How To Build a PHP Contact Form - Part 3 of 3

In part 2 of this tutorial we added the phpMailer library to the PHP contact form. In part 3 we will add a MySQL database to store the leads for re-use later.

Installing MySQL through XAMPP

Open the Apache Friends website.

Click the XAMPP for Windows button to save the file on your desktop.

Double-click the downloaded file to launch the installer.

Click the OK button.

Installing xampp

Click the Next button.

Installing xampp

XAMPP offers a variety of components that you can install, such as MySQL, phpMyAdmin, PHP, Apache, and more. For the most part, you will be using most of these components, as such it’s recommended to leave the default options.

Click the Next button.

Installing xampp

Use the default installed location, or choose another folder to install the software in the “Select a folder” field.

Click the Next button.

Installing xampp

Clear the Learn more about Bitnami for XAMPP option.

Click the Next button.

Installing xampp

Click the Allow access button to allow the app through the firewall (if applicable).

Installing xampp

Click the Finish button.

Installing xampp

Choose your language (English or German).

Click the Save button.

Installing xampp

The XAMPP Control Panel includes three main sections. In the Modules section, you’ll find all the web services available. You can start each service by clicking the Start button.

Installing xampp

Now we want to go to phpMyAdmin to setup our database. Open up your browser and go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/server_sql.php then paste in the code below. This will create the database and the table along with the required fields for the project.

-- -- Database: `youtube` -- CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `youtube` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci; USE `youtube`; -- -------------------------------------------------------- -- -- Table structure for table `leads` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `leads`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `leads` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `first_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `last_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `email` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `message` text NOT NULL, `created` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, PRIMARY KEY (`id`), KEY `email` (`email`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Create a file called db.php in your app directory and paste the following code inside.

<?php $db_servername = "localhost"; $db_username = "root"; $db_password = ""; $db_dbname = "youtube"; try { $pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=$db_servername;dbname=$db_dbname", $db_username, $db_password); // set the PDO error mode to exception $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION); //echo "Connected successfully"; } catch(PDOException $e) { echo "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage(); // log this and send a smoke signal } ?>

All we need to do now is add the database file within the script. We want to only include this if no errors are present so the section we will be wokring in is the if(count($errors) == 0) { // } conditional.

if(count($errors) == 0) { // wake up Mr SQL include('../app/db.php'); // store the info the database $stmt = $pdo->prepare('INSERT INTO leads (first_name, last_name, email, message) VALUES (:first_name, :last_name, :email, :message)'); $stmt->bindParam(':first_name', $first_name, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindParam(':last_name', $last_name, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindParam(':email', $email, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindParam(':message', $message, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->execute(); ... continued }

Now lets pull the entire project together, below is the code for the complete script.

