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How to Make a Slick Ajax Contact Form with jQuery and PHP

Tutorial by Matt Doyle | Level: Intermediate | Published on 1 April 2011

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This tutorial shows you how to build a nice-looking, smooth contact form that visitors can use without having to leave the page they're reading.

How to Make a Slick Ajax Contact Form with jQuery and PHP
View Demo » Download Code

Contact forms can be useful way for visitors to contact the owner of a site. They're easy to use, and since they don't expose the site owner's email address in the page, they cut down on spam too.

However, contact forms can also be cumbersome, especially as they're usually on a separate page. The visitor has to visit the contact form page, fill in the details, view yet another response page, and then try to make their way back to the page they were originally reading.

Fortunately, Ajax gives us a way round this problem. By embedding the form in the page, and submitting the form data via Ajax, the user never has to leave the current page. It also provides a smoother experience for the user.

In this tutorial we'll build a nice-looking, embedded Ajax contact form that the user can summon up by clicking a link in the page. Along the way, we'll explore various topics, including:

  • HTML5 form fields
  • How to use fallback techniques to make the form function even if the browser has JavaScript turned off
  • Using CSS techniques to create attractive forms
  • Writing a secure form mailer using PHP
  • Animating page elements with jQuery, and, of course...
  • Using jQuery to make Ajax requests

Before you begin, check out the finished product by clicking the View Demo button above. This opens a new page with some dummy content, and a couple of "Send us an email" links. Click one of these links to display the form.

The demo doesn't actually send an email anywhere, but the finished code in the download is fully functional. To get the code, click the Download Code button above.

Ready? Let's get started!

Step 1: Create the markup

Let's start with the HTML for our page. This includes the form itself — we'll hide it initially using JavaScript when the page loads — and also some dummy content and a couple of "Send us an email" links that will display the form when clicked:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>

<title>A Slick Ajax Contact Form with jQuery and PHP</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">

</head>
<body>

<div id="content">

  <p style="padding-bottom: 50px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="#contactForm">~ Send us an email ~</a></p>

  <!-- Content here -->

  <p style="padding-top: 50px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="#contactForm">~ Send us an email ~</a></p>
 
</div>

<form id="contactForm" action="processForm.php" method="post">

  <h2>Send us an email...</h2>

  <ul>

    <li>
      <label for="senderName">Your Name</label>
      <input type="text" name="senderName" id="senderName" placeholder="Please type your name" required="required" maxlength="40" />
    </li>

    <li>
      <label for="senderEmail">Your Email Address</label>
      <input type="email" name="senderEmail" id="senderEmail" placeholder="Please type your email address" required="required" maxlength="50" />
    </li>

    <li>
      <label for="message" style="padding-top: .5em;">Your Message</label>
      <textarea name="message" id="message" placeholder="Please type your message" required="required" cols="80" rows="10" maxlength="10000"></textarea>
    </li>

  </ul>

  <div id="formButtons">
    <input type="submit" id="sendMessage" name="sendMessage" value="Send Email" />
    <input type="button" id="cancel" name="cancel" value="Cancel" />
  </div>

</form>

<div id="sendingMessage" class="statusMessage"><p>Sending your message. Please wait...</p></div>
<div id="successMessage" class="statusMessage"><p>Thanks for sending your message! We'll get back to you shortly.</p></div>
<div id="failureMessage" class="statusMessage"><p>There was a problem sending your message. Please try again.</p></div>
<div id="incompleteMessage" class="statusMessage"><p>Please complete all the fields in the form before sending.</p></div>

</body>
</html>

I've omitted the dummy content in the above code, since it's not relevant to the tutorial.

The form sends its data to a processForm.php script that does the actual emailing. (We'll write this PHP script in a moment.) By setting the form's action attribute to "processForm.php", we ensure that the form is usable even with JavaScript disabled. Later, our JavaScript will read this action attribute so that it knows where to send the Ajax request.

The form itself uses some HTML5 form features such as placeholders, the email field type, and the required attribute to ensure that all the fields have been filled in. We'll also add JavaScript validation for browsers that don't yet support HTML5 validation.

Step 2: Add the CSS

Screenshot of styled form

Now we'll add the CSS to our HTML page in order to style the page and form. The bulk of the CSS positions the form and status messages in the centre of the window, and styles the form and form fields. 

