Question

I’m building an email contact form that sends via the POST method using PHP. the form is at ../register.shtml, and the action redirects to ../register.php

The problem is, when register.php is opened directly (as in not via the form) a blank email sends to my inbox. Is there a way to stop this from happening?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Create a hidden input field in the form on your ../register.shtml page. Then, on register.php, check if the hidden input value is set. If so, then process the form. If it’s not set (the user didn’t come from the form) then redirect back to the original page.

Here’s some code:

On ../register.shtml

<form action="register.php" method="POST">

... your form fields

<input type="hidden" name="cameFromForm" value="Yes" />
</form>

Then, at the top of ../register.php

if(!isset($_POST['cameFromForm'])) {
    header('location: http://www.example.com/register.shtml');
    exit();
} else {

   .... your send mail code (or whatever register.php does)

}