I created a form parser for a WordPress site that would parse the contents of a posted form, and display a success page. I used pure php instead of trying to use a WordPress template or theme. As a downside, the displayed page would not show any WordPress theme.
So I found a solution to import the theme for the php, and this is by including the theme’s header and footer in the php file.
The complete form parser is included below:
<?php
// If title is not displayed before loading the header, WordPress displays "Page not found" as the title
echo "<head>
<title>Your form has been submitted</title>
</head>";
// Include the Main WordPress blog header
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/wp-blog-header.php";
// Include the specific theme header you need
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/wp-content/themes/studiopress/genesis/header.php";
// Your custom code STARTS here
// My code includes two functions.
// The first part is the background activity which parses the form, checks for errors and then mails it if there arent any errors
// The second part is html code that is displayed to the user to inform them that the form has been submitted.
if(isset($_POST['email'])) {
// EDIT THE 2 LINES BELOW AS REQUIRED
$email_to = "[email protected]";
$email_subject = "Someone has submitted feedback on your website";
function died($error) {
// your error code can go here
echo "We are very sorry, but there were error(s) found with the form you submitted. ";
echo "These errors appear below.<br /><br />";
echo $error."<br /><br />";
echo "Please go back and fix these errors.<br /><br />";
die();
}
// validation expected data exists
if(!isset($_POST['first_name']) ||
!isset($_POST['last_name']) ||
!isset($_POST['email']) ||
!isset($_POST['telephone']) ||
!isset($_POST['comments'])) {
died('We are sorry, but there appears to be a problem with the form you submitted.');
}
$first_name = $_POST['first_name']; // required
$last_name = $_POST['last_name']; // required
$email_from = $_POST['email']; // required
$telephone = $_POST['telephone']; // not required
$comments = $_POST['comments']; // required
$error_message = "";
$email_exp = '/^[A-Za-z0-9._%-][email protected][A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$/';
if(!preg_match($email_exp,$email_from)) {
$error_message .= 'The Email Address you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
$string_exp = "/^[A-Za-z .'-]+$/";
if(!preg_match($string_exp,$first_name)) {
$error_message .= 'The First Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
if(!preg_match($string_exp,$last_name)) {
$error_message .= 'The Last Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
if(strlen($comments) < 2) {
$error_message .= 'The Comments you entered do not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
if(strlen($error_message) > 0) {
died($error_message);
}
$email_message = "Form details below.\n\n";
function clean_string($string) {
$bad = array("content-type","bcc:","to:","cc:","href");
return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
}
$email_message .= "First Name: ".clean_string($first_name)."\n";
$email_message .= "Last Name: ".clean_string($last_name)."\n";
$email_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($email_from)."\n";
$email_message .= "Telephone: ".clean_string($telephone)."\n";
$email_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($comments)."\n";
// create email headers
$headers = 'From: '.'[email protected]'."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
@mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers);
?>
<?php
// Second part starts.
// This part is displayed.
echo "
<h2>
Your form has been submitted
</h2>";
echo "<h4>Dear $first_name,</h4>
<p>Your feedback has been received by us and will be forwarded to the site administrator. You will receive your login details or a response soon.</p>";
echo "<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
Click <a href=\"http://www.site.com\">here</a> to return to the site.";
// END of custom code
?>
<?php
}
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/wp-content/themes/studiopress/genesis/footer.php";
?>[/code]
The following is the actual form:
You can use the following form to contact the administrator of this site:
<form action="../phpscripts/send_form_email1.php" method="post" name="contactform">Note: If you're requesting login rights, please add information on how you're related to the family.
<table width="450px">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><label for="first_name">First Name *</label></td>
<td valign="top"><input type="text" maxlength="50" name="first_name" size="30" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><label for="last_name">Last Name *</label></td>
<td valign="top"><input type="text" maxlength="50" name="last_name" size="30" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><label for="email">Email Address *</label></td>
<td valign="top"><input type="text" maxlength="80" name="email" size="30" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><label for="telephone">Telephone Number</label></td>
<td valign="top"><input type="text" maxlength="30" name="telephone" size="30" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><label for="comments">Comments *</label></td>
<td valign="top"><textarea cols="30" maxlength="1000" name="comments" rows="6"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td style="text-align: left;" colspan="2"><input type="submit" value="Submit" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</form>[/code]
Version 0.2
I made it generic and detect the proper active theme:
<?php
// If title is not displayed before loading the header, WordPress displays "Page not found" as the title
echo "<head>
<title>Your feedback has been submitted</title>
</head>";
// Include the Main WordPress blog header
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/wp-blog-header.php";
//bloginfo(‘template_url’);
$homeurl=home_url();
$ddir= get_bloginfo( 'template_directory');
$current_theme_relative_path=substr_replace($ddir, "", 0, strlen($homeurl));
//echo "<br/>The relative path to the currently active theme is ".$newss;
// Include the specific theme header you need
//echo "Full path to header is ".$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$newss."/header.php";
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$current_theme_relative_path."/header.php";
// Your custom code STARTS here
// My code includes two functions.
