Forms

[Jamie]

Does anyone know the Script for Forms?

Thankies ^_^

[Mentor]

Ok forms. well proper ones need to parts. A form handler. and the form itself.

The form itself only requires html

It should start with

<form name="form" id="form" method="post" action="LOCATION.php">

LOCATION.php being the url of the form handler your using.

In older browsers rather than using the form hanlder you can just send it to your email. youing the mailto tags
eg

<form name="form" id="form" method="post" action="mailto:[email protected]">

Athogh in moden browsers this may just send a blank email becuse its no longer supported, by "most" browsers.
As well as this you dont have as much control over how the data is displayed when sendt to you, or teh abilty to make a thankyou page etc.


Next you need to put in some inputs.

for somthing like

question: ______________

yuou wouild use

<br>
question :<input name="title" type="text"  /> 

<input name="title" type="text" />
is what makes the text box itself. You can have as many as you like. but they must all have indevidul names so tehy can be told appart

eg
<input name="sheep" type="text" />
<input name="cow" type="text" />

etc. athogh its probly best if the name is somthing simlar to the question. athogh its best to be one word, so intripter doesnt have anyy problems.

Another think you could have inside is a text box

<textarea name="message" ></textarea>

Agian each one must have its own Name.

a text box is basicly a bigger input. and multi line.

The only otehr major think you may want in a form is a multi chooise input.

<select name="rate">
            <option>5</option>
            <option>4</option>
            <option>3</option>
            <option>2</option>
            <option>1</option>
          </select>

The options selctble are 1 to 5. you can ad and removed them in the same way
and gaina each one needs a new name.

Secondly, if you wnat an option, to say somthing but have a doffernt value when submited.
<option value="cow">1</option>
use that.
You can also use the value="" tag in the other boxes to have some text alredy written in to them.

To make a text aria invible. which is mainl yuseful for php scripst but ill say anyway you simply change the type
from text
to hidden
eg
<input name="info" type="hidden" />
Or to make the letters invisble typed in in to sploggers (aka a password feild)
use this
<input name="info" type="password" />

finaly we need a submit button

<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="button text">

Ad that to the end to make a submit button. Also change button text to the text you wnat to display on the button.

And to end teh form. you just close the form tags.

</form>

THE FORM HANDLER
The next part is the php. where you need to use two main functiosn for the most basic form handler. athogh ill also throw in some securty mesuers to prevent spamming.

Ok here we go.

MAke sure the page your using. is the one you set as teh form handler loction in the form

for exsample. LOCATION.php

as every php file it starts with

<?php

To tell the host machnine, that it needs to do the php script.

Then we start the form handler.

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] != 'GET'){ 

this makes sure that the infomtion was submited by the form. or at least a form.

Then we tell it what to do.

For every input text box, multiple choise question. In the form you will need this bit of code to set it as a varible, in order to email.

$message = $_POST['message']; 

The baove bit is getting the data form a input with the NAME message

and asigning it to the varible message.

. You need to do this for all the inputs

EG

$nam = $_POST['name']; 
$email = $_POST['email']; 
$mess = $_POST['message']; 
$ip = $_POST['ip']; 

Once all the forms data is in varibles you then need to mail it to your email.

the easyist way is be puuting all the varibles in to one varible

eg

$messig = "

Name: $nam
\n
Email: $email
\n
Message: $mess
\n
Ip: $ip

"; 

NB: \n is a new line in php
also you may want a subject ofr the email

$subject = $nam; 

Now you have teh varible. you send it

with this bit of code.

mail("[email protected]", $subject, $messig); 

The first part ois your email, or teh email you want to message

$subject is the messages subject.

And the 3rd bit is teh actal message, or the varible with the message you made.

You can send as much or as little data as you like.


Once youve sent the form. redirect them else where with

Header("Location: thankyoupage.php"); 

Now what to do is the message want send by a form

}
else
{
echo 'ERROR';
} 

Which just prints error is its veiwed directly.

And close the form supringly enogh with

?> 

i wrote it in a hurry so if ive made any mistakes, please infom me so i can make the relivent changes etc.

[Jamie]

Thank you so much!
It has works
altough when someone fills in the form, they're ip isnt show O.o

[Homosexual]

O.o Me too =p

[Mentor]

Ah to get an ip use this value

value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; ?>"

so the full thionk would be

<input name="ip" type="text"  value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; ?>" />

ANd if you dont want the editing the feild
just ad a readonly to the end

<input name="ip" type="text"  value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; ?>" readonly>

keep in mind the contact file would have to be a .php one to be able to use this data :/

[-JT-]

that must have taken a while.