Question

I can get the PHP mailform to work correctly. The problem is I would like the submit button upon validation to not refresh the entire page but just the content div layer. I have researched various solutions however I am fairly new to PHP so I may be entering the code incorrectly. The working page can be found at http://www.kaimeramedia.com/derek/Website and then by clicking on the contact link. The actual contact page code is:

 <form method="post" id="captcha_form" name="form1" action="mailform.php">
                        <br />
                        <table width="100%" border="0"> 
                          <tr><td rowspan="4" width="125">
 </td> 
                            <td>
 <div id="Imprint3">Name:</div></td>
                                <td width="15"> 
 </td><td><div id="Imprint3">All fields are required.</div></td> 
                          <tr>
                              <td width="150">
 <input type="text" id="name" name="name" maxlength="30" value="name" onfocus="if
 (this.value==this.defaultValue) this.value='';"/></td>
                          <td rowspan="5" colspan="2">
                                <table>
                                  <tr><td width="10"></td><td>
 <div id="Imprint3">Message:</div></td></tr>
                                <tr><td width="10">
 </td>
                                <td width="200"><textarea name="message" id="message" 
 rows="6" cols="25" value="Enter your message" onfocus="if
 (this.value==this.defaultValue) this.value='';"/><?php echo "</tex" . "tarea>"; ?>                                   
 </td> 
                            </tr> 
                            <tr> 

 <td align="center" colspan="2"> 

 <input name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit" />

 <input type="button" name="reset_form" value="Reset" onclick="this.form.reset();">
 </td></tr></table>                                 
 </td> 
                            </tr> 
                            <tr> 

 <td valign="top"><div id="Imprint3">Email:</div></td> </tr>
                                <td valign="top">  
 <input type="text" id="email" name="email" maxlength="100" value="[e-mail]" 
 onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue) this.value='';"/></td>                              
                            </tr> <tr> 
                              <td width="15"></td>
 <td align="center"> <div style="padding-bottom: 1em;">
  <img src="captcha.php" /> <br />
<input type="text" name="userpass" value="input the above text here" onfocus="if
 (this.value==this.defaultValue) this.value='';"></div></td></tr></table></form>

and the mailform.php file is as follows:

 <?PHP
 session_start();
 try{
$check = new check();
if(!isset($_REQUEST['email']))
    throw new exception('You did not enter an email address.');

if(!isset($_REQUEST['message']))
    throw new exception('You did not enter a message.');

if(!isset($_REQUEST['name']))
    throw new exception('You did not enter a name');

$sender = $_REQUEST['email'];
$message = $_REQUEST['message'];
$name = $_REQUEST['name'];
$recipient = '[e-mail]';

$subject = 'Regarding Your Portfolio';

if($check->captcha('userpass') == FALSE)
    throw new exception('Your captcha is incorrect.');

if($check->spam($sender) == FALSE)
    throw new exception('Your email field contains spam.');

if($check->spam($name) == FALSE)
    throw new exception('Your name field contains spam.');

if($check->length($sender, 10) == FALSE)
    throw new exception('Your email field does not satisfy the minimum character    
count.');

if($check->length($message, 8) == FALSE)
    throw new exception('Your message field does not satisfy the minimum character 
count.');

if($check->length($name, 3) == FALSE)
    throw new exception('Your name field does not satisfy the minimum character count.');

mail($recipient, $subject, $message, "From: $name <$sender>" );
include'thankyou.php';

}catch (Exception $E){
die($E->getMessage());

}





class check{

function captcha($field){
    if(isset($_REQUEST[$field])==FALSE){ return false; }
    if($_SESSION['pass'] != $_REQUEST[$field]){ return false; }
    return true;
}

function email($email){
    if(!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)){ return false;}
    return true;
}

function spam($field){
    if(eregi("to:",$field) || eregi("cc:",$field) || eregi("\r",$field) || 
eregi("\n",$field) || eregi("%0A",$field)){ return false; }
    return true;
}

function length($field, $min){
    if(strlen($field) < $min){ return false; }
    return true;
}
}
?>

I have replaced my receiving email to [e-mail] on this page, but on my site it is my actual email. Another user helped me a lot with getting this script functioning correctly, but I was wondering if it is possible to get the thankyou.php to refresh into the current div layer and not refresh the entire page. the line that I want to edit I believe is the: include 'thankyou.php'; Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

This is not possible with php.
You will have to use JavaScript to realize this.

You would be able to send the email without refreshing the page and to load a file in a div.

With e.g. jQuery and the $.ajax function it would look something like this:

var msg; // defines variable "msg"

$('#button_ID').click(function(e){

e.preventDefault(); // this prevents the page from reloading (or default behavior, so the form submit)

msg = $('#input_field_ID').val(); // gets the value of the input field and saves it in variable "msg"

$.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: '/sendmail.php',
    data: {message : msg}, // posts variable "msg" as "message"
    cache: false,
    success: function(data) {
        $("#yourdivID").load('/thankyou.php'); // loads a file in a div
    },
    error: function(xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError){
        alert('there was an error');
    }
});

});

In this example you would be able to get the message in sendmail.php with $_POST["message"]

Or use $.post and serialize your entire form:

$.post("/sendmail.php", $("#formID").serialize());

Just that you can see how to handle something like this.