- PHP contact forms allow users to easily send messages to website administrators.
- Building a contact form involves creating the HTML form, setting up a database to store the messages, and writing a PHP script to process the form data and send emails.
- Adding security measures like CAPTCHA helps prevent spam submissions and ensures that real users can contact you.
A PHP contact form allows users to communicate with website administrators. It allows them to send queries to the site owners about relevant services or features. Using the contact form, web administrators are able to manage their business emails. Once there is an active contact form available, it can generate queries. It easily gets connected with the database, thus providing complete records and details about the users who are willing to contact and send their queries to website administrators.
Prerequisites
To create a simple PHP contact form with MySQL, I assume that you have a PHP application installed on a web server. My setup is:
- PHP 7.1
- MySQL
- Jquery/Ajax
To make sure that that I don’t get side-tracked by server level issues, I decided to host PHP application on Cloudways managed servers because the platform offers a powerful PHP optimized environment. In addition, I don’t have to deal with server management hassles and thus focus on the core idea of this tutorial.
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Create the Contact Form HTML
Create the contact form HTML as shown below with validation and save it with .php extension. Value which will be written between the double quotes in attribute Name like name=”u_name” in input tags work as a variable name. These attributes will contain the data from the form that we will use to save in our database . There are two methods to send your form data to your PHP page: GET and POST. I will be using POST as it hides the user data and there is no limit to send data. If you don’t have the time to dive deep in technicalities, you can use online forms that are pre-designed according to professional form design standards.
Note: For styling you can use your own CSS and also use Bootstrap Classes for better styling.
!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<!-- Latest compiled and minified CSS -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-BVYiiSIFeK1dGmJRAkycuHAHRg32OmUcww7on3RYdg4Va+PmSTsz/K68vbdEjh4u" crossorigin="anonymous">
<style>
#loading-img{
display:none;
}
.response_msg{
margin-top:10px;
font-size:13px;
background:#E5D669;
color:#ffffff;
width:250px;
padding:3px;
display:none;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-8">
<h1><img src="Inquiry.png" width="80px">Easy Contact Form With Ajax MySQL</h1>
<form name="contact-form" action="" method="post" id="contact-form">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="Name">Name</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" name="your_name" placeholder="Name" required>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="exampleInputEmail1">Email address</label>
<input type="email" class="form-control" name="your_email" placeholder="Email" required>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="Phone">Phone</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" name="your_phone" placeholder="Phone" required>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="comments">Comments</label>
<textarea name="comments" class="form-control" rows="3" cols="28" rows="5" placeholder="Comments"></textarea>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" name="submit" value="Submit" id="submit_form">Submit</button>
<img src="img/loading.gif" id="loading-img">
</form>
<div class="response_msg"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#contact-form").on("submit",function(e){
e.preventDefault();
if($("#contact-form [name='your_name']").val() === '')
{
$("#contact-form [name='your_name']").css("border","1px solid red");
}
else if ($("#contact-form [name='your_email']").val() === '')
{
$("#contact-form [name='your_email']").css("border","1px solid red");
}
else
{
$("#loading-img").css("display","block");
var sendData = $( this ).serialize();
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "get_response.php",
data: sendData,
success: function(data){
$("#loading-img").css("display","none");
$(".response_msg").text(data);
$(".response_msg").slideDown().fadeOut(3000);
$("#contact-form").find("input[type=text], input[type=email], textarea").val("");
}
});
}
});
$("#contact-form input").blur(function(){
var checkValue = $(this).val();
if(checkValue != '')
{
$(this).css("border","1px solid #eeeeee");
}
});
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
Configure the MySQL Database
The next step is to setup and configure the MySQL database. For this, fire up the Cloudways Database manager and create a table ‘contact_form_info’, with the fields id , name , email , phone,comments.
Next, create config.php that will be used to set up the connection between the PHP app and the database. Once the file has been created, open it and paste the following code in it:
<?php
$host = "localhost";
$userName = "fyrhp";
$password = "RTDE";
$dbName = "fyrhp";
// Create database connection
$conn = new mysqli($host, $userName, $password, $dbName);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
?>
You might also like: How to Connect to a Remote MySQL Database
Create the PHP Contact Form Script
Now let’s create a file get_response.php and paste the following code in it:
<?php
require_once("config.php");
if((isset($_POST['your_name'])&& $_POST['your_name'] !='') && (isset($_POST['your_email'])&& $_POST['your_email'] !=''))
{
require_once("contact_mail.php");
$yourName = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['your_name']);
$yourEmail = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['your_email']);
$yourPhone = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['your_phone']);
$comments = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['comments']);
$sql="INSERT INTO contact_form_info (name, email, phone, comments) VALUES ('".$yourName."','".$yourEmail."', '".$yourPhone."', '".$comments."')";
if(!$result = $conn->query($sql)){
die('There was an error running the query [' . $conn->error . ']');
}
else
{
echo "Thank you! We will contact you soon";
}
}
else
{
echo "Please fill Name and Email";
}
?>
In this PHP code, I have used the POST method for submitting the contact form data to the server. I will use two PHP global methods, $_REQUEST and $_POST to retrieve and save the contact form data in the server local variable.
