Driving me crazy!

Cerilia · 04-23-2008, 11:15 AM

Hi People, I wonder if I can pick your brains...

Firstly I've never coded in PHP before so this is all new to me...

I need a simple form filled out online, that can be submitted.

I came up with this; but its not working, no mail, no nothing!

please help!

Code:

<form id="rwform" class="contactform" method="post" action="sendmail.php">

<div id="contactform">
<label for="name">Name</label>
<input  type="text" name="name" id="user" value="" />
</div>

<div id="contactform">
<label for="address">Address</label>
<input type="text" name="address" id="user" value="" />
</div>

<div id="contactform">
<label for="telephone">Telephone</label>
<input type="text" name="telephone"  id="user" value="" />
</div>

<div id="contactform">
<label for="email">Email Address:</label>
<input  type="text" name="email" id="emailaddress" value="" />
</div>

<div id="contactform">
<label for="enquiry">Enquiry:</label>
<textarea name="enquiry" id="enquiry" rows="5" cols="25"></textarea>
</div>

<div id="contactform">
<label for="hearaboutus">How did you hear about us?</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="websearch" /> Web Search<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="recommended" class="threepxfix" /> Recommended<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="mag_ad" class="threepxfix" /> Magazine Advert<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="flyer" class="threepxfix" /> Flyer<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 150px;">
<input type="submit" value="Submit" /> <input type="reset" value="reset" />
</div>

</form>

PHP

Code:

<?php

$_POST = array_map('strip_tags', $_POST);  
$name = $_REQUEST['name'] ;
$address = $_REQUEST['address'] ;
$telephone = $_REQUEST['telephone'] ;
$email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
$enquiry = $_REQUEST['enquiry'] ;
$websearch = $_REQUEST['websearch'] ;
$recommended = $_REQUEST['recommended'] ;
$mag_ad = $_REQUEST['mag_ad'] ;
$flyer = $_REQUEST['flyer'] ;

mail("myaddress@mail.co.uk", "Web Enquiry Contact", "From: $email",  $name, $address, $telephone, $enquiry, $websearch, $recommended, $mag_ad, $flyer);

header( "Location: http://www.example.com/thankyou.html" );

?>

Any ideas where I am going wrong...and also how to secure it from spamming?

Many thanks!!!

**jamiemac2005** · 04-23-2008, 12:13 PM

in the html you use the id "contactform" multiple times, i'm sure thats not correct usage, it may work but i thought an id was supposed to be unique...

i'm sorry i can't remember a lot of PHP so i don't know the problem, when you do get it sorted though you could start to stop spamming using basic javascript on your html page:

change
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />

to

<input type="submit" value="Submit" onSubmit="this.disabled=true;" />

i think .disabled is the property, (the button should grey out after having been clicked)
so that when one set of information has been submitted the user can not re-submit the data without having re-loaded the page first.
This will only stop people from clicking the submit button a million times when the page loads slowly (and submitting the data millions of times).

On the PHP side of things i don't know what you'd do to stop spamming, but i'm sure contact/query boxes aren't spammed a lot are they?

Hope any of this helped,
Jamey

snowman7000 · 04-23-2008, 06:40 PM

yes ids should be unique, if you are doing this for css style then replace id="contactform" with class="contactform" in the html and change the declaration from #contactform{} to .contactform{} in the css. I have bearly looked at php but two things I would check are first do you have smtp setup on the server (or what ever it uses) and a variable is enclosed in quotes in mail(), you may have to concatenate the string with the variable.

Cerilia · 04-24-2008, 12:12 AM

Thanks guys for your advice... but concerning the PHP can you explain in simpler terms, as I have no idea what you are talking about. lol

Cerilia · 04-24-2008, 05:10 AM

Ok I did a search on these boards in an attempt to get the correct code in place... I have however come up against a problem (not the one that doesn't make it work, that still exists!) I dont know how to incorporate any of the other fields I've got...'how did they hear about us' fields!

I know I shouldn't expect a message as such, but an email at the least!

Anyone????

Current HTML with previous advice taken.