<style type="text/css">


/* Add some margin to the page and set a default font and colour */

body {
  margin: 30px;
  font-family: "Georgia", serif;
  line-height: 1.8em;
  color: #333;
}


/* Set the content dimensions */

#content {
  width: 800px;
  padding: 50px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  display: block;
  font-size: 1.2em;
}

#content h2 {
  line-height: 1.5em;
}


/* Add curved borders to various elements */

#contactForm, .statusMessage, input[type="submit"], input[type="button"] {
  -moz-border-radius: 10px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 10px;  
  border-radius: 10px;
}


/* Style for the contact form and status messages */

#contactForm, .statusMessage {
  color: #666;
  background-color: #ebedf2;
  background: -webkit-gradient( linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0,#dfe1e5), color-stop(1, #ebedf2) );
  background: -moz-linear-gradient( center bottom, #dfe1e5 0%, #ebedf2 100% );  
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 1em rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 1em rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
  box-shadow: 0 0 1em rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
  opacity: .95;
}


/* The form dimensions */

#contactForm {
  width: 40em;
  height: 33em;
  padding: 0 1.5em 1.5em 1.5em;
  margin: 0 auto;
}


/* Position the form in the middle of the window (if JavaScript is enabled) */

#contactForm.positioned {
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  margin-top: auto;
  margin-bottom: auto;
}


/* Dimensions and position of the status messages */

.statusMessage {
  display: none;
  margin: auto;
  width: 30em;
  height: 2em;
  padding: 1.5em;
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
}

.statusMessage p {
  text-align: center;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}


/* The header at the top of the form */

#contactForm h2 {
  font-size: 2em;
  font-style: italic;
  letter-spacing: .05em;
  margin: 0 0 1em -.75em;
  padding: 1em;
  width: 19.5em;  
  color: #aeb6aa;
  background: #dfe0e5 url('images/stamp.jpg') no-repeat 15em -3em; /* http://morguefile.com/archive/display/606433 */
  border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa;
  -moz-border-radius: 10px 10px 0 0;
  -webkit-border-radius: 10px 10px 0 0;  
  border-radius: 10px 10px 0 0;
}


/* Give form elements consistent margin, padding and line height */

#contactForm ul {
  list-style: none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

#contactForm ul li {
  margin: .9em 0 0 0;
  padding: 0;
}

#contactForm input, #contactForm label {
  line-height: 1em;
}


/* The field labels */

label {
  display: block;
  float: left;
  clear: left;
  text-align: right;
  width: 28%;
  padding: .4em 0 0 0;
  margin: .15em .5em 0 0;
  font-weight: bold;
}


/* The fields */

input, textarea {
  display: block;
  margin: 0;
  padding: .4em;
  width: 67%;
  font-family: "Georgia", serif;
  font-size: 1em;
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  -moz-border-radius: 5px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 5px;    
  border-radius: 5px;
  -moz-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,.2) 0 1px 4px inset;
  -webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,.2) 0 1px 4px inset;
  box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,.2) 0 1px 4px inset;
  background: #fff;
}

textarea {
  height: 13em;
  line-height: 1.5em;
  resize: none;
}


/* Place a border around focused fields, and hide the inner shadow */

#contactForm *:focus {
  border: 1px solid #66f;
  outline: none;
  box-shadow: none;
  -moz-box-shadow: none;
  -webkit-box-shadow: none;
}


/* Display correctly filled-in fields with a green background */

input:valid, textarea:valid {
  background: #dfd;
}


/* The Send and Cancel buttons */

input[type="submit"], input[type="button"] {
  float: right;
  margin: 2em 1em 0 1em;
  width: 10em;
  padding: .5em;
  border: 1px solid #666;
  -moz-border-radius: 10px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 10px;  
  border-radius: 10px;
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 .5em rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 .5em rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);
  box-shadow: 0 0 .5em rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);
  color: #fff;
  background: #0a0;
  font-size: 1em;
  line-height: 1em;
  font-weight: bold;
  opacity: .7;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-transition: opacity .5s;
  -webkit-transition: opacity .5s;
  -o-transition: opacity .5s;
  transition: opacity .5s;
}

input[type="submit"]:hover,
input[type="submit"]:active,
input[type="button"]:hover,
input[type="button"]:active {
  cursor: pointer;
  opacity: 1;
}

input[type="submit"]:active, input[type="button"]:active {
  color: #333;
  background: #eee;
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 .5em rgba(0, 0, 0, .8) inset;
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 .5em rgba(0, 0, 0, .8) inset;
  box-shadow: 0 0 .5em rgba(0, 0, 0, .8) inset;
}

input[type="button"] {
  background: #f33;
}


/* Header/footer boxes */

.wideBox {
  clear: both;
  text-align: center;
  margin: 70px;
  padding: 10px;
  background: #ebedf2;
  border: 1px solid #333;
}

