Taking post parameters in ajax comment form - php

Question

I'm trying to customize one comment form from template which I purchased. In short I have 3 files - post.php, comment_post.php and main.js. In post.php is simple html comment form. I'm not that good in ajax part and still trying to learn php so I'll need some help with this.
<form class="row" role="form" id="comments-form" name="comments-form" action="comments-send.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" class="form-control form-name-error" name="comments[form-name]" id="form-name" placeholder="Name">
<input type="email" class="form-control form-email-error" id="form-email" name="comments[form-email]" placeholder="Email">
<input type="hidden" name="comments[post_id]" value="<?php echo $row['post_id'];?>" >
<textarea class="form-control input-row-2 form-review-error" rows="3" id="form-comments" name="comments[form-review]" placeholder="Comment"></textarea>
<div class="form-group text-right btn-submit">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-dark button-submit">Send</button>
<div class="message-success alert-success alert hidden" style="position: absolute"><i class="fa fa-check"></i></div>
</div>
</form>
I have one hidden field to get post_id..
Here is comment_post.php which is the problem ( I think ). The errors are Undefined variable: comment_author_name, comment_author_image .. etc
if(isset($_POST['comments'])) {
$response = array('status' => '', 'errors'=>array());
foreach($_POST['comments'] as $key => $value) {
if($value == '') {
$response['errors'][$key.'-error'] = 'error';
}
}
if(empty($response['errors'])) {
$_POST['comments']['form-name'] = $comment_author_name;
$_POST['comments']['form-email'] = $comment_author_email;
$_POST['comments']['post_id'] = $post_id;
$_POST['comments']['form-review'] = $comment_text;
$sql = "INSERT INTO comments (comment_author_name, comment_author_email, comment_date, comment_text, post_id)
VALUES (:comment_author_name, :comment_author_email, NOW(), :comment_text, :post_id)";
$stmt = $pdo->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bindValue(":comment_author_name", $comment_author_name);
$stmt->bindValue(":comment_author_email", $comment_author_email);
$stmt->bindValue(":post_id", $post_id);
$stmt->bindValue(":comment_text", $comment_text);
$stmt->execute();
$response['status'] = 'ok';
} else {
$response['status'] = 'error';
}
echo json_encode($response);
}
In original file (comment_post.php) there is nothing for database insertion and this is my code. I'm not sure how to get values from the form when is send to the php part. This is from main.js file for the comment_form.
$("#comments-form").submit(function(e) {
$('#comments-form .form-control').removeClass('#comments-form message-error');
$.post("comments-send.php", $('#comments-form').serialize(), function(data) {
if (data.status === 'ok') {
$("#comments-form .message-success").removeClass('hidden').velocity({ opacity : 1 });
$("#comments-form .button-submit").addClass('button-transparent');
$('#comments-form .form-control').val('');
setTimeout(function() {
$("#comments-form .message-success").velocity({ opacity : 0 }, function() {
$(this).addClass('hidden');
});
$("#comments-form .button-submit").removeClass('button-transparent');
}, 3000);
} else {
$.each(data.errors, function(i, e) {
$('.' + i).addClass('#comments-form message-error');
});
}
}, 'json');
e.preventDefault();
});
$("#comments-form").on('keyup', '.contact-form', function() {
var that = this;
if ($(this).val() !== '') {
$(this).removeClass('message-error');
} else {
$(that).addClass('message-error');
}
});

Answer 1

It looks like you are not setting your variables correctly
update to this
$comment_author_name = $_POST['comments']['form-name'];
$comment_author_email = $_POST['comments']['form-email'];
$post_id = $_POST['comments']['post_id'];
$comment_text = $_POST['comments']['form-review'];
What you want to do is actually get the values from the $_POST and save them to the variables you have created.
Previously you were doing the oposite, therefore the variables did not exist and you were also reseting the values in your $_POST