Mail Form Help

[kross]

Hello everyone.. I know next to nothing about PHP but I'm trying to set up a mail form on a html web page. The code I've used should work, but for some reason the email wont send. When I hit send, the message pops up saying that it sent, but it doesnt send. What am I missing or doing wrong?

 

Here's the code

<?php
                            function spamcheck($field)
                              {
                              //filter_var() sanitizes the e-mail
                              //address using FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL
                              $field=filter_var($field, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

                              //filter_var() validates the e-mail
                              //address using FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
                              if(filter_var($field, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))
                                {
                                return TRUE;
                                }
                              else
                                {
                                return FALSE;
                                }
                              }
                                if (isset($_REQUEST['email']))
                                {//if "email" is filled out, proceed
                                
                                  //check if the email address is invalid
                                    $mailcheck = spamcheck($_REQUEST['email']);
                                    if ($mailcheck==FALSE)
                                    {
                                    echo "Invalid input";
                                    }
                                  else
                                  {
                                  //send email
                                  $name = $_REQUEST['name'] ;
                                  $email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
                                  $subject = $_REQUEST['subject'] ;
                                  $message = $_REQUEST['message'] ;
                                  mail("someone@something.com", "Subject: $subject",
                                  $message, "From: $email" );
                                  echo "Sent. Thank you!";
                                  }
                                  }
                                else
                                //if "email" is not filled out, display the form
                                  {
                                  echo "<form method='post' action='contact.php'>
                                  What's your name?
                                    <br />
                                    <input name='name' type='text' required />
                                    <br />
                                  What's your Email address?
                                    <br />
                                <input name='email' type='text' required>
                                <br />
                                  What is the matter regarding?
                                    <br />  
                                <input name='subject' type='text' required>
                                    <br />
                                  What is your message?
                                  <br />
                                  <textarea name='message' rows='15' cols='50' required></textarea>
                                  <br />
                                  <br />
                                  <input type='submit' value='Send'>
                                  </form>";
                                  }
                            ?>

Keep in mind that the someone@something.com is not the email I tried sending it to. I've tried multiple email accounts I have on yahoo and gmail with no luck. And yes, the file is saved in a folder on a server that has php installed.

 

Thank you for your time!!!

[fastsol]

If you are trying to learn from what you are doing, great, I'm on my phone a it's hard to read your code right now. Otherwise i distribute a fully functional contact form here http://amecms.com/article/Easy-to-use-contact-form-with-validation that you can use

[kross]

yeah I'd like to know why my code doesnt work... but thank you! I appreciate it

[Coreye]

Have you switched hosts recently? Try the below code on your server:

<?php
if(mail("someone@example.com", "Subject: $subject", $message, "From: $email"))
{
echo "Email Sent.";
} else {
echo "Email NOT Sent.";
}
?>

[kross]

I'm sorry, but was I supposed to plug that into my existing code or run that by itself essentially? I plugged it into mine and I think I'm getting a syntax error because the page is completely blank when I load it. This is what I did

<?php
							function spamcheck($field)
							  {
							  //filter_var() sanitizes the e-mail
							  //address using FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL
							  $field=filter_var($field, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

							  //filter_var() validates the e-mail
							  //address using FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
							  if(filter_var($field, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))
								{
								return TRUE;
								}
							  else
								{
								return FALSE;
								}
							  }
								if(isset($_REQUEST['email']))
								{//if "email" is filled out, proceed
								
								  //check if the email address is invalid
									$mailcheck = spamcheck($_REQUEST['email']);
									if ($mailcheck==FALSE)
									{
									echo "Invalid input";
									}
								  else
								  {
								  //send email
								  $name = $_REQUEST['name'] ;
								  $email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
								  $subject = $_REQUEST['subject'] ;
								  $message = $_REQUEST['message'] ;
								  if(mail("someone@example.com", "Subject: $subject",
								  $message, "From: $email" ))
								  {
								  echo "Message sent. Thank you!";
								  } else {
								  echo "Message Not sent. Sorry.";
								  }
								else
								//if "email" is not filled out, display the form
								  {
								  echo "<form method='post' action='contact.php'>
								  What's your name?
									<br />
									<input name='name' type='text' required />
									<br />
								  What's your Email address?
									<br />
								<input name='email' type='text' required>
								<br />
								  What is the matter regarding?
									<br />  
								<input name='subject' type='text' required>
									<br />
								  What is your message?
								  <br />
								  <textarea name='message' rows='10' cols='25' required></textarea>
								  <br />
								  <br />
								  <input type='submit' value='Send'>
								  </form>";
								  }
							?>

[Coreye]

Run it separately.

[kross]

just that code by itself in its own file?

[Coreye]

Yes.

[kross]

It returned "Email Sent" but I didnt recieve an email. I even waited a few minutes

 

 

I checked spelling, resent, and tried different addresses, but still wont work

Edited July 13, 2013 by kross

[fastsol]

Is the server on a paid hosting account or localhost?

[kross]

its a server provided to me by my school

 

it has my own login and is password protected

Edited July 13, 2013 by kross

[kross]

if there actually is something wrong with my server, what kind of tests or actions can I perform to find out for sure?

[fastsol]

The script test that Coreye gave was the most common way to test a mail().  If the mail never arrives it would indicate only a couple things.  One, even though mail() is available on your server doesn't mean they have a mail service setup, to know that you would need to ask them or see if they have sample code of how to send mail on their servers.  Two, their mail service is being over strict and marking any of your attempts as spam.  Have you checked your spam forlder by chance to make sure they didn't arrive there instead?

 

If they are in you spam folder by accident, you may really want to consider using the phpmailer library from http://phpmailer.worxware.com/ cause they have all the mail headers setup correctly and many other features you can do easily.  That will help ensure "better" that your mail arrives in the inbox and not spam folders.

[kross]

I figured it out...

 

 

Using PuTTy, I logged into my server and a message popped up saying that new "security" feature was added to the servers and that email can only be sent to addresses provided by school. no personal email addresses are allowed anymore.

 

Thanks for your help guys!