Contact Form not showing error messages or sending email - php

Question

Before I get into it I would like to say that this did send emails from my local server so I have everything set up. After adding this form validation it no longer sends emails or shows errors. It just refreshes the page. I'm new to php coding so I'm sure I just have an if statement in the wrong order or something like that.
HTML
<section id="contact">
<h1 class="section-header">Contact Us Directly</h1>
<h4 class="text-center">Have any quesitons not answered in the <span>Questions Page</span>.</h4>
<form action="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>" method="POST">
<label for="fname">First Name</label>
<input type="text" id="fname" name="firstname" value="<?php $firstname ?>" placeholder="Your name.." tabindex="1" autofocus>
<span class="error"><?php $firstname_error ?></span>
<label for="lname">Last Name</label>
<input type="text" id="lname" name="lastname" value="<?php $lastname ?>" placeholder="Your last name.." tabindex="2">
<span class="error"><?php $lastname_error ?></span>
<label for="email">Email</label>
<input type="text" id="email" name="email" value="<?php $email ?>" placeholder="Your email.." tabindex="3">
<span class="error"><?php $email_error ?></span>
<label for="message">Message</label>
<textarea id="subject" name="message" value="<?php $message ?>" placeholder="Write something.." style="height:200px" tabindex="4"> </textarea>
<span class="error"><?php $message_error ?></span>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" tabindex="5">
<span class="success"><?php $success ?></span>
</form>
</section>
PHP
<?php
$firstname_error = $lastname_error = $email_error = $message_error = "";
$firstname = $lastname = $email = $message = $success = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["firstname"])) {
$firstname_error = "First name is required";
} else {
$firstname = test_input($_POST["firstname"]);
// check if name only contains letters and whitespace
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$firstname)) {
$firstname_error = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["lastname"])) {
$lastname_error = "Last name is required";
} else {
$lastname = test_input($_POST["lastname"]);
// check if name only contains letters and whitespace
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$lastname)) {
$lastname_error = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$email_error = "Email is required";
} else {
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
// check if e-mail address is well-formed
if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
$email_error = "Invalid email format";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["message"])) {
$message = "";
} else {
$message = test_input($_POST["message"]);
}
if ($firstname_error == '' and $lastname_error == '' and $email_error == '' and $message_error == '' ){
$message_body = '';
unset($_POST['submit']);
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value){
$message_body .= "$key: $value\n";
}
$EmailFrom = localhost;
$EmailTo = "testrepairmail69#gmail.com";
$Subject = "New Order From tabletscreenfixer.com";
if (mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $message)){
$success = "Message sent, thank you for contacting us!";
$firstname = $lastname = $email = $message = '';
}
}
}
function test_input($data) {
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
return $data;
}
?>

Answer 1

Your Code is begging for some improvements as #R Smith mentioned; nevertheless this version works; i have tested on my pc.
<?php
$firstname_error = $lastname_error = $email_error = $message_error = "";
$firstname = $lastname = $email = $message = $success = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["firstname"])) {
$firstname_error = "First name is required";
} else {
$firstname = test_input($_POST["firstname"]);
// check if name only contains letters and whitespace
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$firstname)) {
$firstname_error = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["lastname"])) {
$lastname_error = "Last name is required";
} else {
$lastname = test_input($_POST["lastname"]);
// check if name only contains letters and whitespace
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$lastname)) {
$lastname_error = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$email_error = "Email is required";
} else {
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
// check if e-mail address is well-formed
if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
$email_error = "Invalid email format";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["message"])) {
$message = "";
} else {
$message = test_input($_POST["message"]);
}
if ($firstname_error == '' and $lastname_error == '' and $email_error == '' and $message_error == '' ){
$message_body = '';
unset($_POST['submit']);
// var_dump($_POST); exit();
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value){
$message_body .= "$key: $value\n";
}
$EmailFrom = "test#gamil.com";
$EmailTo = "tabletscreenfixer.com";//-> the message will be sent to this address if you have configure mail stuff well
$Subject = "New Order From tabletscreenfixer.com";
if (mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $message)){
$success = "Message sent, thank you for contacting us!";
$firstname = $lastname = $email = $message = '';
}else{
echo "Failure";
}
}else{
echo "Failure 2";
}
}
function test_input($data) {
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
return $data;
}
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<section id="contact">
<h1 class="section-header">Contact Us Directly</h1>
<h4 class="text-center">Have any quesitons not answered in the <span>Questions Page</span>.</h4>
<form action="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>" method="POST">
<label for="fname">First Name</label>
<input type="text" id="fname" name="firstname" value="<?php echo $firstname ?>" placeholder="Your name.." tabindex="1" autofocus>
<span class="error"><?php echo $firstname_error ?></span>
<label for="lname">Last Name</label>
<input type="text" id="lname" name="lastname" value="<?php echo $lastname ?>" placeholder="Your last name.." tabindex="2">
<span class="error"><?php echo $lastname_error ?></span>
<label for="email">Email</label>
<input type="text" id="email" name="email" value="<?php echo $email ?>" placeholder="Your email.." tabindex="3">
<span class="error"><?php echo $email_error ?></span>
<label for="message">Message</label>
<textarea id="subject" name="message" value="<?php echo $message ?>" placeholder="Write something.." style="height:200px" tabindex="4"> </textarea>
<span class="error"><?php echo $message_error ?></span>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" tabindex="5">
<span class="success"><?php $success ?></span>
</form>
</section>
</body>
</html>
EDIT: Missing echo in the input value attribute;
Hope it helps;

Answer 2

Add some debugging. For example, everywhere you have an error, increment a error counter. Something like this:
if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$email_error = "Email is required";
$errors++;
} else {
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
// check if e-mail address is well-formed
if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
$email_error = "Invalid email format";
}
}
Then, at the end, instead of the long if condition:
if ($firstname_error == '' and $lastname_error == '' and $email_error == '' and $message_error == '' ){
You can use something like:
if ($errors == 0){
Which indicates no errors. Then, inside that if, when you try to send the mail, check for failure:
if (mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $message)){
$success = "Message sent, thank you for contacting us!";
$firstname = $lastname = $email = $message = '';
}
else {
echo "The mail command failed!!";
}
Finally, give yourself some sort of indicator that there were errors, just for your testing phase. You can remove this else (or even add better styling and keep it):
if ($errors == 0){
// snip - lines of code in here removed to keep this snippet readable. this is your test and send mail logic.
}
else {
echo "You've got $errors errors! You need to correct them!";
}
With these changes, you should be able to find your issues quickly. As I said, you can also remove some of this code (like the echo statements) once you've finished your debugging.
Good luck!