How to save website form data(php) to my server?

Question

I am setting up a website on my own home server using a website template. The contact form uses php and the php mail() function to email to info entered in the contact sheet, but I don't have a local smtp server to use in the mail(). So I want to alter the code to instead save the submitted info to a text file. If there is a possible way to do this can someone point me in the correct direction. my current html code and php code are as follows: HTML:

    <form action="mailer.php" id="contact_form" method="post">

            <ul class="form">               

                <li class="short">
                    <label>First Name<span class="required"></span></label>
                    <input type="text" name="first" id="first" value="First Name" class="requiredField" onblur="if(this.value == '') { this.value = 'First Name'; }" onfocus="if(this.value == 'First Name') { this.value = ''; }" />
                </li>

                <li class="short">
                    <label>Last Name<span class="required"></span></label>
                    <input type="text" name="last" id="last" value="Last Name" class="requiredField" onblur="if(this.value == '') { this.value = 'Last Name'; }" onfocus="if(this.value == 'Last Name') { this.value = ''; }" />
                </li>

                <li class="long">
                    <label>Email Address<span class="required"></span></label>                  
                    <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="Email Address" class="requiredField email" onblur="if(this.value == '') { this.value = 'Email Address'; }" onfocus="if(this.value == 'Email Address') { this.value = ''; }" />                        </li>

                <li class="short">
                    <label>Company Name</label>
                    <input type="text" name="company" id="company" value="Company Name" class="requiredField" onblur="if(this.value == '') { this.value = 'Company Name'; }" onfocus="if(this.value == 'Company Name') { this.value = ''; }" />
                </li>

                <li class="short">
                    <label>Telephone Number</label>
                    <input type="text" name="phone" id="phone" value="Telephone Number" class="requiredField" onblur="if(this.value == '') { this.value = 'Telephone Number'; }" onfocus="if(this.value == 'Telephone Number') { this.value = ''; }" />
                </li>

                <li class="textarea">
                    <label>Message<span class="required"></span></label>
                    <textarea name="message" id="message" rows="20" cols="30"></textarea>
                </li>

                <li class="button"><input name="submitted" id="submitted" value="Submit" class="submit" type="submit" />
                </li>

PHP:

    <?php
    $email_to = "michaelggerhart@gmail.com";
    $first = $_POST["first"];
    $last = $_POST["last"];
    $email = $_POST["email"];
    $company = $_POST["company"];
    $phone = $_POST["phone"];
    $message = $_POST["message"];
    $text = "NAME: $first    $last <br>
     EMAIL: $email<br>
     COMPANY: $company<br>
     TELEPHONE NUMBER: $phone<br>    
     MESSAGE: $message";
    $headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n"; 
    $headers .= "Content-type:text/html; charset=utf-8" . "\r\n"; 
    $headers .= "From: <$email>" . "\r\n";
    mail($email_to, "Message", $text, $headers);
    ?>

Replace `mail()` with [`file_put_contents()`](http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.file-put-contents.php) - the manual page for that call is very comprehensive. Welcome to Stack Overflow, by the way. Whilst we do want beginners to feel welcome, we do ask that questions are _thoroughly_ searched before asking - I'd have tried "PHP write to file" or "PHP write string to file" here. This question is likely to be put on hold for that reason - but don't let that put you off asking (specific and researched) questions `:)`. — halfer, Nov 13 '13 at 20:19
http://php.net/file_put_contents — Write a string to a file — Peter van der Wal, Nov 13 '13 at 20:19

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

2

I would strongly recommend that you use a Database entry rather than a text file as the later becomes really messy really quickly. Look into setting up an SQL server and data entries using the MySQLi API for PHP.

Note: you can use Gmail or countless other free e-mail services as your SMTP see Send email using the GMail SMTP server from a PHP page

Hope that helps!

edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

Community

1
1

answered Nov 13 '13 at 20:20

Angry Goomba

474
4
20

Thank you very much for your suggestion, I will keep this in mind for future projects but the site I am using it on is my personal resume so I don't expect to see a large amount of contact requests. – Michael Nov 13 '13 at 22:13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 13 '13 at 20:27

You should use fwrite function of php! And it would be better to put the content in a html file, because you can use <br>, style the page and access it from your browser

<?php
$first = $_POST["first"];
$last = $_POST["last"];
$email = $_POST["email"];
$company = $_POST["company"];
$phone = $_POST["phone"];
$message = $_POST["message"];
$text = "NAME: $first    $last <br>
 EMAIL: $email<br>
 COMPANY: $company<br>
 TELEPHONE NUMBER: $phone<br>    
 MESSAGE: $message<br><hr><br><br><br>";
 $file = fopen("contactrequests.html","a+");
 fwrite($file, $text);
 fclose($file);

?>

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 13 '13 at 20:23

you can alter this line, not tested

mail($email_to, "Message", $text, $headers);

to

if(!mail($email_to, "Message", $text, $headers)){
      $file = 'yourfilename.txt';//must give correct path if in another place
      // Open the file to get existing content
      $current = file_get_contents($file);
      // Append a new data to the file
      $current .= $text"\n\n\n";
      // Write the contents back to the file
      file_put_contents($file, $current);
}

How to save website form data(php) to my server?

3 Answers3