Code:

<form id="rwform" method="post" action="sendmail.PHP">

<div class="contactform">
<label for="name">Name</label>
<input  type="text" name="name" value="" />
</div>

<div class="contactform">
<label for="address">Address</label>
<input type="text" name="address" value="" />
</div>

<div class="contactform">
<label for="telephone">Telephone</label>
<input type="text" name="telephone" value="" />
</div>

<div class="contactform">
<label for="email">Email Address:</label>
<input  type="text" name="email" value="" />
</div>

<div class="contactform">
<label for="enquiry">Enquiry:</label>
<textarea name="enquiry" id="enquiry" rows="5" cols="25"></textarea>
</div>

<div class="contactform">
<label for="hearaboutus">How did you hear about us?</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="websearch" /> Web Search<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="recommended" class="threepxfix" /> Recommended<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="mag_ad" class="threepxfix" /> Magazine Advert<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="flyer" class="threepxfix" /> Flyer<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 150px;">
<input type="submit" value="Submit" onSubmit="this.disabled=true;" /> <input type="reset" value="reset" />
</div>

</form>

New Code as found on this forum: 'Including comments'

Code:

<?php
// THESE ARE THE VARIABLES THAT YOU NEED TO EDIT!

$sendto = "myemail@host.co.uk"; // for example: username@usershost.com
$gotopage = "http://www.example.com/thankyou.html"; // for example: http://www.yoursite.com/thankyou.html

// end editable variables


  $_POST = array_map('strip_tags', $_POST);
  $name = $_POST['name'];
  $email = $_POST['email'];
  $message = $_POST['message'];
  
// let's format them
  $message = "Enquiry:" . "\n\n" . $message;
  $subject = "Email From Website - " . $name;

// this will show you who it's from AND will blind carbon-copy the message to them
  $headers .= 'From: ' . $name . '<' . $email . '>' . "\r\n";
  $headers .= 'Bcc: ' . $name . '<' . $email . '>' . "\r\n";

// let's check if that email is valid or not!
// if it's valid - send the email

        mail($sendto, $subject, $message, $headers);
        header("Location: $gotopage");

?>

**Redcore** · 04-24-2008, 10:38 PM

No big deal - you're just learning...and you're doing fine. I did notice that last PHP script was a chopped up version of mine :P

The biggest part you did wrong in your first script was not putting all of your form elements together to create the message.

PHP Code:


			
mail("myaddress@mail.co.uk", "Web Enquiry Contact", "From: $email",  $name, $address, $telephone, $enquiry, $websearch, $recommended, $mag_ad, $flyer);

I'm sure you realize there are too many fields in there and it's not set up correctly - but you're learning and 95% of learning PHP comes from trial and error. :)

Here's what I have come up with. I tested it out, should work for you.

PHP Code:


			
// THESE ARE THE VARIABLES THAT YOU NEED TO EDIT!

$sendto = "redcore@gmail.com"; // for example: username@usershost.com

$gotopage = "http://www.example.com/thankyou.html"; // for example: http://www.yoursite.com/thankyou.html

// end editable variables



// initialize posted variables - not always necessary, but a good practice

$_POST = array_map('strip_tags', $_POST);

$name = $_POST['name'];

$address = $_POST['address'];

$telephone = $_POST['telephone'];

$email = $_POST['email'];

$enquiry = $_POST['enquiry'];

$websearch = $_POST['websearch'];

$recommended = $_POST['recommended'];

$mag_ad = $_POST['mag_ad'];

$flyer = $_POST['flyer'];



// this is advanced: formatting the "heard about us" option - you don't need to know this

$list = "";

if($websearch=="on"){$list .= "Web Search+";}

if($recommended=="on"){$list .= "Recommendation+";}

if($mag_ad=="on"){$list .= "Magazine Ad+";}

if($flyer=="on"){$list .= "Flyer+";}

$list = substr($list, 0, -1);

$list = str_replace("+", ", ", $list);



// we have to compile all of our variables into a message

$message = "Sent By: " . $name . "\n";

$message .= "Address: " . $address . "\n";

$message .= "Telephone: " . $telephone . "\n";

$message .= "Email: " . $email . "\n";

$message .= "Heard About Us Through: " . $list . "\n";

$message .= "\n";

$message .= "Enquiry:" . "\n" . $enquiry;



// put subject together

$subject = "Email From Website - " . $name;



// this will show you who it's from AND will blind carbon-copy the message to them

$headers = 'From: ' . $name . '<' . $email . '>' . "\r\n";

$headers .= 'Bcc: ' . $name . '<' . $email . '>' . "\r\n";



// send the mail

mail($sendto, $subject, $message, $headers);

//header("Location: $gotopage");

Notice how I combined all of those "$message" variables? The "." stands for "and" - so ".=" obviously stands for "and equals" ... you're just adding them all together with that.

Don't worry about not knowing what things mean in this...that's why I'm here...I can explain anything you need clarification on. I try to keep the scripts I post here simple - but sometimes I have to put something a bit more complex, so don't feel that you're supposed to know how to do any of it :P

Cerilia · 04-25-2008, 01:32 AM

Redcore I am indebted, many many thanks...

But after uploading your code I still cant receive any feedback emails (Yes I did change addresses

)!

Now I have trawled through my hosts vast database of support questions and I found this. Can I assume that in merely place this code;

Code:

Sendmail Functions
What is the path to Sendmail?

/usr/sbin/sendmail -fuser\@domainname.co.uk

You need to replace -fuser\@domainname.co.uk with a valid mailbox on your account:
ie -froot\@yourdomain.co.uk

You must leave in the -f and make sure there is a \ before the @

An example of how to use this is displayed below:
mail($to, $sub, $mess, "From: root@yourdomain.co.uk", "-froot@yourdomain.co.uk");

In this section?

Code:

// send the mail
mail($sendto, $subject, $message, $headers, * Place code here? *);
//header("Location: $gotopage");

**Redcore** · 04-25-2008, 06:06 PM

That shouldn't affect it sending out. I tested with the email "nobody@nowhere.com"

Cerilia · 04-28-2008, 12:24 PM

Thanks again Redcore....but is everything working when you test it? I am still getting no joy this end!

**Redcore** · 04-29-2008, 05:23 PM

Yeah, it worked flawlessly on my server. Could you send me the actual page you got that reference from above? I don't think that should affect the server sending a message, but I can look into it more.

Cerilia · 04-30-2008, 04:36 AM

Well surprise, surprise it worked when I added that code! Weird!

I have a problem though, the thank you page is not displaying? The address is correct, so what am I missing?

Cerilia · 04-30-2008, 06:19 AM

Sorry Redcore....I cant edit the above message. It seems I didn't add a space... added and now works perfectly.

Thank you Redcore for all your help. You are a credit to this forum.

Cheers!

Cerilia · 04-30-2008, 09:17 AM

oops nope this is weird...it doesn't work in Firefox but does in IE?

**Redcore** · 05-01-2008, 05:45 PM

What doesn't work - the form, the emailing, or the thank you page?

Cerilia · 05-02-2008, 01:10 AM

My apologies Redcore, its the thankyou.html response... and to make matters more confusing its now flipped. works in Firefox , IE doesn't!!!! Dont you just love computers!!!!

snowman7000 · 05-03-2008, 10:13 AM

After you do more and more you fill find the flipping between working in IE and Firefox/Safari is fairly common, especially if you do much in the the DOMs. IE8 is rumored be released around the same time as Firefox 3, it is currently in beta and is ACID2 compliant, so hopefully that should improve this year.

**Redcore** · 05-06-2008, 05:04 PM

What I wrote above is server side, so there should be no browser compatibility issues. I'm assuming whatever written in thankyou.html (which I did not create) is what needs to be fixed up...nothing pertaining to this question/solution, though.

Cerilia · 05-07-2008, 02:36 AM

Hi Redcore,

Here is the thankyou.html code...but its fairly simple, so I cant see why it would throw up these odd results.

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

	<head>
		<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
		<meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive" />
		<title>thankyou</title>
		<link href="css/mainR.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" />
	</head>

	<body bgcolor="#92a1a8">
		<div align="center">
			<p><br />
				<br />
				<br />
				<img src="images/Web-ty-Logo.gif" alt="" height="120" width="450" border="0" /><br />
				<br />
				<br />
				<br />
				Thank you, we have received your enquiry and will contact you shortly.</p>
			<p>Please return to our site by pressing the back button on your Browser!</p>
		</div>
	</body>

</html>

**Redcore** · 05-08-2008, 06:21 PM

Could you give me a link to what it looks like on your site?

ABEOF · 05-13-2008, 02:09 PM

Hi! just given this task and having the same problem!! form will not send?

04-23-2008, 12:13 PM	#2 (permalink)
jamiemac2005 Design Team Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Coventry, UK Posts: 1,884 OS: Vista, various linux distros	Re: Driving me crazy! in the html you use the id "contactform" multiple times, i'm sure thats not correct usage, it may work but i thought an id was supposed to be unique... i'm sorry i can't remember a lot of PHP so i don't know the problem, when you do get it sorted though you could start to stop spamming using basic javascript on your html page: change <input type="submit" value="Submit" /> to <input type="submit" value="Submit" onSubmit="this.disabled=true;" /> i think .disabled is the property, (the button should grey out after having been clicked) so that when one set of information has been submitted the user can not re-submit the data without having re-loaded the page first. This will only stop people from clicking the submit button a million times when the page loads slowly (and submitting the data millions of times). On the PHP side of things i don't know what you'd do to stop spamming, but i'm sure contact/query boxes aren't spammed a lot are they? Hope any of this helped, Jamey

04-23-2008, 06:40 PM	#3 (permalink)
snowman7000 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Oklahoma City Posts: 26 OS: xp(sp2), OSX(10.5)	Re: Driving me crazy! yes ids should be unique, if you are doing this for css style then replace id="contactform" with class="contactform" in the html and change the declaration from #contactform{} to .contactform{} in the css. I have bearly looked at php but two things I would check are first do you have smtp setup on the server (or what ever it uses) and a variable is enclosed in quotes in mail(), you may have to concatenate the string with the variable.

04-24-2008, 12:12 AM	#4 (permalink)
Cerilia Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: England Posts: 11 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Driving me crazy! Thanks guys for your advice... but concerning the PHP can you explain in simpler terms, as I have no idea what you are talking about. lol

04-24-2008, 10:38 PM	#6 (permalink)
Redcore Design Team Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jamestown, CA Posts: 718 OS: Linux Mint 7 My System	Re: Driving me crazy! No big deal - you're just learning...and you're doing fine. I did notice that last PHP script was a chopped up version of mine :P The biggest part you did wrong in your first script was not putting all of your form elements together to create the message. PHP Code: `mail("myaddress@mail.co.uk", "Web Enquiry Contact", "From: $email", $name, $address, $telephone, $enquiry, $websearch, $recommended, $mag_ad, $flyer);` I'm sure you realize there are too many fields in there and it's not set up correctly - but you're learning and 95% of learning PHP comes from trial and error. :) Here's what I have come up with. I tested it out, should work for you. PHP Code: // THESE ARE THE VARIABLES THAT YOU NEED TO EDIT! $sendto = "redcore@gmail.com"; // for example: username@usershost.com $gotopage = "http://www.example.com/thankyou.html"; // for example: http://www.yoursite.com/thankyou.html // end editable variables // initialize posted variables - not always necessary, but a good practice $_POST = array_map('strip_tags', $_POST); $name = $_POST['name']; $address = $_POST['address']; $telephone = $_POST['telephone']; $email = $_POST['email']; $enquiry = $_POST['enquiry']; $websearch = $_POST['websearch']; $recommended = $_POST['recommended']; $mag_ad = $_POST['mag_ad']; $flyer = $_POST['flyer']; // this is advanced: formatting the "heard about us" option - you don't need to know this $list = ""; if($websearch=="on"){$list .= "Web Search+";} if($recommended=="on"){$list .= "Recommendation+";} if($mag_ad=="on"){$list .= "Magazine Ad+";} if($flyer=="on"){$list .= "Flyer+";} $list = substr($list, 0, -1); $list = str_replace("+", ", ", $list); // we have to compile all of our variables into a message $message = "Sent By: " . $name . "\n"; $message .= "Address: " . $address . "\n"; $message .= "Telephone: " . $telephone . "\n"; $message .= "Email: " . $email . "\n"; $message .= "Heard About Us Through: " . $list . "\n"; $message .= "\n"; $message .= "Enquiry:" . "\n" . $enquiry; // put subject together $subject = "Email From Website - " . $name; // this will show you who it's from AND will blind carbon-copy the message to them $headers = 'From: ' . $name . '<' . $email . '>' . "\r\n"; $headers .= 'Bcc: ' . $name . '<' . $email . '>' . "\r\n"; // send the mail mail($sendto, $subject, $message, $headers); //header("Location: $gotopage"); Notice how I combined all of those "$message" variables? The "." stands for "and" - so ".=" obviously stands for "and equals" ... you're just adding them all together with that. Don't worry about not knowing what things mean in this...that's why I'm here...I can explain anything you need clarification on. I try to keep the scripts I post here simple - but sometimes I have to put something a bit more complex, so don't feel that you're supposed to know how to do any of it :P __________________ Free Resources PC Protection - Comodo Firewall \| AVG Anti-Virus \| WinPatrol \| Ad-Aware \| Spybot S&D \| SpywareBlaster \| Web Design/Programming - KompoZer (Editor) \| Paint.NET (Graphic) \| GIMP+GIMPShop (Graphic) \| FileZilla (FTP Client) \| Free Hosting \|

04-25-2008, 06:06 PM	#8 (permalink)
Redcore Design Team Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jamestown, CA Posts: 718 OS: Linux Mint 7 My System	Re: Driving me crazy! That shouldn't affect it sending out. I tested with the email "nobody@nowhere.com" __________________ Free Resources PC Protection - Comodo Firewall \| AVG Anti-Virus \| WinPatrol \| Ad-Aware \| Spybot S&D \| SpywareBlaster \| Web Design/Programming - KompoZer (Editor) \| Paint.NET (Graphic) \| GIMP+GIMPShop (Graphic) \| FileZilla (FTP Client) \| Free Hosting \|

04-28-2008, 12:24 PM	#9 (permalink)
Cerilia Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: England Posts: 11 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Driving me crazy! Thanks again Redcore....but is everything working when you test it? I am still getting no joy this end!

04-29-2008, 05:23 PM	#10 (permalink)
Redcore Design Team Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jamestown, CA Posts: 718 OS: Linux Mint 7 My System	Re: Driving me crazy! Yeah, it worked flawlessly on my server. Could you send me the actual page you got that reference from above? I don't think that should affect the server sending a message, but I can look into it more. __________________ Free Resources PC Protection - Comodo Firewall \| AVG Anti-Virus \| WinPatrol \| Ad-Aware \| Spybot S&D \| SpywareBlaster \| Web Design/Programming - KompoZer (Editor) \| Paint.NET (Graphic) \| GIMP+GIMPShop (Graphic) \| FileZilla (FTP Client) \| Free Hosting \|

04-30-2008, 04:36 AM	#11 (permalink)
Cerilia Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: England Posts: 11 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Driving me crazy! Well surprise, surprise it worked when I added that code! Weird! I have a problem though, the thank you page is not displaying? The address is correct, so what am I missing?

04-30-2008, 06:19 AM	#12 (permalink)
Cerilia Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: England Posts: 11 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Driving me crazy! Sorry Redcore....I cant edit the above message. It seems I didn't add a space... added and now works perfectly. Thank you Redcore for all your help. You are a credit to this forum. Cheers!

04-30-2008, 09:17 AM	#13 (permalink)
Cerilia Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: England Posts: 11 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Driving me crazy! oops nope this is weird...it doesn't work in Firefox but does in IE?

05-01-2008, 05:45 PM	#14 (permalink)
Redcore Design Team Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jamestown, CA Posts: 718 OS: Linux Mint 7 My System	Re: Driving me crazy! What doesn't work - the form, the emailing, or the thank you page? __________________ Free Resources PC Protection - Comodo Firewall \| AVG Anti-Virus \| WinPatrol \| Ad-Aware \| Spybot S&D \| SpywareBlaster \| Web Design/Programming - KompoZer (Editor) \| Paint.NET (Graphic) \| GIMP+GIMPShop (Graphic) \| FileZilla (FTP Client) \| Free Hosting \|

05-02-2008, 01:10 AM	#15 (permalink)
Cerilia Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: England Posts: 11 OS: XP Pro SP2	Re: Driving me crazy! My apologies Redcore, its the thankyou.html response... and to make matters more confusing its now flipped. works in Firefox , IE doesn't!!!! Dont you just love computers!!!!

05-03-2008, 10:13 AM	#16 (permalink)
snowman7000 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Oklahoma City Posts: 26 OS: xp(sp2), OSX(10.5)	Re: Driving me crazy! After you do more and more you fill find the flipping between working in IE and Firefox/Safari is fairly common, especially if you do much in the the DOMs. IE8 is rumored be released around the same time as Firefox 3, it is currently in beta and is ACID2 compliant, so hopefully that should improve this year.

05-06-2008, 05:04 PM	#17 (permalink)
Redcore Design Team Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jamestown, CA Posts: 718 OS: Linux Mint 7 My System	Re: Driving me crazy! What I wrote above is server side, so there should be no browser compatibility issues. I'm assuming whatever written in thankyou.html (which I did not create) is what needs to be fixed up...nothing pertaining to this question/solution, though. __________________ Free Resources PC Protection - Comodo Firewall \| AVG Anti-Virus \| WinPatrol \| Ad-Aware \| Spybot S&D \| SpywareBlaster \| Web Design/Programming - KompoZer (Editor) \| Paint.NET (Graphic) \| GIMP+GIMPShop (Graphic) \| FileZilla (FTP Client) \| Free Hosting \|

05-08-2008, 06:21 PM	#19 (permalink)
Redcore Design Team Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jamestown, CA Posts: 718 OS: Linux Mint 7 My System	Re: Driving me crazy! Could you give me a link to what it looks like on your site? __________________ Free Resources PC Protection - Comodo Firewall \| AVG Anti-Virus \| WinPatrol \| Ad-Aware \| Spybot S&D \| SpywareBlaster \| Web Design/Programming - KompoZer (Editor) \| Paint.NET (Graphic) \| GIMP+GIMPShop (Graphic) \| FileZilla (FTP Client) \| Free Hosting \|

05-13-2008, 02:09 PM	#20 (permalink)
ABEOF Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Re: Driving me crazy! Hi! just given this task and having the same problem!! form will not send?