.wideBox h1 {
  font-weight: bold;
  margin: 20px;
  color: #666;
  font-size: 1.5em;
}

</style>

<!-- Some IE7 hacks and workarounds -->

<!--[if lt IE 8]>
<style>

/* IE7 needs the fields to be floated as well as the labels */

input, textarea {
  float: right;
}

#formButtons {
  clear: both;
}

/*
  IE7 needs an ickier approach to vertical/horizontal centring with fixed positioning.
  The negative margins are half the element's width/height.
*/

#contactForm.positioned, .statusMessage {
  left: 50%;
  top: 50%;
}

#contactForm.positioned {
  margin-left: -20em;
  margin-top: -16.5em;
}

.statusMessage {
  margin-left: -15em;
  margin-top: -1em;
}

</style>
<![endif]-->

Let's look at some interesting sections of the CSS:

  1. Style for the contact form and status messages
    We give the form and status boxes a nice gentle top-to-bottom gradient using -webkit-gradient and -moz-linear-gradient, and we also add a drop shadow with box-shadow (and its vendor-specific variants). Finally, we give the form and message boxes an opacity of .95 (95%), which makes the page content just show through — a nice subtle effect.
  2. Position the form in the middle of the window (if JavaScript is enabled)
    Initially, we simply place the form inline after the page content. This is so that the form can be used for non-JavaScript-enabled browsers without getting in the way of the content. However, for JavaScript browsers, we want the form to appear in the centre of the window, over the top of the content.

    Our #contactForm.positioned rule does just that. It uses fixed positioning, sets the top, bottom, left and right values all to zero, and ensures that all 4 margins are set to auto. This centres the element both horizontally and vertically in most modern browsers. Later we'll use our JavaScript to add the positioned class to the form.

    We also position the status message boxes in the same way.

  3. The header at the top of the form
    Our form includes a nice "Send us an email..." header with an image of a postage stamp. Our #contactForm h2 rule styles this header. We give the text a large italic style and space the letters out slightly. We also add margin and padding to create space around and inside the header. We use some negative left margin (-.75em) on the header to bypass the padding on the form, so that the header goes right to the left edge of the form. We also set the width of the header to 19.5em so that it exactly matches the width of the form.

    Why -.75em and 19.5em? Because ems cascade, and we've set our font size to 2em. So -.75em actually becomes -1.5em (the width of the form's padding), and 19.5em becomes 39em (the width of the form, minus 1em for the h2's padding). Phew! Maybe I'll use pixels next time... :)

    We also set the heading's colour, give it a dark background, position the postage stamp image in the top right corner, add a thin bottom border, and add curved top corners.
  4. The fields
    We give the input and textarea fields an attractive font, a rounded border using border-radius, and a gentle inner shadow using box-shadow. We also float the field labels left so that they sit alongside the fields. When a field is focused (clicked on or moved to with the Tab key), we give it a blue border and remove the shadow. We also set outline: none to remove the blue outline added by some browsers. Finally, we use the :valid pseudo-class to give correctly completed fields a green background, for those browsers that support HTML5 form validation.
  5. The Send and Cancel buttons
    input[type="submit"] selects the Send Email button, while input[type="button"] selects the Cancel button. We float them right to position them side by side, and add some margin to give them space. We give them a fixed width, and some padding to make them a decent size. We add a rounded border and subtle drop shadow, and specify text and background colours. We also make the buttons slightly transparent (opacity: .7), and make them fully transparent when hovered over to highlight them. We use a CSS transition to fade the opacity slowly. Finally, when the buttons are clicked (:active) we move the shadow inside the buttons to give a "pressed" appearance, and give them a black-on-white colour scheme.

Step 3: Build the PHP form mailer

We've now created our form page, and styled the form. The next step is to build a short PHP script to actually send the email messages. This script will reside on the web server. When the user submits the form, the form's data is sent to the PHP script, which then sends the email and returns a response indicating whether or not the email was sent successfully.

