How to make some of these fields mandatory (php)? - php

Question

I'm trying to customize a php script to make it adapted to my needs.
Here's the code :
<?php
if (isset($_POST['email']))
{
$error = '';
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
if($name=='' || $email=='')
{
$error = 'Name and email are mandatory';
}
if ($error == '')
{
$custom_field1 = $_POST['custom_field1'];
$custom_field2 = $_POST['custom_field2'];
$custom_field3 = $_POST['custom_field3'];
$boolean = 'true';
$postdata = http_build_query(
array(
'name' => $name,
'email' => $email,
'custom_field1' => $custom_field1,
'custom_field2' => $custom_field2,
'custom_field3' => $custom_field3,
'list' => $list,
'boolean' => 'true'
)
);
$opts = array('http' => array('method' => 'POST', 'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded', 'content' => $postdata));
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$result = file_get_contents($app_url.'/signin', false, $context);
if ($result != 1)
$error = $result;
}
}
?>
By default the name and the email are the two mandatory fields, i would like the custom fields 1 & 2 to be mandatory as well.
I'd also like the error message to be specific to the missing field(s).
With the current code, even if the name is filled, the message says :
Name and email are mandatory
Thanks

Answer 1

try this:
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$custom_field1 = $_POST['custom_field1'];
$custom_field2 = $_POST['custom_field2'];
$error = array();
if($name=='')
{
$error[] = 'Name are mandatory';
}
if($email == '')
{
$error[] = 'Email are mandatory';
}
if($custom_field1 == '')
{
$error[] = 'Custom field 1 is mandatory';
}
if($custom_field2 == '')
{
$error[] = 'Custom field 2 is mandatory';
}
if (!empty($error))
{
$custom_field3 = $_POST['custom_field3'];
$boolean = 'true';
$postdata = http_build_query(
array(
'name' => $name,
'email' => $email,
'custom_field1' => $custom_field1,
'custom_field2' => $custom_field2,
'custom_field3' => $custom_field3,
'list' => $list,
'boolean' => 'true'
)
);
$opts = array('http' => array('method' => 'POST', 'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded', 'content' => $postdata));
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$result = file_get_contents($app_url.'/signin', false, $context);
if ($result != 1)
$error[] = $result;
}
}
When you displaying the error messages, make a loop in $error array
foreach ($error as $errstr)
{
echo "<p>{$errstr}</p>";
}
or implode to string and echoes like
echo "<p>" . implode("</p><p>", $error) . "</p>";

Answer 2

This block says if name is empty || (or) email is empty the error is "Name and email are mandatory".
if($name=='' || $email=='') {
$error = 'Name and email are mandatory';
}
If you would like to create seperate error messages, just follow this pattern. I'm sure you will figure it out if you give it a try.

Answer 3

You can make an if statement with a custom error for each field you'd like to check:
if ($name == '')
{
$error = 'Name is mandatory';
}
You can repeat this pattern for each field you'd like to check. You will need to assign $custom_field1 and $custom_field2 before you do this check (your script is doing this on the two lines after it checks to make sure $error is empty).
You may want to read through the PHP manual about variables and the if statement.

Answer 4

The most simple solution would be to create an array with the required fields and loop though them. This enables you to both check mandatory fields in a flexible way and have error messages for individual fields:
// required fields
$required = [
'name' => 'Name',
'email' => 'Emailaddress',
'custom_field1' => 'My awesome field 1',
'custom_field2' => 'My awesome field 2',
];
// list of errors
$errors = [];
if (isset($_POST['email'])) {
// loop through required fields
foreach ($required as $key => $name) {
if ($_POST[$key] !== '') {
continue;
}
$errors[$key] = $name . ' is required';
}
}
// check if there were errors
if (!empty($errors)) {
// display errors
}
The advantage of this solution is that you can easily add more required field by simply adding it to the $required array.
You could even easily add other validation like that. For example:
// validation of fields
$validation= [
'name' => [
'name' => 'Name',
'required' => true,
],
'email' => [
'name' => 'Emailaddress',
'required' => true,
'validation' => 'email',
],
'custom_field1' => [
'name' => 'My awesome field 1',
'required' => true,
'validation' => '/^[a-z]{2,}$/i',
],
'custom_field2' => [
'name' => 'My awesome field 2',
'required' => true,
],
];
function validateEmail($key, $data, $errors) {
if (!filter_var($_POST[$key], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
$errors[$key] = $data['name'] . ' must be a valid emailaddress';
}
return $errors;
}
function validatePattern($key, $data, $errors) {
if (preg_match($data['validation'], $_POST[$key]) !== 1) {
$errors[$key] = $data['name'] . ' has an incorrect format';
}
return $errors;
}
// list of errors
$errors = [];
if (isset($_POST['email'])) {
// loop fields to be validated
foreach ($validationas $key => $data) {
if (array_key_exists('validation', $data)) {
switch($data['validation']) {
case 'email':
$errors = validateEmail($key, $data, $errors);
break;
default:
validatePattern($key, $data, $errors)
break;
}
}
if ($data['required'] !== true) {
continue;
}
if ($_POST[$key] === '') {
$errors[$key] = $data['name'] . ' is required';
}
}
}
You could also add client side validation as in LMT-PhD's answer but you should always have at least server side validation. Client side validation should be treated as a nice thing to do for users and nothing more.