How to use PHP to make a form send an email? - php

Question

I've been learning PHP for about two days now. So I'm really new to PHP. I have tried my best to understand but no matter what I write, my code never works. I got it to send an email successfully one time. But I'm not able to get it to send the contents in my form.
Here is my HTML form.
<!-- FORM BEGINS -->
<form action="contact-form-handler.php" method="post">
<!-- Full Name -->
<div class="formWrapper ">
<label name="firstname" for="firstName"><span>*</span>First Name</label>
<input type="text" name="memberFirstName" id="memberFirstName" onkeyup="activateButton()" class="inputText" tabindex="1" maxlength="256" onkeydown="return checkAlphaNumericText(event,this);" required="required"/>
</div>
<p class="fieldsetDivider"></p>
<div class="formWrapper">
<label for="lastName"><span>*</span>Last Name</label>
<input type="text" name="memberLastName" id="memberLastName" onkeyup="activateButton()" class="inputText" tabindex="2" maxlength="256" onkeydown="return checkAlphaNumericText(event,this);" required="required"/>
</div>
<p class="fieldsetDivider"></p>
<!-- Date of Birth-->
<p class="fieldsetDivider"></p>
<div class="formWrapper smallInput">
<label for="firstInput"><span>*</span>Date of Birth
<div class="labelClarify">(MM/DD/YYYY)</div>
</label>
<div class="inlineInput">
<input type="text" name="month" id="month" maxlength="2" onkeyup="activateButton();autotab(this, 'day')" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)" class="inputText" placeholder="MM" required="required"/>
<span>/</span>
</div>
<div class="inlineInput">
<input type="text" name="day" id="day" maxlength="2" onkeyup="activateButton();autotab(this, 'year')" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)" class="inputText" placeholder="DD" required="required"/>
<span>/</span>
</div>
<div class="inlineInput">
<input type="text" name="year" id="year" maxlength="4" onkeyup="activateButton()" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)" class="inputText" placeholder="YYYY" required="required"/>
</div>
<a rel="Please enter your date of birth" class="formHelp tooltip-link" href="#">
<img src="../../images/site3/common/form_icon_help.png">
</a>
</div>
<p class="fieldsetDivider"></p>
<!-- Member ID -->
<div class="formWrapper">
<label for="memberID"><span>*</span>Member ID</label>
<div class="inlineInput">
<input type="text" name="memberID" id="memberID" class="inputText" onkeyup="activateButton()" tabindex="3" maxlength="9" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)" required="required"/>
</div>
<a rel="Please enter your member ID" class="formHelp tooltip-link" href="#">
<img src="../../images/site3/common/form_icon_help.png">
</a>
</div>
<p class="fieldsetDivider"></p>
<!-- Zip Code -->
<div class="formWrapper">
<label for="zipCode"><span class="requiredStar">*</span>Zip Code</label>
<div class="inlineInput">
<input type="text" name="memberZipCode" id="memberZipCode" onkeyup="activateButton()" tabindex="4" class="inputText" maxlength="5" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)"/>
</div>
</div>
<p class="fieldsetDivider"></p>
<!-- Button -->
<div class="button">
<button class="greenBtnLarge" type="submit" style="text-decoration:none;"><span>Next<span></button>
</div>
</form>
<!-- FORM ENDS -->
Can someone please help me with a php code that would work for this form? I have found a couple template forms on the internet and I've spent hours trying to modify them to work with my form. But no luck.
And I can get the PHP and form to work together and make it send me an email from my server, so there's no problem with the server. An email will send. I just can't get the PHP code to send the contents of the form. It sends the email, but with no form details. Understand?
I really, really need help with this. Can you guys help me create a PHP code that will work with my HTML form I posted in this thread? I really need to get past this step in this project.
Thank you!
UPDATE!
Here is PHP template I found on the internet, but I don't know how to really modify it properly.... please help?
<?php
$errors = '';
$myemail = 'example#example.com';//<-----Put Your email address here.
if(empty($_POST['firstname']) ||
empty($_POST['lastname']) ||
empty($_POST['dob']))
{
$errors .= "\n Error: all fields are required";
}
$name = $_POST['firstname'];
$email_address = $_POST['lastname'];
$message = $_POST['dob'];
if (!preg_match(
"/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*#[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i",
$email_address))
{
$errors .= "\n Error: Invalid email address";
}
if( empty($errors))
{
$to = $myemail;
$email_subject = "Contact form submission: $name";
$email_body = "You have received a new message. ".
" Here are the details:\n Name: $name \n Email: $email_address \n Message \n $message";
$headers = "From: $myemail\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: $email_address";
mail($to,$email_subject,$email_body,$headers);
//redirect to the 'thank you' page
header('Location: contact-form-thank-you.html');
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Contact form handler</title>
</head>
<body>
<!-- This page is displayed only if there is some error -->
<?php
echo nl2br($errors);
?>
</body>
</html>

Answer 1

You have a several code errors...
Remove the <label> tags from your titles for <input type="text">... they are not needed.
Make sure your form field name matches your email code $_POST['something'] for example
You have <input type="text" name="memberFirstName" id="memberFirstName" /> in your form... BUT
you have $_POST['firstname'] in your email code. Change $_POST to memberFirstName OR change your <input name and id to firstname
The same changes need to be made to all elements so they match precisely.
AND remember... PHP is case sensitive.

Answer 2

The HTML form fields are not the same with the fields in php email handler
Ex.
The input name should be same as what the handler should get
Since
<input type="text" name="memberFirstName" required="required"/>
The index of $_POST should be same memberFirstName
$_POST['memberFirstName']
This should be applied to all fields
It seems the HTML form is not related to the php handler at all.
Its better to use this form for testing instead
<form action="contact-form-handler.php" method="POST">
First Name: <input name="firstname" type="text"><br>
Last Name:<input name="lastname" type="text"><br>
DOB: <input name="dob" type="text">
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>
Note:
If you are using wamp or xampp local server you need to check if the email service is configured correctly otherwise no email will be sent
Check this for reference:
How to configure XAMPP to send mail from localhost?