Show Error On Form Page

[FtKShadow]

Hi I am working on a contact us form. I got the form working correctly, but when it validates it puts the error on a new page. How can I have the error message show on the form page?

HTML Code:

<form action="contact.php" method="post" id="contactform">
          <ol>
            <li>
              <label for="name">Full Name <span class="red">*</span></label>
              <input id="name" name="name" class="text" />
            </li>
            <li>
              <label for="email">Your email <span class="red">*</span></label>
              <input id="email" name="email" class="text" />
            </li>
            <li>
              <label for="phone">Phone Number <span class="red">*</span></label>
              <input id="phone" name="phone" class="text" />
            </li>
            <li>
              <label for="company">Company</label>
              <input id="company" name="company" class="text" />
            </li>
            <li>
              <label for="topic">Subject<span class="red">*</span></label>
              <input id="topic" name="topic" class="text" />
            </li>
            <li>
              <label for="comments">Message <span class="red">*</span></label>
              <textarea id="comments" name="comments" rows="6" cols="50"></textarea>
            </li>
            <li class="buttons">
              <input type="image" name="imageField" id="imageField" src="images/send.gif" />
            </li>
          </ol>
        </form>

The PHP code:

<?php
// Pick up the form data and assign it to variables
$name = check_input ($_POST['name'], "Please enter your name");
$email = check_input ($_POST['email'],"Please enter your email");
$phone = check_input ($_POST['phone'], "Please enter your phone number");
$company = $_POST['company'];
$topic = check_input ($_POST['topic'], "Please enter your subject");
$comments = check_input ($_POST['comments'], "Please enter your message");


function check_input($data, $problem='')
{
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    if (strlen($data) == 0)
    {
          die($problem);
 } else {
  return $data;
 }
   
}


// Build the email (replace the address in the $to section with your own)
$to = '[e-mail]"';
$subject = "New message: $topic";
$message = "Email: $email \n Phone: $phone \n Company: $company \n $name said: $comments";
$headers = "From: $email";


// Send the mail using PHPs mail() function
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

// Redirect
header("Location: success.html");
?>

[diafol]

You need to put all the form vars and the error into a session array and pass it back to the form via header().

[FtKShadow]

I dont quite understand sorry. I am a beginner and this is one of my first few times using PHP..

[Shanti C]

place the error checking code in same page in which the form code is.

[diafol]

place the error checking code in same page in which the form code is.

you can certainly do this, but it can cause problems on page reload/refresh - it will resubmit the form.

you can place your submitted vars into an array like this:

session_start();

if(isset($_POST)){
 $_SESSION['subvals'] = $_POST;
 //do your validation, then something like:
 if($errors == false){
   //no errors - do you success code
 }else{
   $_SESSION['subvals']['error'] = $errors;
   header("Location: form.php");
 }

}

your form page:

<?php
session_start();

/*give your ALL form fields default values - even if they're blank. Give them the same name as the form field id:*/
$ff_username = "";
$ff_password = "";
$ff_email = "";
$ff_rememberme = ' checked = "checked"';

if(isset($_SESSION['subvals']['error'])){
  extract($_SESSION['subvals']); //will overwrite any exisiting variables of same name
  if(!$_SESSION['subvals']['ff_rememberme'])$ff_rememberme = "";
}
if(isset($_SESSION['subvals']))unset($_SESSION['subvals']);
?>
...
<input id="ff_username" name="ff_username" type="text" value="<?php echo $ff_username;?>" />
<input id="ff_password" name="ff_password" type="password" value="<?php echo $ff_password;?>" />
<input id="ff_rememberme" name="ff_rememberme" type="checkbox"<?php echo $ff_rememberme;?>" />

THis is off the top of my head - not tested, but you get the idea I hope.