Mailer Problem

Hey,

I picked PHP back up, but I've regressed a bit. I started working on this mailer, but there's a problem in the code. When the send message button is clicked I get two messages displayed instead of one. The browser also displays some of the php code. There's a message for mail sent properly, and one for error in form (empty field). If anyone could help that would be awesome.

Processing code

<?
$senderName = $_POST['name'];
$senderLastName = $_POST['lastName'];
$senderEmailAddress = $_POST['emailAddress'];
$senderSubject = $_POST['subject'];
$senderDepartment = $_POST['departments'];
$senderMessage = $_POST['message'];
$errorCount = 0;
$mailTo = 0;
$emailHeader = 0;

   if(!isset($_POST['name']))
     {
       $errorCount = $errorCount + 1;
     }
     
   if(!isset($_POST['lastName']))
   }
     $errorCount = $errorCount + 1;

   }
   
   if(!isset($_POST['emailAddress']))
   {
     $errorCount = $errorCount + 1;

   }
   
   if(!isset($_POST['subject']))
   {
     $errorCount = $errorCount + 1;

   }
   
   if(!isset($_POST['message']))
   {
     $errorCount = $errorCount + 1;
   }
   
   //Set the email to address.
   
   if($_POST['departments'] == "Info")
   {
   
     $mailTo = "emailAddress1";
   
   }
   
   if($_POST['departments'] == "Advertising")
   {
   
     $mailTo = "emailAddress2";
   
   }
   
   // Send the message!
     
   if($errorCount == 0)
   {   
     //Set the header
    $emailHeader = "From: " . $senderName . $senderLastName . " " . $senderEmail;
   
       //Send the message
    //   mail($mailTo, $senderSubject, $senderMessage, $emailHeader);
   }

?>

PHP:

Display code

<?
     
   if($errorCount == 0)
   {   
     
     echo "<h3>Thank you!</h3>";
     
     echo "<p>Your message has been sent. Please wait patiently for a reply. If there's a high volume of messages its possible that some replies will take longer than others.</p>";
   
   }elseif($errorCount > 0)
   {
     
     echo "<h3>There was an error!</h3>";
     
     echo "<p>Sorry you forgot to fill out one of the fields. Please go back and be sure all fields are filled in.</p>";

   }

?>

PHP:

Thanks

 

Hey, thanks for in-depth OOP version ... I usually avoid that route for simple static sites like I make, but since you took the time I'll save the code and go through it

 

Hey, I played with the code here and it looks like it'll work, but I only get a thank you message... I tested errorCount and it's always 0...
I guess the if statement never fires when there's an empty field...

 if (!isset($_POST[$key]))
       {
      $this->errorCount++;
       }

PHP:

I tried changing the condition to..

 if ($_POST[$key] == " ")

PHP:

but that didn't work either...

 

Try changing
if (!isset($_POST[$key]))
to
if (empty($_POST[$key]))

and see if that works

 

No reason to do both isset() and empty() - empty() does most of what isset does, except throw a false if the value of the variable is explicity NULL - and I don't really think that's a very likely scenario in the case of a mailer.

 

cool, I'll try that when I get home. Thanks for the help guys. Appreciate it as always.

 

Hey, while I'm here... I was wondering. Could you tell me the difference between a set, unset, and null variable. I notice functions isset, empty, and is_null..

 

isset() == checks if the variable is actually set
empty() == checks if the variable is empty (implies/assumes it's set)
is_null() == checks if the variable is exactly NULL

However, especially empty() can be somewhat confusing for new coders. I recommend the following link: http://techtalk.virendrachandak.com/php-isset-vs-empty-vs-is_null/

 

You can use

if(!isset($_POST['name'] && $_POST[‘name’] != ‘’) for the validation and to display a message just use
if($errorCount==0){}
else{}

Because if you don’t have 3 possibilities than why you are using else if...

 

Not entirely true.

isset() checks if a variable has been declared, and if it's null. $foo = null; will fail the isset() check.

empty() checks if a variable is empty, but does not assume it's set. (This is probably what you want for form validation). It's a language construct like isset(), and won't throw error notices on unset variables. So using isset() and empty() concurrently is pointless.

is_null() is one of these functions you rarely need. If ever, that is. Why would you want to call a function when you can do $foo === null, which is a lot faster?

 

Uhm... empty() checks if a variable is empty/null - which means it implicitly assumes the variable is set (or, as you said, doesn't throw an error if it isn't set) - in my book, this assumes the variable is set. Of course, this might bite you later, if you then just use the variable regardless of the return of the empty()-check, but then you're just stupid.

 

Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. In my book, it does not assume a variable is set, because it doesn't throw any notices if it's not. And according to the PHP manual:

But like I said, it probably depends on how you look at it.

 

Yeah, I guess - I think we're agreeing, just looking at it from different angles.

 

Thanks for the resources. Learning a bit here, but something I never really looked into. What's the difference between set and unset. does set mean it's been given a value?

$foo;
$bar = 12;

$foo is unset, $bar is set?

 

Well... not quite.
$foo; // unset (technically, this is a variable called, not assigned, since the simple declaration of a value without any assigned values/non-values is a call in PHP
$foo = ''; //set
$foo = 'somevalue'; //set
$foo = NULL; //unset
$foo = false; //set
$foo = 0; //set