Here's the PHP script — call it processForm.php, and save it in the same folder as the form page you created in Steps 1 and 2:

<?php

// Define some constants
define( "RECIPIENT_NAME", "John Smith" );
define( "RECIPIENT_EMAIL", "john@example.com" );
define( "EMAIL_SUBJECT", "Visitor Message" );

// Read the form values
$success = false;
$senderName = isset( $_POST['senderName'] ) ? preg_replace( "/[^\.\-\' a-zA-Z0-9]/", "", $_POST['senderName'] ) : "";
$senderEmail = isset( $_POST['senderEmail'] ) ? preg_replace( "/[^\.\-\_\@a-zA-Z0-9]/", "", $_POST['senderEmail'] ) : "";
$message = isset( $_POST['message'] ) ? preg_replace( "/(From:|To:|BCC:|CC:|Subject:|Content-Type:)/", "", $_POST['message'] ) : "";

// If all values exist, send the email
if ( $senderName && $senderEmail && $message ) {
  $recipient = RECIPIENT_NAME . " <" . RECIPIENT_EMAIL . ">";
  $headers = "From: " . $senderName . " <" . $senderEmail . ">";
  $success = mail( $recipient, EMAIL_SUBJECT, $message, $headers );
}

// Return an appropriate response to the browser
if ( isset($_GET["ajax"]) ) {
  echo $success ? "success" : "error";
} else {
?>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Thanks!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
  <?php if ( $success ) echo "<p>Thanks for sending your message! We'll get back to you shortly.</p>" ?>
  <?php if ( !$success ) echo "<p>There was a problem sending your message. Please try again.</p>" ?>
  <p>Click your browser's Back button to return to the page.</p>
  </body>
</html>
<?php
}
?>

This script is fairly straightforward. Let's break it down:

  1. Define some constants
    First we define some config options for the name and email address of the person who will receive the email message. (Change these to your own name and email address.) We also set a subject for the message.
  2. Read the form values
    Next we check for our 3 form fields, senderName, senderEmail and message, in the posted form data. For each field, we check if it exists. If it does then we pass its value through a regular expression to remove any potentially malicious characters that a spammer might try to use, and store the result in a variable. If it doesn't exist then we set the variable to an empty value.
  3. If all values exist, send the email
    If the 3 field values all contain data then we send the email. First we construct the recipient string from the recipient name and email address. Then we add a "From:" header to the message using the name and email address that the visitor entered in the form. This is the "From:" value that the recipient will see in their email program. Finally, we use the PHP mail() function to send the email message, storing the return value in the variable $success. (mail() returns true if it managed to send the email, or false otherwise.)
  4. Return an appropriate response to the browser
    Once we've attempted to send the email, we send a "success" or "error" message back to the browser as appropriate. If the request URL contained an "ajax" parameter then we know the form was submitted via Ajax using our JavaScript code, so we simply return the value "success" or "error" to the JavaScript, which will then display an appropriate message to the user. However, if the form was submitted without using Ajax then the user must have JavaScript turned off in their browser. In this situation, we display a more helpful error message in the browser, with instructions to the user to use their Back button to return to the page.

    Our JavaScript will add the ajax parameter to the URL when it submits the form, as you'll see in Step 6.

      5. Step 4: Include the jQuery library and set the delay

      Our form is actually functional now. You can open the page in a browser, click the "Send us an email" link to jump to the form, fill in the fields, and submit the form to send the message.

      However, we're now going to enhance our form using JavaScript to make the experience nicer for the user.

      We'll use jQuery to do most of the heavy lifting, so the first step is to include the jQuery library in the page's head element:

      <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

      Here we've linked directly to the jQuery library on Google's CDN, but you can download the library and host it on your own server if you prefer.

      We'll also add a global config variable, messageDelay, to control how long the message boxes appear on the screen. This value is in milliseconds. Feel free to change it to a shorter or longer time:

      <script type="text/javascript">

var messageDelay = 2000;  // How long to display status messages (in milliseconds)

      Step 5: Write the init() function

      The first stage of our form-enhancing JavaScript is the init() function. This sets up the form so that it can be shown and hidden on demand, and also modifies the form so that it will be submitted using our JavaScript, rather than sent natively by the browser.

