Simple PHP form error

Question

I am trying to create a simple PHP email form that I can embed into my website. I have two problems, the syntax appears to be wrong past href=\"\"> and I am not sure why. The rest of the text appears in the browser past that href=\"\"> section. If I use this form, won't it be easier to keep users from seeing my email in this PHP form? Be advised, I am new to PHP

<?php 
$action=$_REQUEST['action']; 
if ($action=="") /* display the contact form */ 
 { 
 ?> 
<form action="" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data"> 
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="submit">
Your email:<br> 
<input name="email" type="text" value="" size="30"/><br> 
Your message:<br> 
<textarea name="message" rows="7" cols="30"></textarea><br> 
<input type="submit" value="Send email"/> 
</form> 
<?php 
} 
else /* send the submitted data */ 
{ 
$email=$_REQUEST['email']; 
$message=$_REQUEST['message']; 
if (($name=="")||($email=="")||($message=="")) 
 { 
 echo "All fields are required, please fill <a href=\"\">the form</a> again."; 
 } 
else{ 
 $from="From: $name<$email>\r\nReturn-path: $email"; 
 $subject="Message sent using your contact form"; 
 mail("[email protected]", $subject, $message, $from); 
 echo "Email sent!"; 
 } 
} 
?> 

See anything wrong?

• Jeff Lambert: What actually happens when you submit the form? Is an email sent, do you get a white screen/php error message? If the code works as is, this may be better suited for codereview.stackexchange.com
• Nicolas: Try this, echo "All fields are required, please fill <a href=''>the form</a> again.";
• Jeremy: Where exactly is the name input?????
• Lorenz Meyer: Why would you want an empty href ?
• Lorenz Meyer: @thebluedog And what did you see ?

Answer 1

You are checking for $name and it doesn't exist. This will get you working but you should check if the $_REQUEST exists before you define it. Always write code with error reporting on.

<?php 
$action=$_REQUEST['action']; 
if ($action=="") /* display the contact form */ 
 { 
 ?> 
<form action="" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data"> 
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="submit">
Your email:<br> 
<input name="email" type="text" value="" size="30"/><br> 
Your message:<br> 
<textarea name="message" rows="7" cols="30"></textarea><br> 
<input type="submit" value="Send email"/> 
</form> 
<?php 
} 
else /* send the submitted data */ 
{ 
$email=$_REQUEST['email']; 
$message=$_REQUEST['message']; 
if (($email=="")||($message=="")) 
 { 
 echo "All fields are required, please fill <a href=\"\">the form</a> again."; 
 } 
else{ 
 $from="From: $name<$email>\r\nReturn-path: $email"; 
 $subject="Message sent using your contact form"; 
 mail("[email protected]", $subject, $message, $from); 
 echo "Email sent!"; 
 } 
} 
?> 

• The Blue Dog: Nice mod, but I hope he didn't want the name... Never mind the 'other' problem(s).
• Jeremy: Agreed lol. IT looks like it use to be an option then was removed so I assumed it was not needed by looking at the form. He can figure that out tho
• The Blue Dog: I like your reasoning!