php form not writing form data into mysql database - php

Question

I have to code below - updated
php code
if(empty($_POST['formEmail']))
{
$errorMessage .= "<li>You forgot to enter your email</li>";
}
$varEmail = $_POST['formEmail'];
if(empty($errorMessage))
{
$db = mysql_connect("servername","username","password");
if(!$db) die("Error connecting to MySQL database.");
mysql_select_db("tableName" ,$db);
$sql = "INSERT INTO emails(email) VALUES ('$varEmail')";
mysql_query($sql);
echo "Details added";
$_SESSION['status'] = 'success';
}
exit();
}
function PrepSQL($value)
{
// Stripslashes
if(get_magic_quotes_gpc())
{
$value = stripslashes($value);
}
// Quote
$value = "'" . mysql_real_escape_string($value) . "'";
return($value);
}
?>
form code
<?php
if(!empty($errorMessage))
{
echo("<p>There was an error with your form:</p>\n");
echo("<ul>" . $errorMessage . "</ul>\n");
}
?>
<form action="<?php echo htmlentities($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']); ?>" method="post">
<p>
<label for='formEmail'>Sign up to be notified when we go live!</label><br/>
<input type="text" name="formEmail" maxlength="50" value="<?=$varEmail;?>" />
</p>
<input type="submit" name="formSubmit" value="Submit" />
</form>
I'm not getting any errors and as far as I can tell the syntax looks fine but its not putting the email information into the database. Anyone have an idea of whats going on? As a side note I am a newb to all php.

Answer 1

You've forgotten to run the query! Put
mysql_query($sql);
straight after
$sql = "INSERT INTO emails(email) VALUES ('$varEmail')";
Make sure you run the $_POST variable through mysql_real_escape_string as well:
$varEmail = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['formEmail']);
This will help protect you from SQL Injection attacks.
EDIT
One more tiny thing, I guess you want to set the session variable success when the form has submitted successfully. to do that you'll need to move
echo "Details added";
$_SESSION['status'] = 'success';
within the same if structure as the SQL query is run, otherwise it will never be set

Answer 2

Try:
$db = mysql_connect("servername","username","password");
if(!$db) die("Error connecting to MySQL database.");
mysql_select_db("tableName" ,$db);
$sql = sprintf("INSERT INTO emails(email) VALUES ('%s')",mysql_real_escape_string($varEmail));
$results = mysql_query($sql);