new to php and im having trouble with validation

**kof00** · Apr 25, 2007, 20:47

im having trouble validating my drop boxes... if someone doesn't select anything i want an error message to appear on the next page.
im able to notify the user if he hasn't written anything in the text box, how ever if i do write something im unable to pass the code over to the results page
can anyone help me out
heres my code

PHP Code:




<HTML>



<HEAD>

<TITLE>Anime Site Registration</TITLE>

</HEAD>



<BODY background="http://www.black-howling.com/images/wood1.gif">





<p align="center"><font size="14" color="black" face="serif">

Anime Form Sign Up</font></p>



<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="animeresults.php">





   

<BR><B>Name:</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="username">

<BR>





<!-- radio button -->



<font size="5" color="black" face="serif">

<BR>Gender</font>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="radiobutton"

   VALUE="Male">Male

<BR><INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="radiobutton"

   VALUE="Female">Female

<BR>





<BR><B>Birthday</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="birthday">

<BR>



<BR><B>Homeaddress</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="homeaddress">

<BR>



<BR><B>City</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="homecity">

<BR>



<BR><B>State</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="homestate">

<BR>



<BR><B>Zip</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="homezip">

<BR>







<!-- single select -->





<font size="5" color="black" face="serif">

<BR>Country</font>

<BR><SELECT NAME="country">

<OPTION VALUE="Nothing">-----Select Country-----

<OPTION VALUE="Brazil">Brazil

<OPTION VALUE="Canada">Canada

<OPTION VALUE="China">China

<OPTION VALUE="Cuba">Cuba

<OPTION VALUE="Cyprus">Cyprus

<OPTION VALUE="Japan">Japan

<OPTION VALUE="Korea">Korea

<OPTION VALUE="Philippines">Philippines

<OPTION VALUE="Spain">Spain

<OPTION VALUE="United States of America">United States of America



</SELECT>





<BR><B>House Phone</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="phone">

<BR>



<BR><B>Cell Phone</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="cell">

<BR>



<BR><B>Email</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="email">

<BR>





<BR><B>Favorite Website</B>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="website">

<BR>



<BR>

<BR><B>Comments</B>

<BR>

<TEXTAREA NAME="textarea" ROWS="8" COLS=50"

 WRAP="physical">

</TEXTAREA>







<!-- multiple select -->



<font size="5" color="black" face="serif">

<BR>Favorite Author</font>

<BR><SELECT MULTIPLE NAME="author[]">

<OPTION VALUE="Akamatsu Ken">Akamatsu Ken

<OPTION VALUE="Kaise Sosuke">Kaise Sousuke

<OPTION VALUE="Maki Yoko">Maki Yoko

<OPTION VALUE="Peach Pit">Peach Pit

<OPTION VALUE="Takahashi Rumiko">Takahashi Rumiko

<OPTION VALUE="Watsuki Nobuhiro">Watsuko Nobuhiro



</SELECT>



<BR>



<!-- check box -->





<font size="5" color="black" face="serif">

<BR>Favorite Anime</font>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Clover">Clover

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Eureka 7">Eureka 7

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Evangelion">Evangelion

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Full Metal Panic">Full Metal Panic

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Kenshin">Kenshin

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Mars">Mars

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" value="Romeo X Juliet">Romeo X Juliet

<BR><INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" 

   NAME="show[]" vaule="Vandread">Vandread



<BR>











    <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="martial" VALUE="Anime Form">



<?



    echo "<input type=hidden name=ip value=\"$REMOTE_ADDR\">\n"; 

    echo "<input type=hidden name=browser value=\"$HTTP_USER_AGENT\">\n";

 

?>



<BR>







<BR><INPUT TYPE="RESET" VALUE="clear all fields">

<BR>

<BR><INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" Name="Submit" VALUE="Proccess Information">

<BR>





</FORM>

</BODY>

</HTML>

results

PHP Code:


<?php



     // File animeresults.php

    



     echo date("F j, Y, g:i a");

    echo "<BR>";







         $errors=0;

         if (!trim($username))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Username</B> is required.";

            $errors++;



