Sending emails via PHP server

Question

Straight to the point. I'm trying to set up a contact form on my website but struggling to make it work. Also have read through numerous of related topics here on SO. I followed tutorial thus I've got decent familiarity with this topic. I'm sure my php.ini file is configured just fine since sending emails worked until recently (although it always ended up in junk mail). Until I made changes to the code. Changes that I needed to make sooner or later. Strangely, sending emails worked when I ran it with hard-coded details with no variables. But when I implemented variables then it stopped working. Obviously I need PHP to process user's input through variables. How can get PHP to read user's input ? I think the most important part is using the attribute name="something" in input tags.

Sharing relevant code:

PHP:

<?php

$fullName = $errorMsg = $sucMsg = "";
$errMsg = $email = $subject = $emailErr = $message = "";

function test_input($data) {
    $data = trim($data);
    $data = stripslashes($data);
    $data = htmlspecialchars($data);
    return $data;   
}

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
    $fullName = test_input($_POST['fullName']);

    if (!filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
        $emailErr = "Your email address is not valid !";        
    } else {
    $email = $_POST['email'];  
    }
    $subject = test_input($_POST['subject']);
    $message = test_input($_POST['message']);   

if($emailErr == "") {
        $emailTo = "mark.alexa.uk@gmail.com";
        $headers = "From ".$fullName." ".$email." via contact form";
        $headers .= "Reply-To: ".$email;
        $headers .= "Return-Path: webmaster@ubuntuserver\r\n";
        $headers .= "CC: alexa.mark@mail.com\r\n";
        $headers .= "BCC: alexa.mark@mail.com\r\n";

        if (mail($emailTo, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
            $sucMsg = "<p>The email was sent successfully !</p>";   
        } else {
            $errMsg = "<p>The email could not be sent !</p>";
        }
}

}   
?>

HTML:

<div class="container" id="form">

<div id="successMsg" class="alert alert-success" role="alert"><?php 
 echo $sucMsg; ?></div>
<div id="errMsg" class="alert alert-danger" role="alert"><?php echo 
 $errMsg; ?></div>
 <form method="POST" action="contact.php">
<fieldset class="form-group">
    <label for="fullName">Full name</label>
    <input type="text" class="form-control" name="fullName" 
id="fullName" placeholder="full name" required>
</fieldset>
<fieldset class="form-group">
    <label for="email">Email</label>
    <input type="email" id="email" placeholder="email" class="form-
 control" required>
    <small id="emailHelp" name="email" class="form-text text-muted">I 
 won't share your email with anyone</small>
</fieldset>
<fieldset class="form-group">
    <label for="subject">Subject</label>
    <input type="text" class="form-control" name="subject" id="subject" placeholder="subject" required> 
</fieldset>
<fieldset class="form-group">
    <label for="message">Your message</label>
    <input type="text" class="form-control" name="message" id="message" placeholder="message" required>

<input type="submit" id="submit" class="btn btn-success" value="Submit">

</fieldset>
</form>
</div>

UPDATE:

How should I modify the PHP code so it won't end up in junk mail ?

Answer 1

Add name="submit" to your submit button. Forms pass on the name attribute to the post array. So your code test for:

if (isset(`$_POST['submit']`)) {
$fullName = test_input($_POST['fullName']);

..isn't valid because $_POST['submit'] isn't set.

<input type="submit" id="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-success" value="Submit">