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PHP Build a Basic PHP Website (2018) Enhancing a Form Displaying the Error Message

Lixi Daniele
Lixi Daniele
9,849 Points
Posted by Lixi Daniele
Lixi Daniele
9,849 Points

validateAddress not working

I'am following along Alena and trying to display error messages on the same page if the form is incomplete or if there is an invalid email address, but unfortunately the validateAddress of PHPMailer method doesn't seems to work as intended. I can write anything in the email field and I doesn't throw out the error, instead it actually send the email and I receive and can read it through the console utility. Can you help to spot where the problem could be?

<?php

if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    $name = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "name", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING));
    $email = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "email", FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));
    $category = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "category", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING));
    $title = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "title", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING));
    $format = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "format", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING));
    $genre = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "genre", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING));
    $year = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "year", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING));
    $details = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, "details", FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS));


    if ($name == "" || $email == "" || $category == "" || $title == "") {
        $error_message = "Pleas fill in the required fields: Name, Email and Category and Title";
    }

    if ($_POST["address"] != "") {
        $error_message = "Bad form Input";
    }

    require_once("inc/phpmailer/class.phpmailer.php");

    if (!isset($error_message)) {
        $mail = new PHPMailer();

        if (!$mail->validateAddress($email)) {
            $error_message = "Invalid email address";
        }


        $email_body = "";
        $email_body .= "Name " . $name . "\n";
        $email_body .= "Email " . $email . "\n";
        $email_body .= "Suggested Item\n";
        $email_body .= "Category " . $category . "\n";
        $email_body .= "Title " . $title . "\n";
        $email_body .= "Format " . $format . "\n";
        $email_body .= "Genre " . $genre . "\n";
        $email_body .= "Year " . $year . "\n";

        $email_body .= "Details" . $details . "\n";


        $mail->setFrom($email, $name);
        $mail->addAddress('treehouse@localhost', 'Daniele');     // Add a recipient

        $mail->isHTML(false);                                  // Set email format to HTML

        $mail->Subject = 'Personal Media Library Suggestion from ' . $name;
        $mail->Body    = $email_body;

        if ($mail->send()) {
            header("location:suggest.php?status=thanks");
            exit;
        }
        $error_message = 'Message could not be sent.';
        $error_message .= 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
    }  

}

$pageTitle = "Suggest a Media Item";
$section = "suggest";

include("inc/header.php"); 
if (isset($error_message)) {
    echo $error_message;
} ?>
michaelleonard4
michaelleonard4
7,013 Points

Just remove the if statement where is checks to see if the error message is not set

  if (!isset($error_message)) //this line
{
        $mail = new PHPMailer();

        if (!$mail->validateAddress($email)) {
            $error_message = "Invalid email address";
        }

1 Answer

Lixi Daniele
Lixi Daniele
9,849 Points
Lixi Daniele
Lixi Daniele
9,849 Points

Even though the solution you proposed was not the correct one it made me realize that I erroneously placed that if statement to early. It should encapsulate all the code after the validateAddress check and not before. I corrected the code and now it's working. Thank you!

$mail = new PHPMailer();

if (!$mail->validateAddress($email)) {
     $error_message = "Invalid email address";
}

if (!isset($error_message)) {
    .....
Jason Anello
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 Points

marked as Best Answer

michaelleonard4
michaelleonard4
7,013 Points

Glad it helped you