If Statements When Processing A Form

[wright67uk]

I'm trying to process a form.

 

I want the message:

 

"You haven't filled out all of the fields" to appear when 1 or more fields have been left empty when the user submits the form.

 

I want the form to be processed and for the message:

"A scorecard for $location, has now been added. You can use the form again to enter a new card."

 

to be displayed. Ive tried to piece the code below together.

The problem I have, is that even If NO fields are left blank, "You haven't filled out all of the fields" is displayed.

 

Would anyone be kind enough to help me?

 

<?php 


if(isset($_POST['processForm'])) 
{
 foreach ($_POST as $value)
    {
   if ( $value = " ")
   {
   echo "You haven't filled out all of the fields";
   exit();
   }
 }


$user_id = 7;


# PASSWORD BLOCK #


$connect_solning = mysql_connect($hostname_connect, $username_connect, $password_connect) or trigger_error(mysql_error(),E_USER_ERROR);
@mysql_select_db($database_connect) or die (mysql_error()); 


$sql = "INSERT INTO snag_score_cards 
      (user_id, location, par1, par2, par3, par4, par5, par6, par7, par8, par9)
VALUES ('$user_id', '$_POST[location]', '$_POST[par1]', '$_POST[par2]', '$_POST[par3]', '$_POST[par4]', '$_POST[par5]', '$_POST[par6]', '$_POST[par7]', '$_POST[par8]', '$_POST[par9]')";


mysql_query($sql);

echo $location = $_POST['location'];
echo "<br/> A scorecard for $location, has now been added <br/> You can use the form again to enter a new card."; 


};
?>
<p>Enter your location</p>
<form name="form" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post"> 
<input type="hidden" name="processForm" value="1" />
<input autocomplete="off" name="location" id="location" size="18" value=""/><br /><br />



<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="Scores"    id="Score"     value="Score"      readonly style="border:0px" />
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="Par1"       id="Par"       value=" Par"       readonly style="border:0px" />
<input                                name="Par Score" id="ParScore"  value=" Par Score" readonly style="border:0px" /><br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off"  name="sum1" id="hole1A" readonly value="" /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par1" value=""  id="hole1B" /> 
<input type="text" name="sum" value="" id="hole1result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole2A" readonly value="" /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par2" value="" id="hole2B" /> 
<input type="text" name="sum2T" value="" id="hole2result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole3A" readonly value="" /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par3" value="" id="hole3B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum3" value="" id="hole3result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole4A" readonly value=""  /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par4" value="" id="hole4B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum4" value="" id="hole4result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole5A" readonly value="" /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par5" value="" id="hole5B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum5" value="" id="hole5result" readonly style=""> <br>



<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole6A" readonly value=""  /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par6" value="" id="hole6B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum6" value="" id="hole6result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole7A" readonly value=""  /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par7" value="" id="hole7B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum7" value="" id="hole7result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole8A" readonly value=""  /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par8" value="" id="hole8B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum8" value="" id="hole8result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="sum1" id="hole9A" readonly value=""  /> 
<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par9" value="" id="hole9B"  /> 
<input type="text" name="sum9" value="" id="hole9result" readonly style=""> <br>


<input type="text" name=""  id=""  value=""  readonly style="border:0px" />
<input type="text" name=""  id=""  value=""  readonly style="border:0px" />



<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Create"/>


</form>
</body> </html>

[Barand]

= is an assignment

== is a comparison

[wright67uk]

Oops... I have changed the code to reflect this, however now I get the opposite...

 

the "You haven't filled out all of the fields" message doesn't display at all .

[Barand]

Maybe because you test for a space instead of empty field

[wright67uk]

Thanks for the reply... So maybe I should be using something like:

if (isset($value)) [code/] ? this still gives me the same problem :-(

[DavidAM]

INPUT text fields will always be set in the POST array. You can use empty. However, if they put a space in the field, the field will not be empty. So, you have to trim the data and then test for empty. But you can't use if (empty(trim($value))) (unless you are using PHP 5.5 or later) because empty() is a construct not a function. You can use:

foreach ($_POST as $value) {
 $test = trim($value);
 if (empty($test)) {
   echo "You haven't filled out all of the fields";
   exit();
 }
}

 

Note that this does not solve some other problems.

 

1) It is trivial for a user to modify a form to submit fewer or different field names than what you expect. Which would leave you with missing data. It is always better to specifically check to see if the fields you expect are set and have valid values.

 

2) If the user misses just one field, your design will leave them with a blank page. They will have to go back to the form and re-enter ALL of the information again. It is usually better to use a "sticky form". That is, if the fields are not valid or are missing, re-display the form with the data they did provide already filled in so they only have to enter the missing/invalid data.

[wright67uk]

Hi, and thank you for your reply!

 

I see what your saying about the modifying options, however this is for a scorecard where the user MUST input all fields.

 

I'm still getting the same issue of only having the You haven't filled out all of the field message display wether or not the fields are empty or filled in.

[DavidAM]

<input type="text" name="sum" value="" id="hole1result" readonly style="">

 

This field is empty, and it is readonly, so the user can not put anything in it. Since you are using the loop to check all fields on the form, this field will trigger the message you are getting.

 

Also, the suggestion in my previous post might not work if any of the fields might contain the number zero. The empty() construct considers a zero to be "empty".

 

It might be better to check if trim($value) == "". However, this still leaves the empty readonly fields in your form. This is another reason for checking each field specifically rather than just testing all "submitted" fields.

 

If these fields are populated by some Javascript function, it may be failing. Try printing the $_POST array to see what you are receiving when the form is submitted:

 

if(isset($_POST['processForm'])) {
 printf('<PRE>%s</PRE>', htmlspecialchars(print_r($_POST, true)));
 die();

 

You might also post your code as modified so we can see what it looks like, now.

[wright67uk]

Oh yes, I didn't even think about the non input fields!

 

As you said I will validate the fields one by one.

 

Just out of interest...

 

If I had 100 fields and 1 of which was a readonly, what would be the best thing to do then?

 

Ps. Thanks for your help.

 

Array ( [processForm] => 1

[location] => steg

[scores] => Score

[Par1] => Par

[Par_Score] => Par Score

[sum1] =>

[par1] => 2

[sum] =>

[par2] => 5

[sum2T] =>

[par3] => 2

[sum3] =>

[par4] => 2

[sum4] =>

[par5] => 1

[sum5] =>

[par6] => 3

[sum6] =>

[par7] => 4

sum7] =>

[par8] => 2

[sum8] =>

[par9] => 1

[sum9] =>

[submit] => Create

[DavidAM]

There are various ways to work with that, depending on the application. For instance, in this particular case, I would be tempted to use an array for the fields:

 

<input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="par[2]" value="" id="hole2B" /> 

Then you can check each hole in a for loop.

for ($hole = 1; $hole <= 9; $hole++) {
 if (trim($_POST['par'][$hole]) == '') {
   // An error, this value is required
 }
}

 

If the fields were vastly different, say like a user profile page, I might check for required fields like this:

 

// Create an array of the required field names
$required = array('DisplayName', 'EmailAddress', 'IQ', 'Gender');
// Create an empty array to hold the error messages
$errors = array();

foreach ($required as $field) {
 $test = (isset($_POST[$field]) ? trim($_POST[$field]) : null);
 if (empty($test)) $error[] = $field . ' is a required field';
}

 

Or something along those lines. Generally, the validation is different enough for each field that I just validate one field at a time.