PHP validation is used to check whether the field is filled or not in the proper way by the user.
There are two types of validation in PHP.
- Client Side Validation: Client side validation is performed on the client machine web browsers.
- Server Side Validation: Server side validation is performed after submitting the data by user to check the validation on the server machine.
Following are the some validation rules for field
| Field |
Validation Rules |
| Name |
Name should required letters and white-spaces |
| Website |
Website should required a valid URL. |
| Radio |
Radio must be selectable at least once. |
| Check Box |
Checkbox must be checkable at least once. |
| Email |
Email should required @ and. |
Let us take an example of Form validation with require.
Example
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.error {color: #FF0000;}
.divid{background-color:#9e9e9eb0;height: 290px;width: 170px;padding: 50px;margin:auto;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<?php
// All the defined variables set to empty values
$nameErr = $emailErr= $commentErr = $genderErr = $websiteErr = "";
$name = $email = $gender = $comment = $website = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["name"])) {
$nameErr= "Name is required";
} else {
$name = test_input($_POST["name"]);
}
if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$emailErr = "Email is required";
} else {
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
}
if (empty($_POST["comment"])) {
$commentErr = "comment is required";
} else {
$comment = test_input($_POST["comment"]);
}
if (empty($_POST["gender"])) {
$genderErr = "Gender is required";
} else {
$gender = test_input($_POST["gender"]);
}
}
function test_input($data) {
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
return $data;
}
?>
<h2 align="center">Form Validation Example</h2>
<div class="divid">
<form method="post" action="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>">
<input type="text" name="name" placeholder="Enter your name...">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $nameErr;?></span>
<br><br>
<input type="text" name="email" placeholder="Enter your e-mail...">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $emailErr;?></span>
<br><br>
<textarea name="comment" rows="4" cols="22" placeholder="Enter your comment ..."></textarea>
<span class="error">* <?php echo $commentErr;?></span>
<br><br>
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="female">Female
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male">Male
<span class="error">* <?php echo $genderErr;?></span>
<br><br><hr>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit here">
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Note:
The
“$_SERVER[“PHP_SELF”]” variable is a super global variable that is used to
returns the filename of the current executing script. It is always used by hackers.
The “
htmlspecialchars()” function is used to convert special characters to HTML entities( like
: < and > with
< and
>).
Example
<form method="post" action="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>">
Output
<form method="post" action= "test_form.php/"><script>alert('hacked')</script>">
PHP Captcha
PHP CAPTCHA stands for Competently Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It is a type of challenge –response test that is used to determine whether user is human or not.
Example of Arithmetic CAPTCHA
<?php
error_reporting(1);
$arr=range(99,9);
$brr=range(99,9);
$randa=array_rand($arr);
$randb=array_rand($brr);
$a=$arr[$randa];
$b=$brr[$randb];
$r=$a+$b;
$cap=$a."+".$b;
if(isset($_POST['b1'])){
if($_POST['t2']==$_POST['t3']){
echo '<center>'.'<font color="blue" size="5">'."CAPTCHA MATCH THANKU".'</font>'.'</center>';
}
else{
echo '<center>'.'<font color="red" size="5">'."CAPTCHA NOT MATCH".'</font>'.'</center>';
}
}
?>
<html>
<style>
.divid{background-color:#9e9e9eb0;height: 100px;width: 200px;padding: 50px;margin:auto;}
</style>
<body>
<div class="divid">
<form method="post">
<?php
error_reporting(1);
echo $cap."=";
?>
<input type="hidden" name="t3" value="<?php echo $r;?>">
<input type="text" name="t2" autofocus><br><br>
<input type="submit" name="b1" value="MATCH CAPTCHA">
</form>
</div>
</html>
Output
PHP Mail
PHP mail() function is used to send the mail in PHP with various format like test message, html message and attachment message or file.
Syntax:
mail( to, subject, message, headers, parameters );
| Parameter |
Description |
| to |
The recipient's email address. |
| subject |
Subject of the email to be sent. This parameter cannot contain any newline characters(/n). |
| message |
It defines the message to be sent. Each line should be separated with a LF (\n). Lines should not exceed 70 characters |
| headers |
It is optional and specify additional headers, like From, Cc, and Bcc. The additional headers should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n) |
| parameters |
It is used to pass additional parameter. |
Sending Plain Text Emails
The easy way to send an email with PHP, only we have to pass three parameter in
mail() method.
Let us take an example
<html>
<head>
<title>Sending HTML email using PHP</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$to = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'Marriage Proposal';
$message = 'Hi Rahul Janu, will you marry me?';
$from = '[email protected]';
// Sending email
if(mail($to, $subject, $message,$from)){
echo 'Your mail has been sent successfully.';
} else{
echo 'Unable to send email. Please try again.';
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Output
Your mail has been sent successfully
PHP Mail with Attachment
We can also send mail with attachment only we have to include header information. Let us consider an example.
<?php
$to = "[email protected]";
$subject = "This is subject";
$message = "This is a text message.";
# Open a file
$file = fopen("/tmp/test.txt", "r" );//change your file location
if( $file == false )
{
echo "Error in opening file";
exit();
}
# Read the file into a variable
$size = filesize("/tmp/test.txt");
$content = fread( $file, $size);
# encode the data for safe transit
# and insert \r\n after every 76 chars.
$encoded_content = chunk_split( base64_encode($content))
# Get a random 32 bit number using time() as seed.
$num = md5( time() );
# Define the main headers.
$header = "From:[email protected]\r\n";
$header .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; ";
$header .= "boundary=$num\r\n";
$header .= "--$num\r\n";
# Define the message section
$header .= "Content-Type: text/plain\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding:8bit\r\n\n";
$header .= "$message\r\n";
$header .= "--$num\r\n";
# Define the attachment section
$header .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; ";
$header .= "name=\"test.txt\"\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding:base64\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Disposition:attachment; ";
$header .= "filename=\"test.txt\"\r\n\n";
$header .= "$encoded_content\r\n";
$header .= "--$num--";
# Send email now
$result = mail ( $to, $subject, "", $header );
if( $result == true ){
echo "Message sent successfully...";
}else{
echo "Sorry, unable to send mail...";
}
?>