PHP Unidentified index, separate php and html files - php

Question

i know this topic has been touched on so much, but a solution is still evading me. I keep getting an unidentified index error in this php file:
<?php
$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? $_POST['name'] : '';
$telephone = isset($_POST['telephone']) ? $_POST['telephone'] : '';
$email = isset($_POST['email']) ? $_POST['email'] : '';
$birthDate = isset($_POST["birthDate"]) ? $_POST['birthDate'] : '';
$gender = isset($_POST['gender']) ? $_POST['email'] : '';
$comments = isset($_POST['comments']) ? $_POST['comments'] : '';
?>
Thanks for submitting your application!<br>
The following is the information we received:<br>
Name: <?php echo $_POST['name'] ?><br>
Telephone: <?php echo $_POST['telephone']?><br>
E-Mail: <?php echo $_POST['email']?><br>
Birthday: <?php echo $_POST['birthDate '] ?><br>
Gender: <?php echo $_POST['gender'] ?><br>
When you first wanted to be a zookeeper: <?php echo $_POST['comments ']
?>
</body>
</html>
here's the html form that this php file is getting it's values from:
<form id="zooKeeperForm" action="zoo.php" method="GET" onsubmit="return validateForm()">
<p><i>Please complete the form. Mandatory fields are marked with a </i><em>*</em></p>
<fieldset>
<legend>Contact Details</legend>
<label for="name">Name <em>*</em></label>
<input id="name" placeholder="Jane Smith" autofocus required><br>
<label for="telephone">Telephone</label>
<input id="telephone" placeholder="(xxx) xxx-xxxx"><br>
<label for="email">Email <em>*</em></label>
<input id="email" type="email" required><br>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Personal Information</legend>
<label for="birthDate">Birth Date<em>*</em></label>
<input id="birthDate" type="date" required><br>
<label for="age">Age<em>*</em></label>
<input id="age" type="number" min="0" max="120" step="0.1" required><br>
<label for="gender">Gender</label>
<select id="gender">
<option value="female">Female</option>
<option value="male">Male</option>
</select><br>
<label for="comments">When did you first know you wanted to be a zoo-keeper?<em>*</em></label>
<textarea id="comments" oninput="validateComments(this)" required></textarea>
</fieldset>
<p><input type="submit" value="Submit Application"></p>
</form>
what am I doing wrong here?? I feel like an idiot. I keep going from getting the unidentified index error to where it prints out the format I want but it's just blank for all the values that should be getting plugged in.

Answer 1

First thing:
Change it to POST
<form id="zooKeeperForm" action="zoo.php" method="POST" onsubmit="return validateForm()">
// ^ POST not GET
Second. Name attributes is the one to be used not ids
<input id="name" placeholder="Jane Smith" autofocus required>
// NOT ID but name="name"
This must be:
<input name="telephone" placeholder="(xxx) xxx-xxxx" id="telephone" />
<input name="email" type="email" required id="email" />
<input name="birthDate" type="date" required id="birthDate" />
<select name="gender" id="gender">
<textarea name="comments" oninput="validateComments(this)" id="comments" required>
Third:
The simple thing here is that, always process form input the form is submitted. Not upon initial load.
Catch the submission with something like this:
<input type="submit" name="zoo_submit" value="Submit Application" />
Then in PHP:
// simple initialization
$name = $telephone = $email = $birthDate = $gender = $comments = '';
if(isset($_POST['zoo_submit'])) {
$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? $_POST['name'] : '';
$telephone = isset($_POST['telephone']) ? $_POST['telephone'] : '';
$email = isset($_POST['email']) ? $_POST['email'] : '';
$birthDate = isset($_POST["birthDate"]) ? $_POST['birthDate'] : '';
$gender = isset($_POST['gender']) ? $_POST['email'] : '';
$comments = isset($_POST['comments']) ? $_POST['comments'] : '';
}
?>
Thanks for submitting your application!<br>
The following is the information we received:<br>
<!-- now you have already set the variables above, use them, not the POST values again -->
Name: <?php echo $name; ?><br>
Telephone: <?php echo $telephone; ?><br>
E-Mail: <?php echo $email; ?><br>
Birthday: <?php echo $birthDate; ?><br>
Gender: <?php echo $gender; ?><br>
When you first wanted to be a zookeeper: <?php echo $comments; ?>