PHP file is not retrieving values from HTML website

Question

My PHP file is not passing values from the website to my email.

Form code block in index.html:

<!--Contact Form-->

<form id="contact" action="mail.php" method="post" enctype="text/plain">

<input name="name" placeholder="Your name" type="text" tabindex="1" required autofocus>

<input name="email" placeholder="Your Email Address" type="email" tabindex="2" required>

<input name="contact" placeholder="Your Phone Number" type="tel" tabindex="3" required>

<textarea name="message" placeholder="Your Message...." tabindex="4" required></textarea><br>

<input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit"/>
<input id="reset" name="reset" type="reset" value="Reset">

CSS:

#contact input[type="text"],
#contact input[type="email"],
#contact input[type="tel"],
#contact textarea {
  width:75%;
  box-shadow:inset 0 1px 2px #DDD, 0 1px 0 #FFF;
  -webkit-box-shadow:inset 0 1px 2px #DDD, 0 1px 0 #FFF;
  -moz-box-shadow:inset 0 1px 2px #DDD, 0 1px 0 #FFF;
  border:1px solid #CCC;
  background:#FFF;
  border-radius:5px;
  padding:10px 10px;
  font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size:14px;
}
fieldset {
border:0;
}
#contact button [type="submit"],
#contact button [type="reset"]
{
width:100%;
height:AUTO;
}

PHP file:

<?php
//collect data
$name = $_POST['name'];//Your Name
$email = $_POST['email'];//Email ID
$contact = $_POST['contact'];//Contact number
$message = $_POST['message'];//Message

//declare data
$to = "[email protected]";//Recipient Email ID
$subject = "Message from center2enter.com";//Inbox Subject
$body = "Message from-\n Name: $name\n Email: $email\n Contact: $contact\n Message: $message";
mail($to,$subject,$body);//Mail sent

//redirect
echo "<div align='center' style ='font:30px Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:blue'>Thank you for your message. I will be in touch with you very soon!</div>";//Thank you Screen
?>

Output I am getting on my mail:

'Message from-

Name:

Email:

Contact:

Message:'

[Not getting values of the variables submitted on my website 'center2enter.com']

I tried:

• $body = "From: ($_POST['name'])\n Email: ($_POST['email'])\n Contact: ($_POST['contact'])\n $message = ($_POST['message'])";

• $body = ("From:" .$name "\nEmail:" .$email "\nContact:" .$contact "\nMessage:" .message);

Do I have to use PHPMailer or can I send mail without that?

Answer 1

Simple; remove enctype="text/plain" from your form tags; it isn't a valid enctype when using POST arrays.

Plus, I didn't see a closing </form> tag in your code, so make sure it is in fact present.

You should also use proper headers, otherwise your code may be mistaken for spam without a valid From: email address.

• http://php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php

It's also advisable that you check for any empty inputs, should someone not be using an HTML5 compatible browser; it can happen.

• http://php.net/manual/en/function.empty.php

Do I have to use PhpMailer or I can send mails without that?

Even if you were to use PHPMailer or any other mailer, you would still have to remove the enctype from your form.