// The first part is the background activity which parses the form, checks for errors and then mails it if there arent any errors
// The second part is html code that is displayed to the user to inform them that the form has been submitted.
if(isset($_POST['email'])) {
// EDIT THE 2 LINES BELOW AS REQUIRED
$email_to = "[email protected]";
$email_subject = "Someone has submitted feedback on your website";
function died($error) {
// your error code can go here
echo "We are very sorry, but there were error(s) found with the form you submitted. ";
echo "These errors appear below.<br /><br />";
echo $error."<br /><br />";
echo "Please go back and fix these errors.<br /><br />";
die();
}
// validation expected data exists
if(!isset($_POST['first_name']) ||
!isset($_POST['last_name']) ||
!isset($_POST['email']) ||
!isset($_POST['telephone']) ||
!isset($_POST['comments'])) {
died('We are sorry, but there appears to be a problem with the form you submitted.');
}
$first_name = $_POST['first_name']; // required
$last_name = $_POST['last_name']; // required
$email_from = $_POST['email']; // required
$telephone = $_POST['telephone']; // not required
$comments = $_POST['comments']; // required
$error_message = "";
$email_exp = '/^[A-Za-z0-9._%-][email protected][A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$/';
if(!preg_match($email_exp,$email_from)) {
$error_message .= 'The Email Address you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
$string_exp = "/^[A-Za-z .'-]+$/";
if(!preg_match($string_exp,$first_name)) {
$error_message .= 'The First Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
if(!preg_match($string_exp,$last_name)) {
$error_message .= 'The Last Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
if(strlen($comments) < 2) {
$error_message .= 'The Comments you entered do not appear to be valid.<br />';
}
if(strlen($error_message) > 0) {
died($error_message);
}
$email_message = "Form details below.\n\n";
function clean_string($string) {
$bad = array("content-type","bcc:","to:","cc:","href");
return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
}
$email_message .= "First Name: ".clean_string($first_name)."\n";
$email_message .= "Last Name: ".clean_string($last_name)."\n";
$email_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($email_from)."\n";
$email_message .= "Telephone: ".clean_string($telephone)."\n";
$email_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($comments)."\n";
// create email headers
$headers = 'From: '.'[email protected]'."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
@mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers);
?>
<?php
// Second part starts.
// This part is displayed.
echo "
<h2>
Your feedback/request has been submitted
</h2>";
echo "<h4>Dear $first_name,</h4>
<p>Your feedback has been received by us and will be forwarded to the site administrator.
<br/>
You will receive your login details or a response soon.</p>";
echo "<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
Click <a href=\"http://www.vettathu.com\">here</a> to return to the site.";
// END of custom code
//Useful wordpress functions
/*
echo "The current theme name is".get_current_theme()."<br/>";
echo "<br/>";
echo "The dir is ".$ddir."<br/>";
echo "The home url is".$homeurl."<br/>";
*/
//$newdirst=str_replace($homeurl,".",$temp_ddir);
/*
echo "Length of whole is ".strlen($ddir);
echo "Length of substring is ".strlen($homeurl);
*/
?>
<?php
}
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$current_theme_relative_path."/footer.php";
?>
Joel G Mathew, known in tech circles by the pseudonym Droidzone, is an opensource and programming enthusiast.
He is a full stack developer, whose favorite languages are currently Python and Vue.js. He is also fluent in Javascript, Flutter/Dart, Perl, PHP, SQL, C and bash shell scripting. He loves Linux, and can often be found tinkering with linux kernel code, and source code for GNU applications. He used to be an active developer on XDA forums, and his tinkered ROMS used to be very popular in the early 2000s.
His favorite pastime is grappling with GNU compilers, discovering newer Linux secrets, writing scripts, hacking roms, and programs (nothing illegal), reading, blogging. and testing out the latest gadgets.
When away from the tech world, Dr Joel G. Mathew is a practising ENT Surgeon, busy with surgeries and clinical practise.