PHP Form submit to display response on form page

Question

I have a web form (form.php) in PHP which has following layout:

<form method="post" action="mailer.php" class="form-horizontal">

mailer.php has a function that checks for data, validates it and send email to me. After this all is done successfully I want to redirect to my form page with an alert/info message.

Mailer function in mailer.php looks like:

    $httpReferer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
    print_r("Form submitted successfully. We will contact you soon !");
    header('Location: '. $httpReferer) ;

I want to get the message in print_r on form.php in the following div,

<div class="alert alert-info">
    <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert">&times;</button>
    Make sure to fill all the fields with correct values before sending your email!
</div>

I am able to redirect back, but without any message. Tried echo, tried using JavaScript alerts etc. None worked for me.

@Chris Thanks for the edit, do we always highlight filenames ? — CodeMonkey
– CodeMonkey, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 13:47
Use session and store you message in a variable, for example : $_SESSION['message']. Or use Cokkies and then store your message in a variable too, for example : $_COOKIE['message']. — phpCore
– phpCore, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 13:47
@CodeMonkey, many users use backticks for file names (and I find it much easier to read). Some people bold them instead (or as well). I wouldn't have bothered editing just for that, but the print_r and div deserved backticks, so I made the other changes too. — Chris
– Chris, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 13:49

Nick Coons · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-19 14:10:18Z

1

In your mailer.php script, you can either print a message or use header(), you can't do both. If you want to redirect to form.php and include a message with it, you can either use $_GET or $_SESSION. Using $_GET would look like this:

$httpReferer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
$message = "Form submitted successfully. We will contact you soon !";
header('Location: '. $httpReferer . "?message=" . urlencode( $message ));

Then your div would look like this:

<div class="alert alert-info">
    <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert">&times;</button>
    <?php echo $_GET['message']; ?>
</div>

But I think the $_SESSION solution would be cleaner because it won't clutter the address bar with your message:

$httpReferer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
session_start();
$_SESSION['message'] = "Form submitted successfully. We will contact you soon !";
header('Location: '. $httpReferer);

<? session_start(); ?>
<div class="alert alert-info">
    <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert">&times;</button>
    <?php echo $_SESSION['message']; ?>
</div>

edited Jan 19, 2014 at 14:10

answered Jan 19, 2014 at 13:49

Nick Coons

3,6921 gold badge21 silver badges22 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

CodeMonkey Over a year ago

$_SESSION is coming out to be NULL

Nick Coons Over a year ago

The original answer assumed you already had sessions started elsewhere in your scripts, but I've modified the answer with the appropriate session_start()s.

CodeMonkey Over a year ago

That works. Thanks. Can i also change classes somehow from the mailer script ?

Nick Coons Over a year ago

You can set as many $_SESSION variables as you'd like in mailer.php, and them use them in form.php, so that would probably be a good place to hold your classes if that's where you want them to have an effect.

chathux · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-19 14:07:35Z

0

instead of redirecting with php do it with javascript. replace header('Location') with,

echo <<<SCRIPT

<script>
setTimeout(function(){

document.location = '$_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER]';   
}, 2000);

</script>

SCRIPT;

answered Jan 19, 2014 at 14:07

chathux

8318 silver badges17 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP Form submit to display response on form page

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related