The difference between these two is that $_REQUEST can retrieve data from both methods i.e. GET and POST. However, $_POST can only receive data from the POST method.
Here is what the PHP contact form script looks in action:
Mail Method
I also create a file contact_mail.php for mail in which send your contact form data on your mail easily.
<?php $toEmail = "[email protected]"; $mailHeaders = "From: " . $_POST["your_name"] . "<". $_POST["your_email"] .">\r\n"; if(mail($toEmail, $_POST["comments"], $_POST["your_phone"], $mailHeaders)) { echo"<p class='success'>Contact Mail Sent.</p>"; } else { echo"<p class='Error'>Problem in Sending Mail.</p>"; } ?>
You might also like: How to Send Email in PHP
Form Captcha
You can use Captcha code in a form to ensure that the form is submitted with manual intervention without using any tools.
PHP Contact Form with Captcha
To develop contact form with captcha, let’s start with the following HTML code. In this code, I will put a PHP file link into the image tag with the name of captcha.php.
<div> <label>Captcha</label> <span id="captcha-info" class="info"></span><br/> <input type="text" name="captcha" id="captcha" class="demoInputBox"><br> </div> <div> <img id="captcha_code" src="captcha.php" /> <button name="submit" class="btnRefresh" onClick="refreshCaptcha();">Refresh Captcha</button> </div>
Contact Form Captcha Validation
For Captcha field validation, you can paste the following code in <script> tag. Using this code, you can set jQuery validation for captcha form validation.
if(!$("#captcha").val()) {
$("#captcha-info").html("(required)");
$("#captcha").css('background-color','#FFFFDF');
valid = false;
}
Captcha Refresh
This simple jQuery script will refresh PHP captcha code, and recreate the image with the new code. This new image will be set as captcha image source.
function refreshCaptcha() {
$("#captcha_code").attr('src','captcha.php');
}
PHP Captcha Image
PHP uses a function called PHP rand() to generate a random number. Using md5(), you can encrypt the number and split it into 6-character captcha code. The code is not only added to the PHP session but also added as a source of captcha image using PHP GD function.
session_start();
$random_alpha = md5(rand());
$captcha_code = substr($random_alpha, 0, 6);
$_SESSION["captcha_code"] = $captcha_code;
$target_layer = imagecreatetruecolor(70,30);
$captcha_background = imagecolorallocate($target_layer, 255, 160, 119);
imagefill($target_layer,0,0,$captcha_background);
$captcha_text_color = imagecolorallocate($target_layer, 0, 0, 0);
imagestring($target_layer, 5, 5, 5, $captcha_code, $captcha_text_color);
header("Content-type: image/jpeg");
imagejpeg($target_layer);
Form Handler Library
You can also perform captcha and form validation by using Form Handler library. Check the following example:
use FormGuide\Handlx\FormHandler;
$demo = new FormHandler();
$validator = $demo->getValidator();
$validator->fields(['name','email'])->areRequired()->maxLength(50);
$validator->field('email')->isEmail();
$validator->field('message')->maxLength(6000)
$demo->requireCaptcha();
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Final Words
In this tutorial, I demonstrated creating a PHP contact form using HTML, AJAX, jQuery and MySQL. Here is a live demo of the PHP contact form code in action. I’ve also given a brief overview about captcha form, and why you must use it in contact form. The article not only demonstrates how to setup captcha in a contact form, but also defines how to setup its validation using the script tag. Furthermore, you can also use Form Handler library to integrate captcha validation within the form.
Still, if you have some more questions regarding captcha integration in the contact form, or want to share some of your tips on the topic, feel free to write down your suggestions in the comments section below.
Q. How do I code a contact form in PHP?
A. To code a contact form in PHP, create an HTML form with input fields and set the method="POST". In your PHP script, use $_POST['field_name'] to capture form data, then process it using mail() or PHPMailer to send emails.
Q. Do you need PHP for a contact form?
A. PHP is commonly used for handling contact form submissions, processing user input, and sending emails. While alternatives like JavaScript and third-party services exist, PHP remains a standard choice for server-side form processing.
Q. How do I create a Contact Us form using HTML and PHP?
A. Create an HTML form with fields for user input and set the action to a PHP script. In PHP, use $_POST to retrieve submitted values, validate the data, and process it using mail() or a mailing library like PHPMailer.
Q. Are there PHP frameworks or libraries to simplify building a contact form?
A. Yes, frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, and Slim make form handling easier. Libraries such as PHPMailer and Swift Mailer simplify email sending, ensuring better reliability and security.
Q. What are the best practices for preventing spam in a PHP contact form?
A. Use CAPTCHA, form field randomization, hidden honeypot fields, and token-based validation to prevent spam. Additionally, limit form submissions, validate input, and use email filtering to block automated bot attacks.
Salwa Mujtaba
Salwa Mujtaba is a Technical Content Writer at Cloudways. With a strong background in Computer Science and prior experience as a team lead in Cloudways Operations, she brings a deep understanding of the Cloudways Platform to her writing. Salwa creates content that simplifies complex concepts, making them accessible and engaging for readers. When she's not writing, you can find her enjoying good music, reading a book, or spending quality time with her family.
