How do I validate this email contact form with PHP? - php

Question

Link to website: http://www.leonardpfautsch.com/contact.php
How do I make my contact form validated only using PHP? I want to be able to have error messages directly under the text field that has an error. For each text field, I do not want multiple errors to show up at once. If you submit the form with nothing in the fields, you see that under name and email two errors show up for each. I want the errors to show up only once due to some type of specifications. Right now I think I am on the right track. However, the code below does not have the email being sent. I am very new to PHP. If anybody could help me, I would really appreciate it.
<?php
if (($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') && (!empty($_POST['action']))){
$errors = array($name_error_1, $name_error_2, $email_error_1, $email_error_2, $subject_error, $message_error);
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$subject = $_POST['subject'];
$message = $_POST['message'];
if ($name === '') {
$name_error_1 = '<div style="color:red;"> Name is a required field! </div>';
}
if ($email === '') {
$email_error_1 = '<div style="color:red;"> Email is a required field! </div>';
}
if ($subject === '') {
$subject_error = '<div style="color:red;"> Subject is a required field! </div>';
}
if ($message === '') {
$message_error = '<div style="color:red;"> Message is a required field! </div>';
}
if (isset($email) && (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) === false)){
$email_error_2 = '<div style="color:red;"> The email address must be real! </div>';
}
if (ctype_alpha($name) === false) {
$name_error_2 = '<div style="color:red;"> Your name must only contain letters! </div>';
}
/*Main way that mail works*/
if (empty($errors) === true) {
/*Where_mail_goes_to, Subject, Body_text, Who_email_is_from*/
mail('email_address', $subject, "From " . $name . "\r\r" . $message, 'From: ' . $email);
/*Shows up in the URL if the message has been sent*/
header('Location: contact.php?sent');
exit();
}
} //end of main if
?>
<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" >
<span class="label">Name</span><br/>
<?php if (isset($name_error_1)) { echo $name_error_1; } ?>
<?php if (isset($name_error_2)) { echo $name_error_2; } ?>
<input type="text" class="textfield" name="name" size="50" maxlength="50" <?php if (isset($_POST['name']) === true) { echo 'value="', strip_tags($_POST['name']), '"'; } ?> > <br/>
<span class="label">Email</span><br/>
<?php if (isset($email_error_1)) { echo $email_error_1; } ?>
<?php if (isset($email_error_2)) { echo $email_error_2; } ?>
<input type="text" class="textfield" name="email" size="50" maxlength="50" <?php if (isset($_POST['email']) === true) { echo 'value="', strip_tags($_POST['email']), '"'; } ?> > <br/>
<span class="label">Subject</span><br/>
<?php if (isset($subject_error)) { echo $subject_error; } ?>
<input type="text" class="textfield" name="subject" size="50" maxlength="50" <?php if (isset($_POST['subject']) === true) { echo 'value="', strip_tags($_POST['subject']), '"'; } ?> > <br/>
<span class="label">Message</span><br/>
<?php if (isset($message_error)) { echo $message_error; } ?>
<textarea rows="5" cols="50" name="message" id="textarea" maxlength="500"><?php if (isset($_POST['message']) === true){ echo $_POST['message'];}?></textarea><br/>
<input type="submit" value="Send" id="submit" name="action">
</form>

Answer 1

You could create an array of errors for each field and display just the first error added to it.
<?php
$email_errors = array();
if ($email == '')
{
$email_errors[] = 'First error';
}
if (more_email_checks($email) == false)
{
$email_errors[] = 'Second error';
}
?>
...
<span class="label">Email</span><br />
<?php echo array_shift($email_errors); ?>
To know whether to send e-mails or not, you could do something like this:
$errors_found = 0;
if (check_email($email) == false)
{
$email_error = 'Error message';
$errors_found++;
}
...
if ($errors_found == 0)
{
mail(...);
}

Answer 2

You can do it by using the elseif check
<span class="label">Email</span><br/>
<?php if (isset($email_error_1))
{
echo $email_error_1;
}
elseif(isset($email_error_2)) {
echo $email_error_2;
} ?>
Also move this line after the last validation check
if (ctype_alpha($name) === false) {
$name_error_2 = '<div style="color:red;"> Your name must only contain letters! </div>';
}
$errors = array($name_error_1, $name_error_2, $email_error_1, $email_error_2, $subject_error, $message_error);

Answer 3

you can by this code for name
<?
$message = "<div style = 'color :red ' /> ;
if (isset(name == '' ) {
echo $message
}
?>
this is name php vaildation but yo can create js

Answer 4

Change your email validation to:
<span class="label">Email</span><br/>
<?php if (isset($email_error_1))
{
echo $email_error_1;
}else if(isset($email_error_2)) {
echo $email_error_2;
} ?>
same if else can be applied to all the fields with multiple validation conditions.
and then move your error array just above the email condition check:
<?php
$errors = array($name_error_1, $name_error_2, $email_error_1, $email_error_2, $subject_error, $message_error);
//and change your mail function as:
$to = 'email_address';
$headers = $headers .= 'From: $name <$email>';
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
?>
Also perform a check on the control, if you have filled the form completely then it should come to the mail function, I mean just check the if condition, in case you have some issue with the condition, try to put an echo inside if statement(which is responsible for sending email), and if that echo statement executes then mail should work.
:)