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Oswaldo Zarate
35,612 PointsCan't send selected checkbox type values to my email.
I'm working on a website that has a form. In the form there's some options that can be selected. I used
<input type="checkbox" name="services[]" value="service name">
for each of the available options.
Now, when I try to submit the form, everything seems to work if I don't select any option, but once I click on a checkbox and try to submit the form there's an error. I checked my code and it displays the error message given by this method:
if(!isset($error_message)) {
foreach( $_POST as $value ){
if( stripos($value,'Content-Type:') !== FALSE ){
$error_message = "there was an error";
}
}
}
I think it takes the option as malicious code.
Any ideas how I can solve this? Thank you
3 Answers
thomascawthorn
22,986 PointsIt's because you're sending through an array here:
<input type="checkbox" name="services[]" value="service name">
I believe if content type is left out of a value passed through in POST, it's a string. As soon as you start passing through arrays, it will say something like "Content-Type: array" (not necessarily this exactly!).
I imagine you picked up this validation from the shirts4mike tutorial?
With this line, you're trying to validate string as 'things without a content type'. However, in your app it's totally valid for the 'services' (p.s. your shouldn't this be 1 or 0?) to be an array of values.
You could say:
<?php
$validateAsString = ['first_name', 'last_name'];
foreach($validateAsString as $field) {
if( stripos($_POST[$field],'Content-Type:') !== FALSE ){
$error_message = "there was an error";
}
}
Oswaldo Zarate
35,612 PointsThanks, I think you showed me the right path. First I converted the POST value only for the checkboxes to a string like this:
<?php
$_POST["services"] = implode(", ", $_POST["services"]);
?>
and now the form submits. I just hope this is a good practice.
thomascawthorn
22,986 PointsAwesome!
Hmm, I wouldn't set anything to $_POST - I prefer only to get values from $_POST as opposed to set values.
You could however sotre $_POST in an a new variable:
<?php
$formData = $_POST;
$formData['services'] = implode(', ', $_POST['services']);
Oswaldo Zarate
35,612 PointsI tried:
<?php
foreach( $_POST[""] as $value ){
if( stripos($value,'Content-Type:') !== FALSE ){
$error_message = "there was an error";
}
}
Because otherwise that statement would check each $_POST regardless of POST SERVICES being in a variable. But I don't know if using Post[""] will still check for other input values like:
<input type="text" name="name">
because those are not arrays.
Oswaldo Zarate
35,612 PointsBy the way, I did took it from the shirts 4 mike exercise. And I would like to be able to check if each POST value has a content-type because I understand it makes the form more secure. Thank you for your help.
thomascawthorn
22,986 PointsThat's cool, but your current method won't work. It's a while ago since I ran through the course, but I had a go at doing it this way. It's not great.. but might point you in the right direction!
<?php
$validateAsString = ['first_name', 'last_name', 'username'];
$validateAsRequired = ['first_name', 'last_name', 'user_name', 'services'];
$formData = $_POST;
foreach($formData as $field => $input) {
if (in_array($field, $validateAsRequired)) {
// validate it's not empty etc...
}
if (in_array($field, $validateAsString) {
// validate as string / content type
}
}
Oswaldo Zarate
35,612 PointsI think I finally got it. I started by placing the POST values inside the formData variable and then I imploded the services array like this:
<?php
$formData = $_POST;
$formData["services"] = implode(", ", $formData["services"]);
And then i changed the foreach statement like this:
<?php
if(!isset($error_message)) {
foreach( $formData as $value ){
if( stripos($value,'Content-Type:') !== FALSE ){
$error_message = "there was an error";
}
}
}
Thank you.
shawn stokes
5,651 Pointsshawn stokes
5,651 Pointswhat was the error message? and the form code and form processing would help to track down this also.