PHP form - Why validation doesn´t work? - php

Question

I´m trying to validate a simple PHP form with HTML code but it doesn´t work properly.
Here you are HTML code:
<form action="expresscontactform.php" method="post" name="form1" id="form1">
<label>Name </label><input id="Name" name="Name" type="text" value="<?php echo $_POST['Name']; ?>">
<span class="error"> <?php echo $errors[1]; ?> </span>
<label>Email </label><input id="Email" name="Email" type="text" value="<?php echo $_POST['Email']; ?>">
<span class="error"> <?php echo $errors[4]; ?> </span>
<label>Phone </label><input id="Phone" name="Phone" type="text" value="<?php echo $_POST['Phone']; ?>">
<span class="error"> <?php echo $errors[2]; ?> </span>
<label>Country of origin</label><input id="Country" name="Country" type="text" value="<?php echo $_POST['Country']; ?>">
<span class="error"> <?php echo $errors[3]; ?> </span>
<label>Message </label><textarea id="message" cols="5" rows="5" name="Message"></textarea>
<input value="Send" class="send_request_new" type="submit">
</form>
And this is PHP code (on the server):
<?php
if(isset($_POST['send_request_new'])){
$errors = array();
if($_POST['Name'] == ''){
$errors[1] = '<span class="error">Please type your name</span>';
}else if($_POST['Phone'] == ''){
$errors[2] = '<span class="error">Please type your phone number</span>';
}else if($_POST['Country'] == ''){
$errors[3] = '<span class="error">Please type your country</span>';
}else{
$EmailFrom = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Email']));
$EmailTo = 'webmaster#theacademy.co,' . $EmailFrom;
$Subject = "Online Application Form";
$name = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Name']));
$phone = $_POST['Phone'];
$country = $_POST['Country'];
$message = $_POST['Message'];
$header = 'From: ' . $EmailFrom . " \r\n";
$header .= "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion() . " \r\n";
$header .= "Mime-Version: 1.0 \r\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: text/plain";
// prepare email body text
$Body .= "Contact form";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "This is an automatically generated e-mail, to inform you that we received your request. We will contact you as soon as possible.";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Kind regards";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "**********************************************";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "The Academy";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "::::::::::::::::::::::::::";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Your Request:";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "::::::::::::::::::::::::::";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Name: ";
$Body .= $name;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Phone: ";
$Body .= $phone;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Country: ";
$Body .= $country;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Email: ";
$Body .= $EmailFrom;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Message: ";
$Body .= $message;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Sent on " . date('d/m/Y', time());
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Last visited page: ";
$Body .= $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
if(mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, $header)){
$result = '<div class="result_ok">Email sent successfully</div>';
// If successfully we reset all the fields
$_POST['nombre'] = '';
$_POST['email'] = '';
$_POST['asunto'] = '';
$_POST['mensaje'] = '';
header("refresh:3;url=http://www.myexample.co/");
}else{
$result = '<div class="result_fail">Error!!</div>';
}
}
}
?>
I think there is a mistake in the line below:
<span class="error"> <?php echo $errors[1]; ?> </span>
But I don´t know where exactly.
One more question, how can I set "The Academy" as email sender?
I don´t know if this is the best way to validate a form, if someone show me other way I will be thankful to learn.
I appreciate a lot if anyone can help me, please.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Firstly, your code's execution is dependant on this conditional statement if(isset($_POST['send_request_new'])) where it's looking for a "named" element called send_request_new therefore would never execute.
Your present (unnamed) submit button
<input value="Send" class="send_request_new" type="submit">
this should be changed to:
<input value="Send" class="send_request_new" type="submit" name="send_request_new">
you have a class named that way, instead of a name.
In order to get it to work, you would need to place your entire HTML/PHP inside the same page and use action=""
I noticed you don't have one for your Email and the message, only for the name/phone number and country.
Plus, to use a personalized method for the sender's name:
Base yourself on the following:
$Name = "The Academy";
$email = "email#example.com";
$header = "From: ". $Name . " <" . $email . ">\r\n";
You can use some of the filters on PHP.net to validate and protect against XSS injection:
-http://php.net/manual/en/filter.filters.validate.php
One of which being FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL