Hello,
Our problem is somehow similar to the other ones addressed on this forum. However is also in some way unique - at least I didn't find resonable solution.
We have multi-page form with Captcha. All is working fine but from time to time we receive email with empty fields (even those marked as required). Strangely enough there is not a rule: sometimes emails come ok and 5 minutes later from the same IP come blank; sometimes they are completely blank and sometimes only some fields are empty. It does not seem to be a problem with our server configuration because 90% of the emails are ok.
Do you have any suggestions? We honstly don't know where to look and how properly diagnose the problem. Could it be a user's browser problem? Or maybe user's cookie cofiguration? Or maybe multiform/captcha configuration? I'm just guessing because as I said there is not a single rule.🙂
We don't want to save the data of the form because users submit their personal information which we don't use.
Thanks for your help.
Simon
Hi Simon,
I'd suggest adding server-side validation to check some or all of the required fields before the email is sent. That should block the 'empty' submissions.
You can also save the records without including the personal info if that helps in tracking down the problem here.
Bob
Thanks Bob for your tip.
Just 2 more questions:
1. The server-side validation should be added on every page of the multipage form or in the "On Submit" action?
2. Does it work independently from standard validation which is set on every field? In other words I still need to set validation for the field?
Thanks -
Simon
Hi Simon,
You should validate on each page when the data is first submitted.
I find it helpful to think of Client-side and Server-side validation as being two different things:
Client-side validation is there to help the user complete the form correctly. It runs in JavaScript so can be by-passed by turning JavaScript off in the browser.
Server-side validation is there to protect your site and verify that you have received the data that you need in the form that you need it.
Bob
Thanks a lot for the explanation regarding validation.
However when we validate on every page we see a screen/info as you'll find in the attached file (everything is in polish but it shouldn't matter for understanding the problem). Is it because I keep option "Highlight fields" switched ON?
Personally I think it does not look great as I would like the client to see all the warnings only AFTER they submit wrong data. Am I missing or misunderstanding something?
The other thing is that at the bottom of e.g. page 2 of the multi-page form we're seeing page 1. Strange🙂 Again - am I missing something or using wrong settings?
Thanks -
Simon🙂
Hi Simon,
I'm not sure why the content from Page 1 is showing up on Page 2 - you have the page contents in Containers of Type=Page?
There isn't a way of turning the On Blur validation off in CFv5 as far as I recall. It this is vital then you can switch to use a different jQuery validation library that has more options to control the way it works.
Bob
Hello Bob,
I gave myself a couple of days to test everything according to your suggestions. Unformtunalety the problem with some empty emails or/and empty fields persists.:(
I have even created DB Save action and all is working fine (data saving to DB) but from some users even the database info is empty (see the attachment).
Looks like from some users the form does not save the data to DB. As I said it's strange because from most users everything is perfectly ok.
Would you have any other suggestions.
Thanks a lot -
P.S. We're using Joomla 3,7,2, PHP 7.0.20, MySQL 5.5.55
Simon
Hi Simon,
Two suggestions:
1. Add the IP address to the data you save so that you can see the source of any empty records.
2. Add server-side validation to check for blank records and reject them.
Bob
Hi Bob,
IP address is already added and it does not give us a hint as sometimes from the same IP one email is empty and another 2 minutes later is OK.
Server-side validation brings 2 problems:
1. There are the red marks under the required fields - I don't want to see them unless the field is blank. Obviously I could hide them but in that case will the user see any warning when the field is left blank?
2. After adding server side validation on page 2 (multi-page form) we're seeing page 1 at the vey bottom of the form (see attachment).
Thanks -
Simon🙂
Hi Simon,
It looks to me as though there is something wrong with the way the form is set up. Both of those problems suggest that the pages are somehow loading in the wrong sequence???
Bob
