Missing form fields in email

Question

I have made a web form that sends an email with the form information contained within. I have a couple of issues I haven't been able to fix though, and I am hoping someone can help.

The selection boxes for Current Club Membership do not return any information in the email, just a blank space where the information should be, even though an option is selected.
After the form is sent the mail.php file loads. I would like a thank you HTML page to load instead. How do I do that? I tried changing the action attribute in the HTML to the page I want, but then the email doesn't send.

The HTML:

<form method="post" action="mail.php">
<div class="row uniform">

<div class="6u 12u$(xsmall)">
<label for="name">Full Name</label>
<input name="name" type="text" class="required" id="name" value="" />
</div>


<div class="6u$ 12u$(xsmall)">
<label for="email">Email Address</label>
<input name="email" type="email" class="required" id="email" value="" />
</div>


<div class="6u 12u$(xsmall)">
<label for="date">Date of Birth</label>
<input name="date" type="text" class="required" id="date" value="" />
</div>


<div class="6u$ 12u$(xsmall)">
<label for="age">Age as of July 1, 2016</label>
<input name="age" type="text" class="required" id="age" value="" />
</div>

<div class="6u 12u$(xsmall)">
<label for="phone">Phone Number</label>
<input name="phone" type="tel" class="required" id="phone" value="" />
</div>

<div class="12u$">
<label for="club">Current Club Membership</label>
<div class="select-wrapper">
<select name="club" class="required" id="club">
<option value="">-</option>
<option value="Colonial Road Runners">Colonial Road Runners</option>
<option value="Peninsula Track Club">Peninsula Track Club</option>
<option value="Tidewater Striders">Tidewater Striders</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>


<div class="12u$">
<label for="message">Message</label>
<textarea name="message" id="message" rows="6"></textarea>
</div>

<div class="12u$">
<ul class="actions">
<li><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send Message" class="special" /></li>
<li><input type="reset" value="Reset" /></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</form>

The php:

<?php
    if (isset($_POST["submit"])) {
        $name = $_POST['name'];
        $email = $_POST['email'];
        $date = $_POST['date'];
        $age = $_POST['age'];
        $phone = $_POST['phone'];
        $message = $_POST['message'];
        $from = 'From: hrsupergp@gmail.com'; 
        $to = '6linewrasse@gmail.com'; 
        $subject = 'New Registration';

        $body.='email: '. $_POST['email']."\n";
        $body.='date: '. $_POST['date']."\n";
        $body.='age: '. $_POST['age']."\n";
        $body.='phone: '. $_POST['phone']."\n";
        $body.='club: '. $_POST['club']."\n";
        $body = "From: $name
                 E-Mail: $email
                 Date: $date
                 Age 7/2016: $age
                 Phone:  $phone
                 Club:  $club
                 Message: $message";
        // Check if name has been entered
        if (!$_POST['name']) {
            $errName = 'Please enter your name';
        }

        // Check if email has been entered and is valid
        if (!$_POST['email'] || !filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
            $errEmail = 'Please enter a valid email address';
        }


    if (mail ($to, $subject, $body, $from)) {
        $result='<div class="alert alert-success">Thank You! I will be in touch</div>';
    } else {
        $result='<div class="alert alert-danger">Sorry there was an error sending your message. Please try again later</div>';
    }
}
?>

Your last "$body" is missing the concatenate `$body = "From: $name ...` in turn breaking the "chain". — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 25 '15 at 02:30
@Sean their last `$body` never gets processed and "breaks the link" as it were, which in so many words, is what I meant ;-) — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 25 '15 at 02:35
I'm not sure I'm following. All of the fields appear just fine in the resulting email, with the exception of a selection from the selection boxes to choose the club. — Barbra, Nov 25 '15 at 02:37
@Fred-ii- disregard my comment. appearently I did not read/see the full code block. you are correct. — Sean, Nov 25 '15 at 02:38
This is the text of the email that results: From: Barbra E-Mail: xxx@xxx.com Date: 0x/xx/19xx Age: xx Phone: xxxxxxxxxx Club: Message: test 2 — Barbra, Nov 25 '15 at 02:39

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

I may as well post an answer here.

Your last $body is broken

$body = "From: $name

and is missing the concatenate .

Change that to:

$body .= "From: $name...

and for a redirection, it's as easy as doing a header.

header('Location: http://www.example.com/');
exit;

http://php.net/manual/en/function.header.php

But, make sure there is nothing about your PHP, because you may be outputting before header.

If your HTML form is above PHP, place it below it.

If you get a headers sent notice, consult:

How to fix "Headers already sent" error in PHP

Sidenote:

It's best to use a conditional empty() for everything in order to avoid blank data.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.empty.php

Footnotes:

The header, if you're going to use it, should be placed where you presently have $result='<div class="alert alert-success">Thank You! I will be in touch</div>';. Don't use it "with" that, but replaced by it, should you be echoing that $result variable somewhere that you haven't shown us.

That alone will trigger a headers sent notice, or fail silently because your system may not be setup to catch and display errors/warnings/notices.

Add error reporting to the top of your file(s) which will help find errors.

<?php 
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

// rest of your code

Sidenote: Displaying errors should only be done in staging, and never production.

Code tested successfully. All inputs included in Email. – Funk Forty Niner Nov 25 '15 at 02:48 — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 25 '15 at 02:48

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

You need to include at the select tagonchange="document.getElementById('text_content').value=this.options[this.selectedIndex].text"

And this input is used to store the value from the option

<input type="hidden" name="test_text" id="text_content" value="" />

get the text of the selected option using php

To redirect,

   header("Location: thankyou.html");
   die();

after the if statement where you return the string of you will be in touch. How to make a redirect in PHP?

You can pass the string to another page via URL. Just create a <div class="thankyou"> on the new page and the URL be something like thankyou.html?thankyou=thank%20you%20very%20much. So your header will look something like this:

header("Location: thankyou.html?thankyou=thank%20you%20very%20much");
       die();

I understand the redirect, thank you. I'm not clear on what you mean by "at the select" though. I took a stab: — Barbra, Nov 25 '15 at 02:43

Missing form fields in email

2 Answers2