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PHP Enhancing a Simple PHP Application Integrating Validation Errors Escaping Output

Aaron Munoz
Aaron Munoz
11,177 Points
Posted by Aaron Munoz
Aaron Munoz
11,177 Points

Need Help with my code for Extra Credit for Enhancing PHP Application

This is what I came up with. I noticed that I don't get an error message for when "There was a problem sending the email." It just reloads the contact form with the values. First off, did I approach the extra credit the right way? And second, why won't it give me a confirmation that it sent nor give me an error? 

if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    $name = trim($_POST["name"]);
    $email = trim($_POST["email"]);
    $message = trim($_POST["message"]);

$error_message = array();
if ($name == "") {
   $error_message [] = "You must specify a value for name."; 
   }
 if ($email == ""){
     $error_message [] = "You must specify a valid email address.";
 }
 if ($message == "") {
     $error_message [] = "You must include a message.";
 }

    if (!isset($error_message)) {
        $email_body = "";
        $email_body = $email_body . "Name: " . $name . "<br>";
        $email_body = $email_body . "Email: " . $email . "<br>";
        $email_body = $email_body . "Message: " . $message;

        $mail->SetFrom($email, $name);
        $address = "aaron@theblueocean.tv";
        $mail->AddAddress($address, "Shirts 4 Mike");
        $mail->Subject = "Shirts 4 Mike Contact Form Submission | " . $name;
        $mail->MsgHTML($email_body);

        if ($mail->Send()) {
            header("Location: contact.php?status=thanks");
            exit;
        } else {
            $error_message [] = "There was a problem sending the email: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
        }
    }
}

<?php if (isset($_GET["status"]) AND $_GET["status"] == "thanks") { ?>
            <p>Thanks for the email! I&rsquo;ll be in touch shortly!</p>
        <?php } else { ?>

                     <?php
            if (!isset($error_message)) {
                echo '<p>I&rsquo;d love to hear from you! Complete the form to send me an email.</p>';
                } else { foreach($error_message as $error) {
                echo '<p class="message">' . $error . '</p>';
                }
            } ?>
Brandon Berger
Brandon Berger
3,947 Points
Brandon Berger
Brandon Berger
3,947 Points

Php mail function will almost always return true, it cannot tell if the server sent the email successfully and the user received it