PHP mail form - only one variable not submitting

Question

I have set up a PHP mail form set up that only correctly outputs some of the variables entered in the form. It DOES mail the $name and $email variables, but not the $message variable.

The php to send the form is here:

<?php
if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST" ){


$name = trim($_POST["name"]);
$email = trim($_POST["email"]);
$message = trim($_POST["message"]);
      //sending email
      require_once("siteIncludes/class.phpmailer.php");
      $mail = new PHPMailer();

$email_body = "";
$email_body = $email_body . "Name: " . $name . $message . "<br />";
$email_body = $email_body . "Email: " . $email . "<br />";
$email_body = $email_body . "Message: " . $message; 

    $mail->SetFrom("$email,$name");
    $address = "[email protected]";
    $mail->AddAddress($address);
    $mail->Subject = "Form Submission | ".$name;
    $mail->MsgHTML($email_body);

      if(!$mail->Send() ){
        echo 'There was a problem sending the email: '.$mail->ErrorInfo;
        exit();
      } 

    header("Location: myContact.php?status=thanks");
    exit();
};

?>

And the HTML that sets up the form is here:

    <div id="contactFormWrap" class="span6 offset3">        
      <form method="post" action="myContact.php" id="contactForm">
          <div>
            <label for="name">Please leave your name</label>
            <input type="text" name="name" id="name" value="" class="required" />
          </div>
          <div>
            <label for="email">and your email</label>
            <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="" class="required email" />
          </div> 
          <div>
            <label for="subject">What is your message about?</label>
            <input type="text" name="subject" id="subject" value="" class="required" />
          </div> -->

          <div>
            <label for="message">and your message</label>
            <textarea name="message" id="message" value="" rows="10" class="required"></textarea>
          </div>
          <div id="messageButtons">
          <input type="submit" value="Submit" name="contactSubmit" id="contactSubmit" class="sendEmail btn" />

        </div>
      </form>

    </div>

I hope that was enough information. Does anyone know why the $message variable isn't being output to the submitted email?

thanks

Put this at the top of your PHP file: error_reporting(-1); — Mike
– Mike, Commented Aug 18, 2013 at 4:24
Not sure if it can cause an error, but a textarea does not have a value attribute. — jeroen
– jeroen, Commented Aug 18, 2013 at 4:26

Mike · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-18 04:33:13Z

6

I think this is your problem:

value=""

The <textarea> tag does not have a value attribute, however different browsers have different ways of handling invalid code, so whatever browser you are using must be using the value found in this invalid attribute instead of what you type in the actual text box.

Just do:

<textarea name="message" id="message" rows="10" class="required"></textarea>

edited Aug 18, 2013 at 4:33

answered Aug 18, 2013 at 4:26

Mike

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3 Comments

Funk Forty Niner Over a year ago

What I can't understand is, both name and email have value="" and the OP is receiving those values.

Mike Over a year ago

@Fred because <input> tags do have a value attribute which specifies the default value in the input box. When the user alters this, it alters the value of value. "message" is a <textarea>, so it is not supposed to contain this, and the browser is interpreting this bad HTML in a different way. I wouldn't be surprised if you tried it in a few other browsers and got different results.

wellwell Over a year ago

Aw, nuts. Taking away the value="" from my textarea field didn't resolve the issue. Is there something else we can try?

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