<?php // import phpmailer global namespace - must be at the very op of your script (not inside a function) use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer; use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP; //set the correct timezone date_default_timezone_set('Africa/Johannesburg'); // Load Composer's autoloader require '../vendor/autoload.php'; // handle the post request if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') { // initialize everything // set the error variable array $errors = array(); // functions function clean_input($user_input) { $user_input = trim($user_input); $user_input = stripslashes($user_input); $user_input = htmlspecialchars($user_input); return $user_input; } // check if the user input is empty, clean it up and set the variables. // first name if(!empty($_POST['first_name'])) { $first_name = clean_input($_POST['first_name']); } else { array_push($errors, "First name cannot be empty."); } // last name if(!empty($_POST['last_name'])) { $last_name = clean_input($_POST['last_name']); } else { array_push($errors, "Last name cannot be empty."); } // email address if(!empty($_POST['email'])) { // check if this is a legit email address if(filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) { $email = clean_input($_POST['email']); } else { array_push($errors, "The e-mail address is not valid."); } } else { array_push($errors, "E-mail cannot be empty."); } // form message if(!empty($_POST['message'])) { $message = clean_input($_POST['message']); } else { array_push($errors, "Please enter your message."); } // send the email if(count($errors) == 0) { // wake up Mr SQL include('../app/db.php'); // store the info the database $stmt = $pdo->prepare('INSERT INTO leads (first_name, last_name, email, message) VALUES (:first_name, :last_name, :email, :message)'); $stmt->bindParam(':first_name', $first_name, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindParam(':last_name', $last_name, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindParam(':email', $email, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindParam(':message', $message, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->execute(); // wrap the message $message = wordwrap($message); // send the mail $mail = new PHPMailer; $mail->isSMTP(); $mail->SMTPDebug = 0; // mail server configuration $mail->Host = 'mail.devspace.co.za'; $mail->Port = '465'; $mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl'; $mail->SMTPAuth = true; $mail->Username = 'no-reply@devspace.co.za'; $mail->Password = 'WPeaVXGUfmCVenXPOJ'; // Recipients $mail->setFrom('no-reply@devspace.co.za', 'Website Mail Service'); $mail->addAddress('youtube@erikthiart.com', 'Erik Thiart'); // mail content $mail->isHTML(true); $mail->Subject = "Website Enquiry"; $mail->Body = ' <h4>Website Enquiry</h4> <strong>Full Name:</strong> '.$first_name.' '.$last_name.'<br> <strong>E-mail Address:</strong> '.$email.'<br> <strong>Message:</strong> '.$message.'<br> <br> Timestamp: '.date('Y-m-d H:i:s').' '; // send the mail if($mail->send()) { $confirm_message = 'Thank you for your message, '.$first_name.' - we have received it sucessfully.'; } else { // display a useful message. (dont lose the client) array_push($errors, "The email failed to sent, here is the error: ".$mail->ErrorInfo); } } } ?> <?php include 'header.php'; ?> <div class="jumbotron jumbotron-fluid"> <div class="container"> <h1 class="display-4">Advanced contact form</h1> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm"> <?php if(!empty($errors)): ?> <div class="alert alert-danger" role="alert"> <?php foreach($errors as $error) { echo $error . "<br>"; } ?> </div> <?php endif;?> <?php if(!empty($confirm_message)):?> <div class="alert alert-success" role="alert"> <?=$confirm_message;?> </div> <?php endif;?> <form action="" method="post"> <div class="form-group"> <label for="">First Name</label> <input type="text" class="form-control" id="first_name" name="first_name"> </div> <div class="form-group"> <label for="">Last Name</label> <input type="text" class="form-control" id="last_name" name="last_name"> </div> <div class="form-group"> <label for="">Email address</label> <input type="email" class="form-control" id="email" name="email"> </div> <div class="form-group"> <label for="message">Message</label> <textarea class="form-control" id="message" name="message" rows="3"></textarea> </div> <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <?php include 'footer.php'; ?>

This entire project is available on github and can be accessed here

Some articles you might also be interested in...

Xiaomi Mijia 1080P 170 Degree Smart IP Camera with AI Human Detection
Xiaomi Mijia 1080P 170 Degree Smart IP Camera with AI Human Detection

I know this review is long, but I wanted to include all the details to help you decide. This smart security camera from Xiaomi had so much going for it, I still believe there a route for Xiaomi to redeem themselves and make this camera available to its full potential by issuing a firmware update to remove the restrictions and allow RTSP access from the Xiaomi camera.

Read The Article
A Beginner’s guide on how to browse the dark web with TOR
A Beginner’s guide on how to browse the dark web with TOR

First thing to understand is that on the hidden web, you do not know about a website unless that website is shared with you. The dark web’s content on the internet isn’t accessible through traditional browsers or standard browsing technology. Content on the dark web is designed to be hidden from search engines and from casual users – you can’t simply stumble across dark web websites by accident.

Read The Article
How To Use Your Raspberry Pi To Monitor Internet Speed
How To Use Your Raspberry Pi To Monitor Internet Speed

Testing speed on a regular basis allows you to pinpoint performance trends, isolate which devices may be causing issues for your wireless network, and ensure no one is stealing your bandwidth. This tutorial is made for you if you’re interested in monitoring how your download speed, upload speed, and ping are affected over time. In order […]

Read The Article