Final PHP contact form

Here we will put together all we learned in this PHP forms tutorial and create a working PHP contact form.

» HTML form code

Let's use the form we started with this tutorial and just add a few more fields to make it more interesting. In this example we will make fields "Your name", "Subject", "E-mail" and "Comments" required, all others optional. We will mark required field labels bold so the visitor knows which fields he/she has to fill in.

Copy the HTML code below it into a plain text file and save it as contact.htm

<html>
<body>

<p>Required fields are <b>bold</b></p>

<form action="contact.php" method="post">
<p><b>Your Name:</b> <input type="text" name="yourname" /><br />
<b>Subject:</b> <input type="text" name="subject" /><br />
<b>E-mail:</b> <input type="text" name="email" /><br />
Website: <input type="text" name="website"></p>

<p>Do you like this website?
<input type="radio" name="likeit" value="Yes" checked="checked" /> Yes
<input type="radio" name="likeit" value="No" /> No
<input type="radio" name="likeit" value="Not sure" /> Not sure</p>

<p>How did you find us?
<select name="how">
<option value=""> -- Please select -- </option>
<option>Google</option>
<option>Yahoo</option>
<option>Link from a website</option>
<option>Word of mouth</option>
<option>Other</option>
</select>

<p><b>Your comments:</b><br />
<textarea name="comments" rows="10" cols="40"></textarea></p>

<p><input type="submit" value="Send it!"></p>

<p> </p>
<p>Powered by <a href="https://myphpform.com">PHP form</a></p>

</form>

</body>
</html>

» Thank you page

We could include the response in the PHP script (as shown before), but keeping it in an outside file makes the script itself less complicated and the response page easier to edit and customize.

Copy the HTML code below it into a plain text file and save it as thanks.htm

<html>
<body>

<p><b>Your message was sent</b></p>

<p>Your message was successfully sent!
Thank you for contacting us, we will reply
to your inquiry as soon as possible!</p>

</body>
</html>

» PHP form script

This script is just a summary of topics covered in this tutorial. Included are some comments to explain what is happening. Copy the PHP code below it into a plain text file and save it as contact.php

Change the default "you@domain.com" recipient address inside the code to your own e-mail address (the one you wish to receive form results to)!

<?php
/* Set e-mail recipient */
$myemail  = "you@domain.com";

/* Check all form inputs using check_input function */
$yourname = check_input($_POST['yourname'], "Enter your name");
$subject  = check_input($_POST['subject'], "Write a subject");
$email    = check_input($_POST['email']);
$website  = check_input($_POST['website']);
$likeit   = check_input($_POST['likeit']);
$how_find = check_input($_POST['how']);
$comments = check_input($_POST['comments'], "Write your comments");

/* If e-mail is not valid show error message */
if (!preg_match("/([\w\-]+\@[\w\-]+\.[\w\-]+)/", $email))
{
    show_error("E-mail address not valid");
}

/* If URL is not valid set $website to empty */
if (!preg_match("/^(https?:\/\/+[\w\-]+\.[\w\-]+)/i", $website))
{
    $website = '';
}

/* Let's prepare the message for the e-mail */
$message = "Hello!

Your contact form has been submitted by:

Name: $yourname
E-mail: $email
URL: $website

Like the website? $likeit
How did he/she find it? $how_find

Comments:
$comments

End of message
";

/* Send the message using mail() function */
mail($myemail, $subject, $message);

/* Redirect visitor to the thank you page */
header('Location: thanks.htm');
exit();

/* Functions we used */
function check_input($data, $problem='')
{
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    if ($problem && strlen($data) == 0)
    {
        show_error($problem);
    }
    return $data;
}

function show_error($myError)
{
?>
    <html>
    <body>

    <b>Please correct the following error:</b><br />
    <?php echo $myError; ?>

    </body>
    </html>
<?php
exit();
}
?>

» Getting it to work

Once you have all the three files (contact.htm, thanks.htm and contact.php) upload them to your server (check with your host and make sure it supports PHP!), open contact.htm in your browser and give it a try.

Not receiving e-mails from your form? See PHP form not working.

Congratulations! Your PHP contact form is now up and running!

<< Form to mail

Final words and further reading >>

Jump to:

1.1	PHP forms tutorial
1.2	Validating forms with PHP
1.3	Required and optional fields
1.4	Validating URL and E-mail
1.5	Form to mail
1.6	Putting it all together
1.7	Final words and further reading

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