Warning: Illegal string offset

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#native_cta#

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ilurn

Hello,
I am a novice with PHP so please bear with me.

I am trying to build a contact page as part of my PHP learning and have a problem I cannot find an answer for.

I am using localhost with xampp 1.8.2 and PHP 5.4.22 as my IDE and Firefox with Xdebug extension.

I am checking my code using phpcodechecker.com but I think perhaps it only checks syntax so although it passes when I analyze, I am getting errors from Xdebug.
The errors are:
Warning: Illegal string offset 'Name' in X:\xampp\htdocs\test\contact-us.php on line 16

this is also on lines 17, 18, 19 and 20.

The code lines 15 - 21 are

$validationOK=true;
if (Trim($EmailFrom)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Name['Name'])=="")$validationOK=false;
if (Trim($City['City'])=="")$validationOK=false;
if (Trim($PostCode['PostCode'])=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Tel['Tel'])=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Comments['Comments'])=="") $validationOK=false;
if ($validationOK) $validationOK=$success;

I think the problem might be within the last line. I set this variable as $success="success";

I have tried changing as many things as possible to get an answer but it does not work so now I must ask for help.
I will show the whole script if you would like it.

thank you
Ivanna

ilurn

The script works as much as sending the form to me but I do not get the thank you or error message on the browser.

this is the code that is sending the email followed by the thankyou code.

$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

// redirect to success page or error page
if ($success){
header('Location: thank-you.html');
exit();
}
else{
header('Location: error-message.<html>');
exit();
}

Does anyone know why I get the illegal string error?

thank you.

ginerjm

What is this:

$Name['Name']

Do you really have an array called $Name, or $PostCode or $Tel or $City? Because that is what this code looks like it is expecting

deathshadow

That error implies that $name is not an array... Given the rest of what you have there, it seems EXTREMELY unlikely ANY of those are array. MAYBE you just meant to say:

trim($name)==''

though really you should use empty...

empty(trim($name))

Where are you assigning $name and all the rest of those values?

Also, since all of them have the same result, why run all of them? That looks like a case for ELSE.

Without seeing where all those variables are assigned I'm guessing wildly, but I suspect that this:

$validationOK = (
	empty(Trim($EmailFrom)) ||
	empty(Trim($Name)) ||
	empty(Trim($City)) ||
	empty(Trim($PostCode)) ||
	empty(Trim($Tel)) ||
	empty(Trim($Comments))
) ? false : $success;

Is probably what you are trying to do there.

ilurn

As I have said, I am very novice so I am learning from online tutorials, youtube, books and pieces of code I find anywhere.

I am trying to take this code and find how it works but maybe I get it wrong because different people do it different ways and some php maybe old?

I am showing all the code and I have added the code JG gave at the top.

JG, What does this code do please?

Deathshadow, I think it should be array, yes?

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_NOTICE);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

<?php

// set variables

$EmailFrom = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['EmailFrom'])); 
$EmailTo = "info@myemail.com";
$Subject = "Request Form";
$Name = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Name'])); 
$City = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['City'])); 
$PostCode = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['PostCode'])); 
$Tel = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Tel'])); 
$Comments = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Comments'])); 
//$success="success";

// validate field are not empty

$validationOK=true;
if (Trim($EmailFrom)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Name['Name'])=="")$validationOK=false;
if (Trim($City['City'])=="")$validationOK=false;
if (Trim($PostCode['PostCode'])=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Tel['Tel'])=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Comments['Comments'])=="") $validationOK=false;
//if ($validationOK) $validationOK=$success;

// email body text - Label:, Var, new line

$Body = "";
$Body .= "Name: ";
$Body .= $Name;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "City: ";
$Body .= $City;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "PostCode: ";
$Body .= $PostCode;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Tel: ";
$Body .= $Tel;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Comments: ";
$Body .= $Comments;
$Body .= "\n";

$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

// redirect to success page or error page

if ($success){
header('Location: thank-you.html');
exit();
}
else{
header('Location: error-message.<html>');
exit();
}
?>

ginerjm

The code I gave you in my signature is PHP code - therefore it has to be inside the php tags at the top. It turns on php's error checking.

