="submit">Verstuur</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
in the mail_handler.php, change echo to $msg
<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$name=$_POST['name'];
$email=$_POST['email'];
$phone=$_POST['phone'];
$msg=$_POST['msg'];
$to='infosyncdevelopment#gmail.com'; // Receiver Email ID, Replace with your email ID
$subject='Form Submission';
$message="Name :".$name."\n"."Phone :".$phone."\n"."Wrote the following :"."\n\n".$msg;
$headers="From: ".$email;
if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)){
$msg = "<h1>Bedankt voor uw bericht!"." ".$name.", Wij nemen zo snel mogelijk contact met u op.</h1>";
}
else{
$msg = "Something went wrong!";
}
header("Location: contact.php?$msg");
} ?>

Answer 2

Use AJAX
$("form").submit(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
var name = $('#name').val();
// do this for all other input tags
$.post("file.php" , {x:name , .....} , function(data){
// do stuff with data , here data is the things echoed/printed by 'file.php'
});
});