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phphtmlemail-validation

Add unknown number of email to database with with email-validation using only html and PHP

Making a school assignment where I have to make a CRUD app containing members. Part of the assignment is as follows:

  • each member can has many (unknown) number of email adresses
  • I have to use HTML to validate if each of those is an email adres
  • I CAN'T use JS or any other language beside PHP and HTML (and SQL)

The things I tried (and the teacher said they are not correct):

  • Use the 'multiple' attribute on a input field (he doesn't want me to use 'multiple')
  • Use a textarea and seperate each email on a new line (can't use regex)

I am really stuck here.. anyone has any idea on how I can approach this in a way that I can upload an unknown number of email adresses (upon creating a member) and still have each be validated?

Solution

  • Solution 1

    Well, you can indeed use a textarea, split the posted value into an array, trim the lines, validate that each line contains a valid E-Mail address and do whatever you would like with the mails:

    <form method="POST">
    <p>
        <label for="emails">
            One E-Mail per line:
        </label>
        <textarea name="emails" id="emails" cols="80" rows="10">[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]</textarea>
    </p>
    <p>
        <input type="submit" value="Validate">
    </p>
</form>

<?php

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {

    $emails = explode("\n", $_POST['emails']);

    $emails = array_map('trim', $emails);

    $emails = array_filter($emails, function ($email) {
        return filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);
    });

    $validEmailCount = count($emails);

    echo <<<HTML
    <p>
        $validEmailCount valid E-Mails found.
    </p>
    HTML;

    // Your database logic here
}

    Solution 2

    Based on the below comment thread, the OP is looking for an HTML only email "validation".

    For that purpose, the input[type=email] is probably the best choice.

    To allow as many emails as wanted, I have written the below PHP, which adds a blank email field every time the form is submitted with the checkbox asking for another field is marked as on.

    <?php

$emails = [''];

if (
    $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST' &&
    isset($_POST['emails']) &&
    is_array($_POST['emails'])
) {
    $emails = $_POST['emails'];

    if (
        isset($_POST['add_mail']) &&
        $_POST['add_mail'] === 'on'
    ) {
        $emails[] = '';
    } else {
        print_r($emails);
        die;
    }
}

?>

<form method="POST">
    <?php foreach ($emails as $email) : ?>
        <p>
            <input type="email" name="emails[]" value="<?= $email ?>">
        </p>
    <?php endforeach; ?>

    <p>
        <label for="add_mail">
            Would like to enter one more E-Mail?
        </label>
        <input type="checkbox" name="add_mail" id="add_mail">
    </p>

    <p>
        <input type="submit" value="Send">
    </p>
</form>

    Solution 3

    Another solution would be to use a single input[type=text] in combination with the [pattern] attribute, and write a regular expression for it, that allows multiple email addresses.

    <input type="text" pattern="…" required>

    The emails could be separated by space, commas or semicolons, for example.

    You would then do something like ,? to allow a delimiter or not.