As for your code - what a mess. It's obvious you don't know anything about PHP or probably programming in general. I'll give you these two questions:
1 - why are you using stripslashes on input? Where did the slashes come from? Do you know that there are slashes? If so, you need to turn off magic quotes!

2 - why are you trimming 'EmailFrom'? This is a var that you assigned a trimmed value to already, so why do it again?

There's a lot more wrong with this code, but I'll let you try it first once you get the error checking implemented.

good luck

ginerjm

The code I gave you in my signature is PHP code - therefore it has to be inside the php tags at the top. It turns on php's error checking.

2 - why are you trimming 'EmailFrom'? This is a var that you assigned a trimmed value to already, so why do it again?

There's a lot more wrong with this code, but I'll let you try it first once you get the error checking implemented.

good luck

deathshadow

These:

$EmailFrom = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['EmailFrom'])); 
$EmailTo = "info@myemail.com";
$Subject = "Request Form";
$Name = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Name'])); 
$City = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['City'])); 
$PostCode = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['PostCode'])); 
$Tel = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Tel'])); 
$Comments = Trim(stripslashes($_POST['Comments']));

Are NOT arrays. NOTHING you are calling there should be outputting arrays... since it's VERY unlikely that $POST['Name'] is an array -- $POST is an array, but an index into it shouldn't be unless you did something like name="City[]" in the markup, which seems unlikely, as that would throw errors when you try to stripslashes and/or trim them as those are string functions NOT array functions.

Also occurred to me there is no Trim, only trim. Case sensitive language.

It is a bit of a mess -- PHP code before you even open <?php, variables for nothing, stripslashes for nothing (this isn't 2003), multiple string additions to $body when you don't need to do that, etc, etc...

REALLY not sure what that $success variable is even for since you re-assign it on attempting to call mail()... without using it. Makes your entire 'check' pointless.

Guessing slightly, but I suspect what you are trying to do should go a little something like this:

<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_NOTICE);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

function headerClean($value) {
	return preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $value);
}

$fields = ['EmailFrom', 'Name', 'City', 'PostCode', 'Tel', 'Comments'];
$errors = 0;
foreach ($fields as $fieldName) {
	if (isset($_POST[$fieldName])) {
		if (empty($_POST[$fieldName] = trim(
			htmlspecialchars($_POST[$fieldName])
		))) $errors++;
	} else $errors++;
}

if ($errors == 0) {

$mailTo = 'info@myemail.com';
$mailSubject = 'Request Form';
$mailName = headerClean($_POST['Name']);
$mailMail = headerClean($_POST['EmailFrom']);
$mailFrom = 'Request Form - ' . $mailName . ' <' . $mailMail . '>';

$mailHeaders = 
	'From: ' . $mailFrom . "\r\n" .
	'Reply-To: ' . $mailMail . "\r\n" .
	'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

$mailBody = '';
foreach ($fields as $fieldName) {
	$mailBody .= $fieldName . ': ' . $_POST[$fieldName] . "\r\n";
}

if (mail($mailTo, $mailSubject, $mailBody, $mailHeaders)) {
	include('thank-you.html');
	exit();
);

}

include('error-message.html');

?>

Skipping those stupid malfing 'header' redirects -- I figure out who's been propagating that halfwit technique of handling PHP results from a function... it's not going to be pretty. Likely not your fault, you're learning from a bad source!

Though really I'd have a lot more going on there in terms of checks, and callbacks to the originating form. See this mailer I did here for someone:
http://www.cutcodedown.com/for_others/KaleemUllahHashmi/

Which is far, far more robust in what it does. (the .source files are, well... the source).

ilurn

JG
PHP code - therefore it has to be inside the php tags I saw it as soon as I posted. my mistake
As for your code - what a mess. I know.
It's obvious you don't know anything about PHP but I want to learn very much.

