PHP Form validation. Not on the same page

Question

I am creating a simple contact form and the form is going through client side validation with jQuery plus server side validation with PHP in case user disables Javascript on their browsers.

Although there are many source code examples out there that can process and display with a single page, I haven't seen many that separates them into: form.php and validator.php, for example to do such task.

I have this form.php file that are mostly written in html for marking up the form with some php codes that will receive/display the error or success message retrieved from the validator.php. Now, the problem I am having is linking these two so they talk to each other without complaining.

"form" attribute has the action assigned to validator.php and within validator.php I have one of the function as follows:

if (isset($error)) {
    $msg = "<p>Please enter valid information.</p>";
    require ("form.php"); 
}

And, on form.php I declared require ("validator.php"); and using this $msg variable from validator.php to display the message but the browser complains that the $msg is undefined even though the validation had its run and has the string defined.

By the look of it, I presume these two php files are not linked properly. Anyone has an idea to the solution?

set the form action in form.php to validator.php or you have to use the ajax for that. — Muhammad
– Muhammad, Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 5:42
If you've declared your $msg variable inside a function then it won't be available outside that function. You could declare it as a global, and then it would be available. However, the way you've linked your pages looks like it could become troublesome. You might do better to create some $_SESSION variables to handle this. — user1864610
– user1864610, Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 5:43
do you require form.php in validator.php and then require validator.php in form.php? it's seems to be a loop, as naivists said — vladkras
– vladkras, Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 5:46
@vladkras Thanks for your 2 cents. form.php and validator.php are mentioned for example only. The actual file structure is with index.php and validator.php where form is only a part of the page. — Seong Lee
– Seong Lee, Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 23:39

drarkayl · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-01 05:47:23Z

1

you cannot use require validator.php and then direct your page to validator.php. Once you require a page that page is included within the current page and can be used as part of the page. Think of it as copy pasting the code from validator.php where you have used require('validator.php'). So just set action="" in form.php and validate it accordingly.

Also its better to use require_once('validator.php').

answered Jul 1, 2013 at 5:47

drarkayl

1,0177 silver badges17 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

abhinsit · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-01 05:48:59Z

1

Yes,there is a problem with linking between the two files.

When you receive an error you run:-

if (isset($error)) {
    $msg = "<p>Please enter valid information.</p>";
    require ("form.php"); 
}

This code resides in validator.php and when you load form.php in it, it again loads validator.php in it which again resets the $msg variable as it has nothing posted to it.

One solution can be:-

Use form.php to get input from the user. Post the output to validator.php which would validate the input and redirect to the page form.php with a $msg set that would be displayed by form.php as an error msg to user.

answered Jul 1, 2013 at 5:48

abhinsit

3,2574 gold badges23 silver badges26 bronze badges

Comments

naivists · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-01 08:26:36Z

1

require is actually the same thing as if you copied "validator.php" into the "form.php" file, so this should not be a problem. Variables share the same scope in included files as their "parents". However, it is not a good idea to include "validator.php" in "form.php" and then call require("form.php") from its code - it will be an infine loop!

P.S. And, if you are using require, you can't call it "not on the same page". It is the same page, it is the same URL for the user. It is two different files, that's true.

edited Jul 1, 2013 at 8:26

answered Jul 1, 2013 at 5:42

naivists

33.8k5 gold badges63 silver badges85 bronze badges

Comments

Seong Lee · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-03 23:59:03Z

0

Problem resolved with using session variable from the view (form.php) as in

<?php if (isset($_SESSION['msg'])) echo $_SESSION['msg']; session_unset(); ?>

where msg variable is used for error/success that will be printed inside form and I had to declare session_start(); on both view(form.php) and controller(validator.php) at the very top.

On one of validation function inside controller(validator.php) I did the following

$msg = "<p>Email Successfully Sent!</p>";
$_SESSION['msg'] = $msg;
header('Location: index.php');
exit;

For my purpose, it didn't require any of include, require, require_once to link them.

P.S. form.php replaces index.php in my actual file structure.

answered Jul 3, 2013 at 23:59

Seong Lee

10.6k25 gold badges73 silver badges108 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP Form validation. Not on the same page

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related