HTML Form and PHP Script not working

Question

I have created a form in HTML and a processing script in PHP. When I hit the send button, nothing happens.

My HTML Form:

            <form method="post" action="../core/code/php/notes.php" id="sendNote">
            <input type="hidden" name="sender" value="user">
            <ol>
            <li><label for="sendto">Send to:</label></li>
            <li>
                <select name="sendto">
                    <option value="admin">admin</option>
                    <option value="bnguyen654">bnguyen654</option>
               </select>  
            </li>
            <li><label for="message">Message:</label></li>
            <li><textarea name="message" style="font-family:'Charter BT';"></textarea></li>
            <li><input type="button" value="Send" name="send"></li>
            </ol>             
            </form>

My PHP Code:

<?php 
$to = $_REQUEST['sendto']; 
$from = $_REQUEST['sender'] ; 
$message = $_REQUEST['message'];

if($message == '') {echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert("You have not entered a message, please go back and try again"); history.go(-1)</script>';} 
else { 
$file = "../../../Admin/%to/notes.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("Can't find file");
$stringData = "%message ~%from";
$send = fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh); 

if($send)
    {echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert("Message sent successfully"); window.location={"../../../Admin"};</script>';} 
else {
{echo "We encountered an error sending your message, please try again."; } 
}
}

?>

The send button does nothing. No success message or error. This is really frustrating. I do tend to overlook things thought so...

This is on a server
The links are correct
I know it's a lot to go through
Any help would be appreciated

Thanks, ~BN

Fluffeh · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-09 04:57:07Z

3

There are two errors that I can see:

<input type="hidden" name="sender" value="login">
                                         ^ Needs quotes around the value

and

<input type="submit" value="Send" name="send">
              ^ Change this to Submit from send.

In HTML there is no form input with a type of "send", the submit type however submits the form when pressed.

Edit (As per comment below):

If you aren't getting into the part of the script that is echo'ing out some javascript, it is because you aren't writing to the file. I have checked the echo statement, and it works perfectly well. This means that either you aren't able to write to the file - fwrite() returns a false if it hasn't written to the file. Also, if it cannot open it properly - ie, fopen() failed, then it will also return a false.

Looking at your code some more, you name the file you want to update $file but then refer to it as $myFile in the fopen() command.

$file = "../../../Admin/%to/notes.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("Can't find file");

You should probably be using the same variable eh?

$myFile = "../../../Admin/%to/notes.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("Can't find file");

Edit 2: To test a connection after an fopen() you can do the following:

$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("Can't find file");
if($fh)
{ echo "Connection to file is okay";}
else { echo "File couldn't be opened it seems.";}

It is basically the same thing you are doing with your $send variable right to the end of your published code.

edited Sep 9, 2013 at 4:57

answered Sep 9, 2013 at 1:12

Fluffeh

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10 Comments

Brandon Nguyen Over a year ago

It's successful but for some reason the alert box doesn't pop up.

Fluffeh Over a year ago

@BrandonNguyen Made an edit to the answer, while I am happy to help, be sure to carefully step through your code - you should be able to find mismatched variables yourself - though I do get that sometimes we simply miss them.

Fluffeh Over a year ago

@BrandonNguyen Okay, can you pass some extra information? Is it writing to the file? Can you test to see whether $fh returns true after the fwrite()? Need some extra information, rather than "doesn't work" mate :)

Brandon Nguyen Over a year ago

Um.. I'm sort of a beginner so how would you do that?

Fluffeh Over a year ago

@BrandonNguyen I made another edit. Can you have a play with that one and try to track down where the error is happening?

|

user2759991 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-09 01:14:06Z

1

You have the wrong input type. The button input type is used for an actionless button that you can attach javascript to. The submit type is for submitting a form.

answered Sep 9, 2013 at 1:14

user2759991

1386 bronze badges

2 Comments

user2759991 Over a year ago

Is your script tag with the alert call actually getting echoed?

user2759991 Over a year ago

Did you call var_dump($send) to see exactly what is happening as a result of your fwrite call?

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