The stripslashes, they were already there in the code I am trying to fix. Perhaps they should not be there. There is no database.
Again, it was already there.

get the error checking implemented. I have put the code inside the php tag at the top but where do I see the errors? I am outputting to Firefox. I did have Xdebug. That is now disabled but I am still seeing the same error messages in the same format so perhaps Xdebug is doing the same as your code?

Deathshadow
unless you did something like name="City[]" No, the markup is name="City"
not sure what that $success variable is You will see it is cancelled // out. I was trying to find does what.

Thank you both for helping.

ilurn

JG
PHP code - therefore it has to be inside the php tags I saw it as soon as I posted. my mistake
As for your code - what a mess. I know.:o
It's obvious you don't know anything about PHP but I want to learn very much.

The stripslashes, they were already there in the code I am trying to fix. Perhaps they should not be there. There is no database.
Again, it was already there.

get the error checking implemented. I have put the code inside the php tag at the top but where do I see the errors? I am outputting to Firefox. I did have Xdebug. That is now disabled but I am still seeing the same error messages in the same format so perhaps Xdebug is doing the same as your code?

Deathshadow
unless you did something like name="City[]" No, the markup is name="City"
not sure what that $success variable is You will see it is cancelled // out. I was trying to find does what.

Thank you both for helping.

ginerjm

The php errors will show up in your browser when you attempt to run the script.

As for the things you take no responsibility for saying they were already there - get rid of them. LEARN how and write your own code.

1 - design your html screen and write that html code
2 - decide what you want to do with the input from that screen and write some php code to receive the input and do something with it.
3 - design your output screen and write that html code and then output it once step 2 is done, incorporating any new data (from a query perhaps?) into the html via php vars. Keep your php and html separate from each other as much as possible.

Each of these steps can be a separate file or you can put it all in one script (using functions perhaps) and handle it all in one place.

ilurn

JG,
Okay,
I have removed all the trim stuff and got it down to this:

// set variables
$Name = ($_POST['Name']);

// validate
if ($Name=="")$validationOK=false;

At least now I am not getting error messages.

What else is to be cleaned? Most of it I am sure.

Deathshadow,
I will also like to try your code on a different form.

thank you both.

deathshadow

deathshadow;1347959 wrote:
Also occurred to me there is no Trim, only trim. Case sensitive language.

Apologies on this one, apparently PHP is inconsistent with C syntax conventions on this, and allows library functions to be in lower case unlike every other language ... despite enforcing case sensitivity on variables :/

Though for some reason, my PHP 5.5 testing server is throwing an error on them, while my two PHP 5.4 rigs are not... change in the language or banjaxed PHP install?

Not that you have anything better to do than stand around listening to me quote myself.

ginerjm

Why did you remove the trim function calls? Any reason, since it is a good thing to do to avoid extraneous chars in your input?

Can we see your 'new' code once you have cleaned up the php errors?

ilurn

Here is my new code. I have put Trim back in.

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_NOTICE);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

// set variables
$EmailFrom = ($_POST['EmailFrom']); 
$EmailTo = "info@localhost";
$Subject = "Request Form";
$Name = ($_POST['Name']); 
$City = ($_POST['City']); 
$PostCode = ($_POST['PostCode']); 
$Tel = ($_POST['Tel']); 
$Comments = ($_POST['Comments']); 

// validate 
$validationOK=true;
if (trim($EmailFrom=="")) $validationOK=false;
if (trim($Name==""))$validationOK=false;
if(trim($City==""))$validationOK=false;
if (trim($PostCode=="")) $validationOK=false;
if (trim($Tel=="")) $validationOK=false;
if (trim($Comments=="")) $validationOK=false;

// email body text - Label:, Var, new line
$Body = "";
$Body .= "Name: ";
$Body .= $Name;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "City: ";
$Body .= $City;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "PostCode: ";
$Body .= $PostCode;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Tel: ";
$Body .= $Tel;
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Comments: ";
$Body .= $Comments;
$Body .= "\n";

$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

// redirect to success page or error page
if ($success){
header('Location: thank-you.html');
exit();
}
else{
header('Location: error-message.<html>');
exit();
}
?>

I am not getting PHP errors.
I am getting an email.
I am getting a 'thank you' screen.

