PHP Email Contact Form

If you find this code useful and would like to encourage me to post more goodies here, you could buy me something from my wish lists at Amazon.com or at MusicDirect.com

I've had a couple inquiries about the code I use for my Email Me form, so I've decided to post the code here for anyone who'd like to use/adapt it.

2008/06/23: Replaced original email address format check with the PHP filter_var() function. This means that the minimum PHP version required is 5.2.0. (If you are on a host still running PHP4, you really should either move to a new host or get them to upgrade, as PHP4 is no longer being supported and not even security patches will be issued after August 2008.)

2008/05/12: I've updated this page to reflect the latest code I'm now using. I've decided to lose the "Captcha" image and input field, and instead include a couple "invisible" fields that legitimate users should neither see nor worry about, but hopefully will still stop the majority of spam-bots.

The only thing you need to add is the "thank you" page, which can be a plain HTML page if you want. On a successfully sent email, the script will redirect to that page. I use a "meta redirect" in mine just to help prevent users from accidentally resubmitting via the Refresh button/key.

The Form Page and Form-Handler


<?php
###############################################################################
#
# mail.php - general-purpose email form and script
#
# requires PHP version >= 5.2.0
#
# copyright 2005-2008 by Charles Reace
#
# This software available as open source software under the Gnu General Public
# License: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
#
###############################################################################

###############################################################################
# user-defined variables - update for your email address(es) 
###############################################################################

session_start();

# link to "thank you" page:
$thanks = "http://www.example.com/thanks.php";

# Modify the following variable to specify where emails will be sent.
$to = "name@example.com";

# uncomment and edit the next line if you want to cc someone:
# $cc = "name@example.com";

# uncomment and edit the next line if you want to bcc someone:
# $bcc = "name@example.com";

#################################
# end of user-defined variables #
#################################

# Init. some variables:
$error = "";
$success = false;

# process form if submitted:
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
   foreach($_POST as $key => $val)
   {
      if(empty($_POST[$key]) and $key != 'id')
      {
         $error .= "You must enter a value for " . ucwords(str_replace("_", " ", $key)) .
            ". ";
      }
      else
      {
         if(get_magic_quotes_gpc())
         {
            $_POST[$key] = stripslashes($val);
         }
      }
      if($key != 'message')
      {
         $_POST[$key] = preg_replace('/[\r\n]/', ' ', $val);
      }
   }
   if($_POST['email_address'] != $_POST['repeat_email'])
   {
      $error .= "Email Address is not the same as Repeat Email. ";
   }
   elseif(filter_var($_POST['email_address'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) == false OR
          filter_var($_POST['email_address'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL !== $_POST['email_address']))
   {   // added 'SANITIZE' to deal with 'FILTER' bug when last character is newline
      $error .= "'{$_POST['email_address']}' does not appear to be a valid email address. ";
   }

   if($_POST['id'] !== '')
   {
      $error .= ' Invalid form data received.';
   }
   if($_POST['token'] != $_SESSION['token'])
   {
      user_error("Post '".$_POST['token']."' != '".$_SESSION['token']."'");
      $error .= ' Spam robot check failed. Make sure cookies are enabled for this site, or this form will not work.';
   }
   unset($_SESSION['token']);
   if(empty($error)) # no errors in input, so go ahead and email it.
   {
      $headers = "From: " . preg_replace('/[\r\n]+/', ' ', $_POST['email_address']);
      if(!empty($cc))
      {
         $headers .= "\r\nCc: $cc";
      }
      if(!empty($bcc))
      {
         $headers .= "\r\nBcc: $bcc";
      }
      $headers .= "\r\nX-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();
      $msg = "From {$_POST['name']} ({$_POST['email_address']})";
      $msg .= "\n\n\n{$_POST['message']}";
      $result = @mail($to, $_POST['subject'], $msg, $headers);
      if(!$result)
      {
         $error = "There was an unknown error while attempting to send your email.";
      }
      else
      {
         header("Location: $thanks");
      }
   }
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1'>
<title>Email Me</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
/* for any error messages */
.error { color: red; }
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if(!empty($error))
{
  echo "<p class='error'>$error</p>\n";
}
?>
<h2>Email Me</h2>
<form action='<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>' method=post>
<fieldset>
<legend>Your Contact Information</legend>
<p style='display:none'>Do not enter anything in this field: <input type='text' name='id'>
<input type="hidden" name="token" value="<?php
$_SESSION['token'] = uniqid();
echo $_SESSION['token'];
?>">
</p>
<p><label for='name' style="display: block; float: left; width: 9em;">Name:</label>
<input type='text' name='name' id='name' size='30' maxlength='40'<?php
if(!empty($_POST['name']))
{
   echo "value='{$_POST['name']}'";
}
?>></p>
<p><label for='email_address' style="display: block; float: left; width: 9em;">Email Address:</label>
<input type='text' name='email_address' id='email_address' size='30' maxlength='40'<?php
if(!empty($_POST['email_address']))
{
   echo "value='{$_POST['email_address']}'";
}
?>></p>
<p><label for='repeat_email' style="display: block; float: left; width: 9em;">Repeat Email:</label>
<input type='text' name='repeat_email' id='repeat_email' size='30' maxlength='40'<?php
if(!empty($_POST['repeat_email']))
{
   echo "value='{$_POST['repeat_email']}'";
}
?>></p>

</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Message</legend>
<p><label for='subject' style="display: block; float: left; width: 9em;">Subject:</label>
<input type='text' name='subject' id='subject' size='50' maxlength='60'<?php
if(!empty($_POST['subject']))
{
   echo " value='{$_POST['subject']}'";
}
?>></p>
<p><label for='message'>Message:</label><br>
<textarea name='message' id='message' cols='50' rows='8'
style="width: 375px"><?php
if(!empty($_POST['message']))
{
   echo $_POST['message'];
}
?></textarea></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><input type='submit' name='submit' value="Send Email"></p>
</fieldset>
</form>
</body>
</html>

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