Form validation - required fields in php form - php

Question

I've found a form that works well with multiple file uploads and am trying to work in some validation, i'm just trying to make some fields required for now.
Currently some validation is occuring with error messages however the form always posts regardless. My php knowledge is limited and it may look messy but I would be grateful if anybody could help me as to how to amend the following code..
<?php
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']=="POST"){
// we'll begin by assigning the To address and message subject
$to="paul#thedesignbank.co.uk";
$subject="Parts Request";
$subject = trim($_POST['namefrom']);
$vehiclereg = trim($_POST['vehiclereg']);
$chassisnumber = trim($_POST['chassisnumber']);
$contactnumber = trim($_POST['contactnumber']);
$emailfrom = trim($_POST['emailfrom']);
$address = trim($_POST['address']);
$town = trim($_POST['town']);
$postcode = trim($_POST['postcode']);
$comments = trim($_POST['comments']);
// get the sender's name and email address
// we'll just plug them a variable to be used later$from = stripslashes($_POST['fromname'])." <".stripslashes($_POST['fromemail']).">";
// generate a random string to be used as the boundary marker
$mime_boundary="==Multipart_Boundary_x".md5(mt_rand())."x";
// now we'll build the message headers
$headers = "From: $from\r\n" .
"MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n" .
"Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\r\n" .
" boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";
// here, we'll start the message body.
// this is the text that will be displayed
// in the e-mail
$message.="From: ".$subject."\n";
$message.="Email: ".$emailfrom."\n";
$message.="Vehicle Registration: ".$vehiclereg."\n";
$message.="Chassis Number: ".$chassisnumber."\n";
$message.="Address: ".$address."\n";
$message.="Town: ".$town."\n";
$message.="Postcode: ".$postcode."\n";
$message.="Contact Number: ".$contactnumber."\n";
$message.="Comment: ".$comments."\n\n";
//my validation gives a message but email still posts
$errors = array();
if (!$_POST['namefrom'])
// if not, add that error to our array
$errors[] = "Name is required";
// check to see if a subject was entered
if (!$_POST['emailfrom'])
// if not, add that error to our array
$errors[] = "Email Address is required";
if (!$_POST['contactnumber'])
// if not, add that error to our array
$errors[] = "Contact Number is required";
// check to see if a message was entered
if (!$_POST['vehiclereg'])
// if not, add that error to our array
$errors[] = "vehiclereg is required";
// if there are any errors, display them
if (count($errors)>0){
echo "<strong>ERROR:<br>\n";
foreach($errors as $err)
echo "$err<br>\n";
} else {
}
// next, we'll build the invisible portion of the message body
// note that we insert two dashes in front of the MIME boundary
// when we use it
$message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" .
"--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" .
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" .
$message . "\n\n";
// now we'll process our uploaded files
foreach($_FILES as $userfile){
// store the file information to variables for easier access
$tmp_name = $userfile['tmp_name'];
$type = $userfile['type'];
$name = $userfile['name'];
$size = $userfile['size'];
// if the upload succeded, the file will exist
if (file_exists($tmp_name)){
// check to make sure that it is an uploaded file and not a system file
if(is_uploaded_file($tmp_name)){
// open the file for a binary read
$file = fopen($tmp_name,'rb');
// read the file content into a variable
$data = fread($file,filesize($tmp_name));
// close the file
fclose($file);
// now we encode it and split it into acceptable length lines
$data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
}
// now we'll insert a boundary to indicate we're starting the attachment
// we have to specify the content type, file name, and disposition as
// an attachment, then add the file content.
// NOTE: we don't set another boundary to indicate that the end of the
// file has been reached here. we only want one boundary between each file
// we'll add the final one after the loop finishes.
$message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
"Content-Type: {$type};\n" .
" name=\"{$name}\"\n" .
"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" .
" filename=\"{$fileatt_name}\"\n" .
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" .
$data . "\n\n";
}
}
// here's our closing mime boundary that indicates the last of the message
$message.="--{$mime_boundary}--\n";
// now we just send the message
if (#mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers))
echo "Message Sent Successfully";
else
echo "Failed to send";
} else {
?>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post"
enctype="multipart/form-data" name="form1">
<h3>Vehicle Details</h3>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Vehicle Registration: <span style="color:red">*</span></label>
<input class="form-input" name="vehiclereg" id="vehiclereg" type="text" tabindex="1" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">VIN/Chassis Number (Last 6 Digits):</label>
<input class="form-input" name="chassisnumber" id="chassisnumber" type="text" tabindex="1" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<h3>Customer Details</h3>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Name: <span style="color:red">*</span></label>
<input class="form-input" name="namefrom" id="namefrom" type="text" tabindex="1" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<!--changed these-->
<p style="margin:17px 0"><label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Address:</label>
<input class="form-input" name="address" id="address" type="text" tabindex="1" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Town:</label>
<input class="form-input" name="town" id="town" type="text" tabindex="1" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Postcode:</label>
<input class="form-input" name="postcode" id="postcode" type="text" tabindex="1" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<!--changed these-->
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style=" font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Email: <span style="color:red">*</span></label>
<input class="form-input" name="emailfrom" id="emailfrom" type="text" tabindex="3" style="width:100%;"/></p>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style="margin-right: 4px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Contact No: <span style="color:red">*</span></label>
<input type="text" class="form-input" name="contactnumber" id="contactnumber" rows="2" cols="22" tabindex="6" style="width:100%;" /></p>
<p style="margin:17px 0"> <label style="margin-right: 4px; vertical-align:top; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; ">Brief Description of Request: </label>
<textarea class="form-input" name="comments" id="comments" rows="7" cols="22" tabindex="6" style="height:50px; width:100%;" ></textarea></p>
<p style="margin:17px 0">
<label style="margin-right: 4px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Vehicle image/doc one:</label>
<input type="file" name="file1">
</p>
<p style="margin:17px 0">
<label style="margin-right: 4px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Vehicle image/doc two:</label>
<input type="file" name="file2">
</p>
<p style="margin:17px 0">
<label style="margin-right: 4px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Vehicle image/doc three:</label>
<input type="file" name="file3">
</p>
<div style="clear:both">
<p> I would like to subscribe to the newsletter
<input name="subscribe" type="checkbox" value="website_subscribers" name="mailinglist[]" checked="checked" /></p>
</div>
<p><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"></p>
</form>
<?php } ?>

Answer 1

Using if (!$_POST['emailfrom']) will only check if the posted field exists. Regardless if it's empty or not.
Instead you could use empty:
if (empty($_POST['emailfrom'])) {
echo 'error'
}
You also can add some additional checks to the fields like a valid email check or phonenumber validator:
if (empty($_POST['emailfrom']) || !isValidEmailCustomFunction($_POST['emailfrom]')) {
echo 'error'
}

Answer 2

something like
if(!isset($_POST['namefrom']) || $_POST['namefrom']=="" ){
$error[]="Please enter your name";
}