[woodsytime]

Hi there,

I've created a contact form which relies on a piece of php (mailer.php) to send through the data to a specified email address. When I submit the form I get an Error 404 Object Not Found page attached here:

 error404.jpg (58.28K)
Number of downloads: 6

Not sure if it helps but I'm using Xampp as my virtual server.

Here's the code for the contact form:

<form action="mailer.php" method="POST" >
        Fields marked (*) are required
        
        <p>FirstName:* <br>
        <input type="text" name="FirstName">
        <p>LastName:* <br>
        <input type="text" name="LastName">
        <p>City:* <br>
        <input type="text" name="City">
        <p>Tel:<br>
        <input type="text" name="Tel">
        <p><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
        <p>

Here's the mailer.php code:

<?php

// get posted data into local variables
$EmailFrom = "Enquiry";
$EmailTo = "myname@myemail.com";
$Subject = "Enquiry";
$FirstName = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['FirstName'])); 
$LastName = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['LastName'])); 
$City = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['City'])); 
$Tel = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Tel'])); 

// validation
$validationOK=true;
if (Trim($FirstName)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($LastName)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($City)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (!$validationOK) {
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=error.htm\">";
  exit;
}

// prepare email body text
$Body = "";
$Body .= "FirstName: ";
$Body .= $FirstName;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "LastName: ";
$Body .= $LastName;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "City: ";
$Body .= $City;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Tel: ";
$Body .= $Tel;
$Body .= "\n";

// send email 
$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

// redirect to success page 
if ($success){
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=ok.htm\">";
}
else{
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=error.htm\">";
}
?>

Server Side scripting and PHP etc. is all pretty new to me. However, one thing which did occur to me is do I need an 'ok.htm' page sitting somewhere on my virtual server to be displayed as a 'Success' page?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Wickham]

The 404 error might refer to $EmailFrom = "Enquiry"; because the mail code

mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

has $EmailFrom but Enquiry isn't a field name in the form. It needs to be an email address, not text Enquiry.

The error also says localhost, so are you trying to send the email from localhost on your computer? It's better to upload everything and test online.

[woodsytime]

I tried putting in an email address in the $EmailFrom, but this didn't work. Does this email address need to be verified or something??? I still don't really understand?

But then, the only reason $EmailFrom is there is so that the receiving email address can see who sent it, so its not integral to get the php code working is it? When the $EmailFrom is called in this line of code

mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

its just used as a text string isn't it? So does it necessarily have to be an email address?

I also commented out the $EmailFrom part but that didn't help either.

With regards to localhost that's correct, I'm testing on my computer using Xampp as don't want to put it live yet. Is this the problem? Do I need to put it live to get it working?

Still all new to me so apologies for my ignorance in these matters!

[TopShopper]

woodsytime, on 16 March 2010 - 11:10 AM, said:

Server Side scripting and PHP etc. is all pretty new to me. However, one thing which did occur to me is do I need an 'ok.htm' page sitting somewhere on my virtual server to be displayed as a 'Success' page?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Yes you need ok.htm and error.htm in same directory as mailer.php

[woodsytime]

Thanks for confirming that...

So I've now got 'ok.htm' and 'error.htm' in the root directory where the 'mailer.php' file is.

Next step is to get it to actually send the email! I submitted the form and the 'error.htm' was displayed which I just created. Do I need to upload the site to the web to get it send the email to the stated address?

[Wickham]

woodsytime, on 16 March 2010 - 11:49 AM, said:

I tried putting in an email address in the $EmailFrom, but this didn't work. Does this email address need to be verified or something??? I still don't really understand?

But then, the only reason $EmailFrom is there is so that the receiving email address can see who sent it, so its not integral to get the php code working is it? When the $EmailFrom is called in this line of code

mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

its just used as a text string isn't it? So does it necessarily have to be an email address?

I also commented out the $EmailFrom part but that didn't help either.

With regards to localhost that's correct, I'm testing on my computer using Xampp as don't want to put it live yet. Is this the problem? Do I need to put it live to get it working?

An email has four sections, the To, Subject, Message body and From so the PHP mail function has to have four sections separated by commas, which your code does have, but an email cannot be sent unless it has a From email address; it will just be rejected by the ISP.

I think it's difficult to send emails from your computer localhost; it's better to test with a real form and a real email online (you could use the same email address for $EmailTo and $EmailFrom or use another of your own email addresses).

[woodsytime]

Thanks for your explanation. I included an email address in the $EmailFrom part and just tried a live test on the web and it worked!!!

Thanks for your help!