PHP echo in a HTML Page - php

Question

I have a contact.html page I have a form on. The form action goes to .php page to handle the email, nothing special. On that page I have:
<?php
function check_input($data)
{
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
return $data;
}
$FirstName = check_input($_REQUEST['FirstName']);
$LastName = check_input($_REQUEST['LastName']);
$email = check_input($_REQUEST['email']);
$phone = check_input($_REQUEST['phone']);
$message = check_input($_REQUEST['message']);
$human = check_input($_REQUEST['human']);
$webpackage = check_input($_REQUEST['webpackage']);
$webdesign = check_input($_REQUEST['webdesign']);
$customdesign = check_input($_REQUEST['customdesign']);
if ($human == 5) {
$to = "****.com";
$subject = "From ****";
$body = " From: $FirstName $LastName\n\n E-Mail: $email\n\n Phone: $phone\n\n Message:\n\n $message\n\n Web Package:$webpackage\n\n Web Design:$webdesign\n\n Custom Design:$customdesign";
mail ($to, $subject, $body);
header('location: index.html');
}
else {
$result="<div class=\"alert alert-danger\">Sorry there was an error sending your message. Please go back and check your anti-spam answer</div>";
}
?>
I have a simple box that equals 5 that I am checking value for. This works and email sent with all info. BUT if not equal to 5 is where the problem starts. The page goes to my action.php page and is blank.
My html on the contact.html page is:
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-2">
<?php echo($result); ?>
</div>
</div>
Using this to get to my action.php page through form. Everything else is .html:
<form class="form-horizontal" id="contact-form" method="post" action="/action.php">
Is there a way to do this? I have a work around where I just echo the error from the .php page. This works if !=5 but not exactly what I want to do. As you may tell, I am not PHP literate.

Answer 1

You can set a variable in the $_SESSION[] array, and in your "else" section use Header() to redirect to a page where you display the value you stored.
See example in this other answered question:
displaying a message after redirecting the user to another web page

Answer 2

Update your else part with following code :
} else {
header('location: contact.html?status=error');
}
Now check if get method is set on your contact.html page. if yes than set and display your $result value.
<?php
if(isset($_GET['status']) && $_GET['status']=='error' ) {
$result="<div class=\"alert alert-danger\">Sorry there was an error sending your message. Please go back and check your anti-spam answer</div>";
} ?>
on contact.html check if $result has value and print it :)

Answer 3

Add a redirect towards contact.html in your action.php like this
else {
$result="Sorry there was an error sending your message. Please go back and check your anti-spam answer";
$result=str_replace(" ","%20",$result);
header('location: contact.html?result=$result');
}
And then get the result in contact.html with GET
$result= $_GET['result'];
Ideally do the html mark up for result in the destination Contact.html page after you receive the result. That eliminates the nuances of passing html over http