Contact form working, but email not sending or being received

[mike3075]

I really need some help.  I am very new to PHP and I've been stuck for a couple of days.  I created a contact form and everything seems to be working correctly, except the mail is showing it's sent, but I never receive an email in my Inbox or Spam folder.  Can someone please review my code?

Here is the PHP:

<?php
  // DEFINE VARIABLE AND SET EMPTY VALUES
  $varfnameErr = $varlnameErr = $varemailErr = $varphoneErr = $varpositionErr = "";
  $varfname = $varlname = $varemail = $varphone = $varposition = $success = "";

  
  //FORM SUBMITTED WITH POST METHOD
  if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {

    //VALIDATE FIRST NAME
    if (empty($_POST["varfname"])) {
      $varfnameErr = "First Name is required";
    } else {
      $varfname = test_input($_POST["varfname"]);
      // MAKE SURE FIRST NAME ONLY CONTAINS LETTERS AND WHITE SPACE
      if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$varfname)) {
        $varfnameErr = "Only letters and white space are allowed";
      }
    }

    //VALIDATE LAST NAME
    if (empty($_POST["varlname"])) {
      $varlnameErr = "Last Name is required";
    } else {
      $varlname = test_input($_POST["varlname"]);
      // MAKE SURE LAST NAME ONLY CONTAINS LETTERS AND WHITE SPACE
      if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$varlname)) {
        $varlnameErr = "Only letters and white space are allowed";
      }
    }
  
    //VALIDATE EMAIL ADDRESS
    if (empty($_POST["varemail"])) {
      $varemailErr = "Email Address is required";
    } else {
      $varemail = test_input($_POST["varemail"]);
      // MAKE SURE EMAIL ADDRESS IS FORMATTED CORRECTLY
      if (!filter_var($varemail, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
        $varemailErr = "Invalid email address format";
      }
    }

    //VALIDATE PHONE NUMBER
    if (empty($_POST["varphone"])) {
      $varphoneErr = "Phone number is required";
    } else {
      $varphone = test_input($_POST["varphone"]);
      // MAKE SURE PHONE NUMBER IS IN CORRECT FORMAT
      if (!preg_match("/^(\d[\s-]?)?[\(\[\s-]{0,2}?\d{3}[\)\]\s-]{0,2}?\d{3}[\s-]?\d{4}$/i",$varphone)) {
        $varphoneErr = "Invalid telephone format";
      }
    }
	
    //VALIDATE POSITION
    if (empty($_POST["varposition"])) {
      $varpositionErr = "Position is required";
    } else {
      $varposition = test_input($_POST["varposition"]);
    }

    //IF ALL DATA IS CORRECT
    if ($varfnameErr == '' and $varlnameErr == '' and $varemailErr == '' and $varphoneErr == '' and $varpositionErr == '') {
      $message_body = '';
      unset($_POST['submit']);

      //THIS IS JUST FOR TESTING PURPOSES
      $message_body = $varfname;

      //foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
      //    $message_body .= "$key: $value\n";
      //}
      $to = 'mygmail@gmail.com';
      $subject = 'Volunteer Form Submission';
      
      $message = wordwrap($message_body, 70);
      $headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n"; 
      $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8' . "\r\n";
      $headers .= "From: " . $varemail . "\r\n";
      $subject = 'Volunteer Form Submission';
      $to = 'mygmail@gmail.com';
      $result = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
      //THIS RETURNS "1"
      print $result;
      
      //IF ALL DATA IS CORRECT MAKE SURE EMAIL WAS SENT
      if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
        $success = "Message sent. Thank you contacting us! We will reply as soon as possible.";
        $varfname = $varlname = $varemail = $varphone = $varposition = "";
      } else {
        $success = "Something went wrong!";
      }
    }
  }

//STRIP UNWANTED CHARACTERS FROM VARIABLES
function test_input($data) {
  $data = trim($data);
  $data = stripslashes($data);
  $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
  return $data;
}
?>

 

Here is the HTML:

    <div class="row regformrow">
      <div class="coffee-span-12 regformcolumn">
        <div class="subgrid regformsubgrid">
          <div class="row regformsubgridheaderrow">
            <div class="coffee-span-12 regformsubgridheadercolumn">
              <h4 class="regformsubgridheadertitle">Volunteer Form</h4>
            </div>
          </div>
          <div class="row regformsubgridrow">
            <form class="form-container regformsubgridformcontainer" action=<?= $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?> method="post">
              <div class="coffee-span-4 coffee-972-span-6 coffee-458-span-12 regformsubgridcolumn1">
                <div class="container regformsubgridcontainer1">
                  <label class="label form-label-all"><span style="font-style:italic;color:#FF5454;">* Required Fields</span></label></br>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <input class="fname" name="varfname" type="text" tabindex="1" placeholder="First Name" value="<?= $varfname; ?>"><span class="requiredfield"> *</span>
                    <span class="form-error"><?= $varfnameErr ?></span>
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <input class="lname" name="varlname" type="text" tabindex="2" placeholder="Last Name" value="<?= $varlname; ?>"><span class="requiredfield"> *</span>
                    <span class="form-error"><?= $varlnameErr ?></span>
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <input class="email" name="varemail" type="text" tabindex="2" placeholder="Email Address" value="<?= $varemail; ?>"><span class="requiredfield"> *</span>
                    <span class="form-error"><?= $varemailErr ?></span>
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <input class="phone" name="varphone" type="text" tabindex="2" placeholder="Telephone Number" value="<?= $varphone; ?>"><span class="requiredfield"> *</span>
                    <span class="form-error"><?= $varphoneErr ?></span>
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <select class="select selectbox" name="varposition" id="varposition" tabindex="5"><option value="">Select one...</option><option value="Chaperone">Chaperone</option><option value="Class Monitor">Class Monitor</option><option value="Parking Attendant">Parking Attendant</option><option value="Party Coordinator">Party Coordinator</option><option value="Teacher Aid">Teacher Aid</option></select><span class="requiredfield"> *</span>
                    <span class="form-error"><?= $varpositionErr ?></span>
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <input class="test" name="test" type="text" tabindex="6" placeholder="If you are human, leave this field blank" value="">
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
                    <button type="submit" class="button-submit-1" name="submit" tabindex="7" data-submit="...Sendng">Submit</button>
                  </div>
                  <div class="formfieldgroup">
  				  <div class="success"><?= $success; ?></div>
                  </div>
                </div>
              </div>
            </form>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by mike3075

[requinix]

There are very many reasons why an email may not be sent or received.

Switch your code to using PHPMailer instead of mail(). That helps with a lot of those reasons. If you still aren't getting the email after that, then there could be a problem somewhere.

[mike3075]

Thank you for the quick response.  I will give it a shot

[ginerjm]

If the 'from' address from the same domain as your site is running on?  IIRC you can't use a 'foreign' from address outside of your domain.

[mike3075]

It's not. I will change it and see what happens.  Thank you

[mike3075]

Ginerjm, that worked! Thank you very much!

requinix, I will create a test page using PHPMailer.

Thank you both for your suggestions!

 

[ginerjm]

HTH!

And - switching to phpmailer is a very smart move.  The old PHP mail() function didn't really give you a good result when there were errors.  PHPmailer is much better and much easier to use when you want to do different things with emails like adding attachments.

[Strider64]

Another good 3rd party mailer is Swiftmailer and I found it easy to setup.