         }







// Gender



echo "<BR><B>Gender</B> is ";

if (!$_REQUEST['radiobutton']) echo ("not selected."); 



switch ($_REQUEST['radiobutton']) 

{ 

case "Male" : echo "Male"; break; 



case "Female" : echo "Female"; break; 





} 







         if (!trim($birthday))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Birthday</B> is required.";

            $errors++;



         }



      

     if (!trim($homeaddress))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Home Address</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

        

     }



         if (!trim($homecity))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>City</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }





         if (!trim($homestate))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>State</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }





         if (!trim($homezip))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Zip</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }



//Country



echo "<BR><B>Country</B>";

if( !isset( $_POST['country'] ) || empty( $_POST['country'] ) ) 

{ 

    echo 'Error: You must select a country.'; 

} 

else 

{ 

    echo 'Success: You selected a country.'; 

} 





//phone







         if (!trim($phone))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Phone</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }



         if (!trim($cell))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Cell Phone</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }



         if (!trim($email))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Email</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }



         if (!trim($website))

         {

            echo "<BR><B>Website</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         

         }





// multiple select





//check box











    if ($errors > 0)

       echo "<BR><BR><BR>Please use your browser's back button ".

            "to return to the form, correct ";

    if ($errors == 1)

       echo " the error, ";

    if ($errors > 1)

       echo "the errors, ";

    if ($errors > 0)

       echo "and re-submit the form.";







?>

**Tom Brokaw** · Apr 25, 2007, 23:43

if you don't expect your list of countries to grow to a huge amount, i would just hardcode them into an array like this:

PHP Code:


 $countries = array('country1', 'country2', 'country3', ..etc );

and then check that the submitted country is in fact allowed by you by checking if their submission is in your array:

PHP Code:


 if (!in_array($_POST['country'], $countries) {
    echo 'please select a valid country';
}

that should cover both; no country being selected and a user sending a fake request with garbage data. and at the same time keeping you code clean.

**I87** · Apr 26, 2007, 01:48

Originally Posted by Tom Brokaw

if you don't expect your list of countries to grow to a huge amount, i would just hardcode them into an array like this:

PHP Code:


 $countries = array('country1', 'country2', 'country3', ..etc );

and then check that the submitted country is in fact allowed by you by checking if their submission is in your array:

PHP Code:


 if (!in_array($_POST['country'], $countries) {

    echo 'please select a valid country';

}

that should cover both; no country being selected and a user sending a fake request with garbage data. and at the same time keeping you code clean.

another way to do it is to make a new table in your database, dump all the countries in there and use a query to check if the country exists, there will be a lot less overhead.

**I87** · Apr 26, 2007, 01:49

also, you should read up about normalizing your database (assuming you'll be storing the country as it's full form... eg "United Kingdom")

you'll also save bandwidth, 'cause you wont have to have a select like

PHP Code:


<select name="country">

<option value="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</option>

</select>

instead something like

PHP Code:


<select name="country">

<option value="1">United Kingdom</option>

</select>

oh oh oh! and it'll be easier to validate!
e.g.

PHP Code:




$country = (int) $_POST['country'];



if($country < 1 && $country >= 230){

die('Invalid Country');

}

**kof00** · Apr 26, 2007, 15:56

im having trouble with my text box fields..

i have the error message showing if the text field is empty.... but if the user inputs his data im having trouble showing the information..

im trying if statements but im having trouble with it.

can anyone help me.. thanks for everythign

PHP Code:




<BR><B>Name:</B> 

<BR><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="username"> 

<BR>

PHP Code:




         if (!trim($username))   echo "<BR><B>Username</B> is required.";

            $errors++;

         switch ($_REQUEST($username))



         {

                echo "<BR>Username&nbsp;=&nbsp;$textbox";



    echo "<BR>";

         }

**I87** · Apr 27, 2007, 01:36

PHP Code:


if (trim($username)==''){



echo "<BR><B>Username</B> is required."; 

$errors++; 



//don't use request. globals = bad.

//also why the switch?

switch ($_POST['username']){



echo '<BR>Username&nbsp;=&nbsp;', $textbox, '<br />';



}}

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