JS message in PHP return to HTML page

Question

HTML Code

<div id="fourmstyle" class="fourm">

<form action="scripts/mail.php" method="post">

    <label for="name">Your Name <required>*</required>
        </label>
    <input type="text" name="Name" id="Name" placeholder="Joe Bloggs">

    <label for="email">Your Email <required>*</required>
        </label>
    <input type="text" name="Email" id="Email" placeholder="Joebloggs@example.com">

    <label for="telephone">Telephone
        </label>
    <input type="text" name="Telephone" id="Telephone">

    <label for="type">Type
        </label>
        <select name="Type">                
            <option value="Booking" selected>Booking</option>
            <option value="B&B">B&amp;B</option>
            <option value="Question">Question</option>
            <option value="General">General</option>
            <option value="Website Feedback">Website Feedback</option>
        </select></p>

         <label for="messsage">Message <required>*</required>
            </label>
         <textarea name="Message" id="Message" rows="5" cols="25">
         </textarea></p>

         <label for="btn">&nbsp;</label>
         <button type="submit" class="button">Submit
         </button>
         <br>&nbsp;<requireddescription> *(indicates that the information is required)
         </requireddescription>
</form>

PHP Code

<?php
if(isset($_POST)) 
{
    $name = (isset($_POST['Name'])) ? strip_tags($_POST['Name']) : NULL; //if name is set, strip html tags, and return it, otherwise set the string as NULL.
    $email = (isset($_POST['Email'])) ? strip_tags($_POST['Email']) : NULL; //same as above.
    $telephone = (isset($_POST['Telephone'])) ? preg_replace('~[^0-9\-]~','',$_POST['Telephone']) : NULL; //if telephone is set, remove any characters that are not a number, or a dash, othewise set as NULL.
    $type = (isset($_POST['Type'])) ? strip_tags($_POST['Type']) : NULL; //strip tags.
    $message = (isset($_POST['Message'])) ? strip_tags($_POST['Message']) : NULL; //strip tags.
    if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($message)) 
    { 
        //name, email, and message are required fields, if they are empty, tell the user to go back and fill them in.
        echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert ("Please go back and fill in all required lines"); </script>';
    }
    else 
    { 
        //if the fields are NOT empty, proceed with the mailing.
        $formcontent=" From: $name \n Type: $type \n\n Message: $message \n\n Telephone: $telephone";
        $recipient = "joebloggs@example.com";
        $subject = "Website Contact Form: $type";
        $mailheader = "From: $email \r\n";  

        if(mail($recipient, $subject, $formcontent, $mailheader)) 
        { 
            //if mail is sent to the SMTP server successfully, echo 'thank you'.
            echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert ("Thankyou '.$name.' we have submitted your message and we will get back to you as soon as possible, if you need to speak to us in the mean time please call 01983 872244 "); </script>';
        }
        else 
        { 
            //otherwise, tell the user it did not go through.
            echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert ("I am sorry but there has been an error submitting your request please try again or call us on 01983 872244"); </script>';
        }
    }
}
?>

Ok so my code above works quite nicely and I have JS pop up alerts. However, when I ok the JS alert it takes me back to the mail.php script and not the HTML page in which it originated from how would I rectify this ?

Answer 1

This should help solve your immediate issue... but in the future, try out an AJAX call.

if(mail($recipient, $subject, $formcontent, $mailheader)) 
        { 
            //if mail is sent to the SMTP server successfully, echo 'thank you' and return to previous page.
            echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert ("Thankyou '.$name.' we have submitted your message and we will get back to you as soon as possible, if you need to speak to us in the mean time please call 01983 872244 "); window.history.back(); </script>';
        }
        else 
        { 
            //otherwise, tell the user it did not go through.
            echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert ("I am sorry but there has been an error submitting your request please try again or call us on 01983 872244"); window.history.back(); </script>';
        }

EDIT

forgot to include the first instance

if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($message)) 
    { 
        //name, email, and message are required fields, if they are empty, tell the user to go back and fill them in and send them back.
        echo '<script type="text/javascript"> alert ("Please go back and fill in all required lines"); window.history.back()</script>';
    }

Answer 2

It depends on what you've done in your HTML page:

1. If your PHP was called via ajax, then you need to add return false to the javascript function that initiated that ajax call.

2. If you have a form and the form's submission via regular postback to the action's url was how you processed that PHP page, then you need to either add a redirect in PHP back to that page WHILE storing that alert message in session so it doesn't get lost, OR throw some HTML after that PHP.

Answer 3

When you submit to mail.php, mail.php becomes the new page your user is on. If you want them to still be on the page from which they called it, you either need to submit it via AJAX, or tell the browser to go back to the page from which the script was called. To do it the second way, add this to your script echos:

window.history.back()