I am NOT getting an error message screen when 'Tel' field is blank. I have not tried the other fields.

root

Thought about trying something like this

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_NOTICE);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

function ok(d){ // is it empty?
	return empty( trim(d) );
}

function sanitize(d){ // token sanitary operation
	return trim( stripslashes(d) );
}

// use a whitelist
$whitelist = array('EmailFrom'=>'','Name'=>'','City'=>'','PostCode'=>'','Tel'=>'','Comments'=>'');

// set a validation flag
$validateOK = true;

// iterate the whitelist and clean input and validate if empty fields present.
foreach($whitelist as $key=>&$data){
	$data =		sanitize( $_POST[ $key ]  );
	$validateOK = 	ok($data) ? false : $validateOK;
}

if($validateOK){
	$EmailTo =	"info@localhost";
	$Subject =	"Request Form";
	$Headers =	"From: ".$whitelist['EmailFrom']."\r\n" .
				"Reply-To: ".$whitelist['EmailFrom']."\r\n" .
				"X-Mailer: PHP/".phpversion();

$body =		"";	

// build the body output
for($whitelist as $keys=>$ok) $body .= "{$keys}: {$ok}\r\n";

// send it
$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, $Headers);

// redirect to success page or error page
$result = ($success) ? "thank-you.html" : "error-message.html";

// go to the page depending on the success
header("Location: {$result}");
}
/* 
	if we get here, something went wrong in validation, perhaps header"Location: index.php")
	make life hard by sending them to the home page and not your contact page.
*/
header("Location: index.php");
?>

ginerjm

Have you read ANYTHING in the php manual???? If you did you would know how to use the trim function. When you FIRST grab it from the $_POST array, that's when you trim it!! Not later on in every later usage of it!!! Jeez!!!

What the h.... is 'validationok' meant accomplish for you?? You spend all that time checking things and setting this switch, but then YOU NEVER CHECK IT. What was the point???

You check at the end whether the email was sent using $success. Why??? I thought you wanted to check if the DATA WAS CORRECT FIRST?

Do you really want to be a programmer?? Wise up and do some reading on the very basic elements of what it means to write a program. Do yourself a favor. Right now it appears that you would have a hard time following the manual at McDonalds

root

@ginerjm, calm down, he is a beginner, perhaps if everyone was to put what they thought was the appropriate answer, then one may speak to the OP.

If the process was blocked in to processes:

Check for a real web form ($_POST['submit'])
Sanitize inputs in to a safe variable / array using a whitelist
Validation of the data streams, do they contain data, if not flag it.
If we pass validation: Create the email body, variables for sending the email
send email and capture any send resulting from the process
handle any error or success response

That to me sums up the process involved.

ilurn

JG
I did not mean to cause offense. I did what I thought you meant.

There's a lot more wrong with this code, but I'll let you try it first once you get the error checking implemented.

good luck

I got error checking implemented.

What the h.... is 'validationok' meant accomplish for you?

I understood that validation is set to true

$validationOK=true;

but if a field is empty then validation is false

if (trim($Name==""))$validationOK=false;

if it is true an email is sent

$success = mail($EmailTo, $Subject, $Body, "From: <$EmailFrom>");

and a web page is presented

if ($success){
header('Location: thank-you.html');
exit();

if not then an error page is presented.

else{
header('Location: error-message.<html>');
exit();

I know I am doing something wrong and to you I am not worthy, but I try.

I am sorry I offended you.

thank you
Ivanna

ginerjm

Yes - you have the idea to set a var to true or false in order to find out if your inputs are valid. BUT - where did you check the var to see if it was true or not?