      Here's the code:

      // Init the form once the document is ready
$( init );


// Initialize the form

function init() {

  // Hide the form initially.
  // Make submitForm() the form’s submit handler.
  // Position the form so it sits in the centre of the browser window.
  $('#contactForm').hide().submit( submitForm ).addClass( 'positioned' );

  // When the "Send us an email" link is clicked:
  // 1. Fade the content out
  // 2. Display the form
  // 3. Move focus to the first field
  // 4. Prevent the link being followed

  $('a[href="#contactForm"]').click( function() {
    $('#content').fadeTo( 'slow', .2 );
    $('#contactForm').fadeIn( 'slow', function() {
      $('#senderName').focus();
    } )

    return false;
  } );
  
  // When the "Cancel" button is clicked, close the form
  $('#cancel').click( function() { 
    $('#contactForm').fadeOut();
    $('#content').fadeTo( 'slow', 1 );
  } );  

  // When the "Escape" key is pressed, close the form
  $('#contactForm').keydown( function( event ) {
    if ( event.which == 27 ) {
      $('#contactForm').fadeOut();
      $('#content').fadeTo( 'slow', 1 );
    }
  } );

}

      Let's look at each chunk of the above code:

      1. Init the form once the document is ready
        We use the jQuery object, $, to trigger our init() function once the DOM is ready.
      2. Hide the form, set the submit handler, and position the form
        The first thing we do inside the init() function itself is make some changes to our form, #contactForm.

        First we hide it from the page using the jQuery hide() method. Then we set its submit event handler to our submitForm() function (which we'll write in a moment). This ensures that, when the user submits the form, submitForm() is called instead of the native browser form submission kicking in. Finally, we add the positioned CSS class to the form to reposition it in the centre of the browser window.
      3. Make the "Send us an email" links open the form
        Next we bind an anonymous event handler function to the "Send us an email" links' click events. This function fades out the page content so it's only just visible in the background; fades the contact form in; and sets the focus on the "Your Name" field, ready for the user to start filling in the form. Finally, the function returns false to prevent the links from being followed.
      4. When the "Cancel" button is clicked, close the form
        Now we bind another anonymous function to the "Cancel" button's click event, so that the user can close the form by clicking the button. The function simply fades the form out, and fades the page content back in.
      5. When the "Escape" key is pressed, close the form
        Similarly we bind a function to the contact form's keydown event, so that we can read any key the user presses when they're viewing the form. In this function, we check if the user has pressed the "Escape" key (character code: 27). If they have then we close the form by fading it out, and fading the content in.

      Step 6: Write the submitForm() function

      Screenshot of form buttons

      We've now set up our form so that, rather than being submitted in the usual fashion, it will trigger the submitForm() function when the user submits it. This function needs to do some validation and, if all is well, submit the form data to the PHP script via Ajax.

      Here's the function in full:

      // Submit the form via Ajax

function submitForm() {
  var contactForm = $(this);

  // Are all the fields filled in?

  if ( !$('#senderName').val() || !$('#senderEmail').val() || !$('#message').val() ) {

    // No; display a warning message and return to the form
    $('#incompleteMessage').fadeIn().delay(messageDelay).fadeOut();
    contactForm.fadeOut().delay(messageDelay).fadeIn();

  } else {

    // Yes; submit the form to the PHP script via Ajax

    $('#sendingMessage').fadeIn();
    contactForm.fadeOut();

    $.ajax( {
      url: contactForm.attr( 'action' ) + "?ajax=true",
      type: contactForm.attr( 'method' ),
      data: contactForm.serialize(),
      success: submitFinished
    } );
  }

  // Prevent the default form submission occurring
  return false;
}

      Here's how the function works:

      1. Store the contact form in a variable
        Since we'll be using it a lot throughout the function, we start off by storing the contact form element in a contactForm variable. This element is available to our function as the this variable, since the function is the event handler for the element's submit event. We wrap the element in a jQuery object to make it easier to work with.
      2. Check all the fields are filled in
        Now we check that each field's value is not empty by using the jQuery val() method on each field.
      3. Display a warning if the form isn't completed
        If 1 or more of the fields are empty, we fade out the form, then fade in the #incompleteMessage div, which contains the "Please complete all the fields..." message. We keep the message there for the time specified by the messageDelay variable, then fade it out again. Once it's faded out, we fade the form back in so that the user can complete it.
      4. Submit the form if it is completed
        Now we get to the meat of the JavaScript. If the form is completed then we first fade out the form, and fade in the "Sending your message..." box. Now we call the jQuery ajax() method to submit the form via Ajax to the PHP script. We pass the following arguments to the method:
        url
        The URL to send the form to. We grab this from the form's action attribute, and append an ajax=true parameter to the query string so that our PHP script knows the form was sent via Ajax, rather than via the usual method.
        type
        The type of request to make ("POST" or "GET"). We grab this from the form's method attribute, which in this case is set to "POST".
        data
        The data to send with the request. For this, we call the jQuery serialize() method on the contact form object. This method takes all the field names and values in the form and encodes the data in a query string. We then pass this string to the ajax() method so it can send the data to the PHP script.
        success
        This is a callback function that will be called once the Ajax request has finished and the browser has received the response from the server. We set this to our submitFinished() function, which we'll write in a moment.
      5. Prevent the default form submission occurring
        Finally, our event handler returns false to prevent the form being submitted in the usual way.

      Step 7: Write the submitFinished() function

      Screenshot of success message

      The last function we need to write is submitFinished(), which is called once the Ajax response from the PHP script has been received by the browser. This function needs to check the response and display a success or error message as appropriate:

      // Handle the Ajax response

function submitFinished( response ) {
  response = $.trim( response );
  $('#sendingMessage').fadeOut();

  if ( response == "success" ) {

    // Form submitted successfully:
    // 1. Display the success message
    // 2. Clear the form fields
    // 3. Fade the content back in

    $('#successMessage').fadeIn().delay(messageDelay).fadeOut();
    $('#senderName').val( "" );
    $('#senderEmail').val( "" );
    $('#message').val( "" );

    $('#content').delay(messageDelay+500).fadeTo( 'slow', 1 );

  } else {

    // Form submission failed: Display the failure message,
    // then redisplay the form
    $('#failureMessage').fadeIn().delay(messageDelay).fadeOut();
    $('#contactForm').delay(messageDelay+500).fadeIn();
  }
}

</script>

      The function works as follows:

      1. Get the response
        jQuery passes the response from the PHP script as an argument to the submitFinished() function. We take this string and pass it through the jQuery trim() method to remove any whitespace.
      2. Fade out the "sending" message
        Next we fade out the "Sending your message..." box by calling the jQuery fadeOut() method.
      3. If email was sent successfully, display a success message
        If the response variable holds the string "success", as returned by our PHP script, then we know that the email was successfully queued for delivery. So we fade in the success message, hold it for a couple of seconds, then fade it out. We also reset the form fields to empty values, in case the user wants to send another message. Finally, once the success message has faded out, we fade the page content back in.
      4. If there was a problem, display a failure message
        If the PHP script returned anything other than "success" then we know there was a problem with the submission, so we display the failure message stored in the #failureMessage div, then fade the form back in so that the user can correct any problems with the form.

      And that's the end of our JavaScript!

      Summary

      We've now built our slick Ajax contact form. Not only does it look good, but it's easy to use, and the visitor can send an email without ever having to leave the page they are reading. Nice!

      Here's the demo again:

      View Demo »

      I hope you enjoyed following this tutorial. Feel free to use the code in your own projects if you like. As always, if you have any comments, suggestions or questions on the tutorial, please do post them in the responses below.

      Have fun!

      Learn PHP With Ease!

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      • Set up PHP on your computer
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      • Create interactive Web forms
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      Responses to this article

      20 most recent responses (oldest first):

      mcall
      06-Aug-12 16:01
      If i put checkboxes into the the form, how would I set up the php to pull the info of which ones get checked?

      thanks
      matt
      10-Aug-12 02:11
      @mcall: See http://www.html-form-guide.com/php-form/php-form-checkbox.html
      truitas
      10-Aug-12 02:40
      hi matt and everybody,
      some month ago i used your form and i forgot to show you the result.
      if it can help somebody it's here:
      http://savoie-rando.fr/contact.html

      thanks
      yan
      ambersdad1
      21-Aug-12 22:26
      Of all the forms that I have seen, this example is the best...hands down! I love the way it works. However, here is my question:

      When you cancel the form and you have entered data, there is a line of code that clears the text fields. Here it an example:

      $('#someField').val("");

      That works great for a text input field. However, the form that I am working on has a select statement. For example:

      <li>
      <label for="typeOfPet">Favorite type of pet:</label>
      <select name="typeOfPet">
      <option value="">Select...</option>
      <option value="D">Dog</option>
      <option value="C">Cat</option>
      <option value="B">Bird</option>
      <option value="R">Reptile</option>
      <option value="O">Other</option>
      </select>
      </li>

      When I cancel the form, how do I reset the value for the input field? I tried:

      $('#typeOfPet').val(0);

      to select the first option value. I have learn an incredible amount of coding with this example for which I am very grateful for but I am stuck on how to reset the value because after I cancel the form and then reopen the form, I still see the selected value that was chosen before I hit cancel.
      ambersdad1
      22-Aug-12 08:01
      After MANY hours of searching, I stumbled upon how to clear the fields. The method that seems to work is as follows:


      $('#petForm').get(0).reset();

      Where #petForm is the name of the form and get(0) is the very first field within the form.
      Stanley
      24-Aug-12 17:06
      Nice form Matt. I've just ironed out a few problems I experienced while trying to work it into my existing site and thought I'd share a few things I had trouble with, and how I solved them. A lot of trying to run before I can walk here!

      First it was difficult to get the thing to size properly so I had to tweak a few things in my existing CSS to get the form to display at the right scale.

      Secondly while developing on my own machine (localhost) I was having a problem with the name and email boxes appearing as different widths - but only in Opera. It turned out (after much head scratching) that the php warning I was living with while working on my local machine (it was a SimplePie warning that the cache folder wasn't writable) was somehow throwing the form fields out in Opera. They worked great in other browsers but it was only when I decided to get rid of the warning message at the top of the page that Opera decided to play ball.

      Thirdly (Opera again) I had a problem with the italicised characters getting "chopped off" in the form header. This is something to do with Opera not liking fonts being italicised when there isn't an italic version in the font itself (or something like that). Again I was trying to get it to work with the font I was already using on the page (Tahoma) which worked in every other browser than Opera. Changing the font-family back to what you have in the demo cured the problem.

      Last but not least I also experienced the problem noted by @aliveit where the error message stayed on the screen instead of fading out and returning to the form. Apart from not actually having a #content div on my existing page (I had one called wrapper which I eventually renamed to content) it turned out that the real culprit in my case was simply that I was already using jQuery for something on the page, and I was trying to use that instead of the one which you have in the source code. When I switched to using that everything worked

      Hope this helps someone.

      P.S. Matt,

      I want to use the same type of form for my site sign up and also for someone to send me an actually enquiry, rather than a general message. How would you go about implementing that? Would it work if I wrote three separate sets of forms and handling scripts?

      I've already had to rename the function from init() to initform() to avoid a conflict with your javascript tabs script, so I suppose it should be possible to triplicate everything? Or can you suggest a cleverer way for me to investigate? I was thinking along the lines of having a second set of js tabs which pop up like this contact form, but with a different form on each tab.

      Ideally I'd like the enquiry form to allow someone to attach a file too, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

      [Edited by Stanley on 24-Aug-12 23:17]
      mbarcala
      13-Sep-12 15:53
      Hi Matt,

      I having a problem with your form since I move my web server to my own iMac. My server before was yahoo server but now i decide to host my own site using OS X Server and since i move all my file the form giving me always some of the no sending messages because it doesn't send the emails????

      what could creating me this situation???

      Best Regards


      mbarcala
      matt
      25-Sep-12 02:15
      @mbarcala: Could be lots of things. You'll need to look at each step in the mail sending process to see where the problem is.

      - Is the PHP script set up correctly?

      - Is the PHP engine correctly configured to send mail on your server?

      - Is the Mac OS X MTA (postfix) correctly configured and running?

      - Does your ISP allow outgoing mail to be sent on port 25? (Many ISPs don't)
      Detoussay
      08-Oct-12 04:20
      Hello all,
      hi Matt.

      For a friend of mine I’m workin on this form which really rocks (thanks so much) but I’ld like to protect it from being spam with those tiny pieces of code:

      - in the form:
      <input type="text" name="bot" id="spambot" />

      - in the CSS:
      input#spambot{visibility: hidden; display: none;}

      - in processform.php:
      if(!empty($_POST) && empty($_POST['spambot']))


      but something is going wrong.
      As I’m not a PHP expert I don’t know where in the processform.php file I have to put the php line.
      If you can help it would be great.
      Thanks in advance.
      Thomas.

      EDIT :
      Found this which works great:

      just add this:
      - if(!strlen($_POST['spambot'])>0){

      before:
      if ( $senderName && $senderEmail && $message ) {


      And no more spam.

      [Edited by Detoussay on 12-Oct-12 08:42]
      Detoussay
      16-Oct-12 10:51
      I have another question.

      What will I have to change if i want to have the Form always visible?
      I’s working but after having sent the email, the status message appears on a new page. The Ajax message doesn’t appear on the page itself.
      Detoussay
      28-Oct-12 05:12
      Another question

      Would it be possible to have the send button in javascript?
      The idea behind is pretty simple:
      as bots do not see javascript buttons (as far as I know) this button will be only seen by humans.

      Another special button only seen byt bots will lead the to a kind of blackhole (see http://perishablepress.com/blackhole-bad-bots/ for the script).

      And, tada, there we got a spamproof form (I hope)
      matt
      21-Nov-12 20:51
      @Detoussay: If you can post the URL of the form then we can take a look at the problem.

      JavaScript-only submit buttons aren't a good idea from an accessibility point of view. Besides, a spambot can still easily "fake" a form post by just sending a POST request to the server.
      gurkin
      28-Nov-12 09:46
      Oh, dear, it is no any defence in your script against sql injection and all site can be hacked in 1 sql line in body of request!

      I am worring because I planed to use this script for
      http://autoshop.kiev.ua
      but now I am in doubt - is it safe or not?
      hellolittlebro
      30-Nov-12 11:55
      it's a fantastic little heavy-less ajax script, love it, but ...
      the formprocess ... good grief that needs a major rewrite, every little boy can hack and inject you with their little left finger only...

      I love the whole setup but yes, ... I won't use it because of what I just addressed.

      @Detoussay:
      I don't know PHP at all but, if you open something... '{' then you need to close it!
      Hence, you should mention to add a '}' after the one 'if' which you place your 'if' just in front of. ...

      @matt:
      you address Detoussay and tell him... a spammer still can ...
      Well that's true, but using your form process php as it is, every spammer and all sick folk can do with you whatever they feel like.

      Have you planned to come up with a secure form processing php at all?

      Cheers

      [Edited by hellolittlebro on 30-Nov-12 11:59]
      hellolittlebro
      01-Dec-12 05:56
      Another thing... I added a message styling and also included the "msg" in the header, but nothing gets sent

      Another thing... the current email validation isn't really a validation... sdsd@q is not an email, is it? So I changed the reg 

      /[^\.\-\' a-zA-Z0-9]/

      to 

      /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/

      but it still gets validated the old way.

      Yes - I cleared cookies and even flushed the cache, tried other browsers I haven't opened it before and all the same ...

      Hm... nice as it is but try to add anything, nothing!

      So after all, I guess it's only for people who use it as is and don't bother about security, hijacking, etc. at all. ... perfect for the FaceBook crowd
      chrishirst
      03-Dec-12 17:45
      You can't "validate" an email address until you send the message and it doesn't "bounce".

      All validators of any kind do is check that the string entered has the '.'s and the '@' in the right places, and does not contain any 'illegal' characters.
      hellolittlebro
      03-Dec-12 20:38
      @chris

      you just proved what kind of lousy programmer you are. What are you talking about, shall I send you my code I have on another form, a form which I actually USE!
      ?
      Gee, another "professional" (spammer, hacker, phisher >>> ??? )! Can only be one fo these, to keep your doors open you lie at other! We know how you folks work. but not everyone is as dumb as you'd hope!

      [Edited by hellolittlebro on 03-Dec-12 20:40]
      chrishirst
      04-Dec-12 03:20
      In that case




      "Another thing... the current email validation isn't really a validation... sdsd@q is not an email, is it? "

      What is the question?

      Because that is the one I answered.
      matt
      17-Dec-12 16:00
      @gurkin: The tutorial isn't a lesson in how to prevent SQL injection (it doesn't even use a database). It's a tutorial showing how to use Ajax with jQuery and PHP to send an email message.

      If you want to adapt the PHP script to insert data into an SQL database then you'll need to take your own precautions against injection attacks. I recommend using PDO with bound parameters.
      minimal8
      03-Jan-13 12:09
      Nice post! really helpfull, Daniel from Minimal Web http://minimalweb.com.ar/diseno-web-buenos-aires

      [Edited by minimal8 on 03-Jan-13 12:12]

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